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Land and Ubuntu As Competing Narratives in Rural South Africa: a Practical Theological Perspective

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Land and Ubuntu As Competing Narratives in Rural South Africa: a Practical Theological Perspective Land and Ubuntu as competing narratives in rural South Africa: a practical theological perspective by Hermanus Nicolaas Holtzhausen A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree PHILOSOPHIAE DOCTOR In Practical Theology In the Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa Supervisor: Prof J.C. Műller August 2017 Declaration I, Hermanus Nicolaas Holtzhausen, declare that LAND AND UBUNTU AS COMPETING NARRATIVES IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA: A PRACTICAL THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE, which I hereby submit for the degree Philosophiae Doctor at the University of Pretoria, is my own work and has not been previously submitted by me for a degree at this or any other university. All the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. Signed at Wolmaransstad on 30 August 2017 ........................................................................ i Acknowledgements Allow me to acknowledge the following people and institutions that enabled this work: My wife, Catherine, for her patience and tenacity in being married to someone who loves the land. May this work set some of the land’s questions to rest. My children, Nicolaas and Pippa, who lived with this work in our house like a third child, understanding that I had to close a door or stay home, when we could have had fun together. My late sister and forebears, buried at Strydpoort, who were known for their compassionate focus on social justice. My family and neighbours at Strydpoort. I hope we can co-create stories with positive outcomes for us all after this work. Professor Julian Műller, who supported and encouraged me with immeasurable patience and clarity. My co-researchers: Joba Makwakwa, Catherine Smetherham, Mauritz de Kock and Johann Magerman. My colleagues in the Ubuntu Research Project of the University of Pretoria, Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship. Your presence and successes encouraged me daily. My friends and co-workers for bearing with me. The University of Pretoria. ii Abstract Agricultural land ownership, tenure and access in South Africa are historically determined along racial lines. Reactions to this untenable problem are becoming increasingly volatile. More than two decades into South Africa’s constitutional democracy, little has changed to empower the under privileged majority of South Africans in this regard. The resentment about this institutionalised discrimination and poverty is growing in the wake of government’s failures to meaningfully address the situation. For many Black South Africans, this remains a symbol of their dehumanisation by the previous racist government and its supporting voters. I am a sixth generation land owner of a small-scale farming operation in the arid North West Province of South Africa. This research represents my efforts in searching for ways of creating a more equal and just relationship with my Tswana co-worker in terms of his access and tenure of land. In the final instance, this work would hopefully be of value to farmers and their labourers in similar contexts. I engaged a narrative enquiry based on social constructionism, employing postfoundational practical theology as interpreted and developed by Műller in his 7- steps to participate in this action research. Auto-ethnography and fictional research writing enabled me to problematise a dominant narrative that has become increasingly one-dimensional. According to this narrative, Whites stole the land at gunpoint or through trickery. Political leaders with varying agendas are prone to abusing this version of our past to the advancement of their self-enrichment and patronage networks. My methodology of choice offered the opportunity to establish a non-dominant narrative, using the particulars of this context to create a preferred outcome. I created a revisionist understanding of ubuntu as ‘right action’, which is helpful in securing Joba’s access and tenure to the land. Current affairs in terms of State Capture and other narratives that are dynamically related to this course of events, thicken the plot to such an extent that it causes strain between ubuntu and land iii reform. I engaged mindfulness as my chosen spirituality to create harmony rather than competition between land and ubuntu. Subsequently, it seems that Joba and my working partnership can be beneficial for both of us and also for other land owners and their co-labourers, particularly, when operated as a share scheme. Keywords: Fictional research writing; land reform; mindfulness; narrative; postfoundational; share schemes; social constructionism; ubuntu. iv Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ....................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Limitations of scope .......................................................................................... 1 1.3 Co-researcher ................................................................................................... 2 1.3.1 Ethical considerations ................................................................................ 3 1.4 Unique contribution ........................................................................................... 4 1.5 Epistemology .................................................................................................... 5 1.5.1 Post foundationalism .................................................................................. 5 1.5.2 Research structure ..................................................................................... 6 1.5.3 Social constructionism ............................................................................... 6 1.6 Methodology ..................................................................................................... 7 1.6.1 Qualitative .................................................................................................. 7 1.6.2 Participatory action research ...................................................................... 7 1.6.3 Fictional research writing............................................................................ 8 1.7 Problem statement ............................................................................................ 9 1.8 Primary research question .............................................................................. 10 1.9 Secondary research questions ........................................................................ 10 1.10 Aim of this research ...................................................................................... 10 1.11 Objectives ..................................................................................................... 10 1.12 Chapter outline .............................................................................................. 11 1.13 Land .............................................................................................................. 12 v 1.13.1 Meaning of land...................................................................................... 12 1.13.2 Land reform ............................................................................................ 12 1.13.3 Politics and land ..................................................................................... 13 1.14 Ubuntu .......................................................................................................... 18 1.14.1 Tutu ........................................................................................................ 18 1.14.2 Spiral includes land ................................................................................ 19 1.14.3 Competing narratives ............................................................................. 20 1.14.4 Compassion as directive ........................................................................ 20 1.14.5 ‘More humanity’ ...................................................................................... 22 1.15 Personal positioning ...................................................................................... 22 1.15.1 The two researchers .............................................................................. 22 1.16 Preliminary understanding ............................................................................ 58 CHAPTER 2 THE LAND BECAME PEOPLE .......................................................... 59 2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 59 2.1.1 Fictional research writing.......................................................................... 59 2.1.2 Fiction in qualitative research ................................................................... 59 2.1.3 Writing responsibly ................................................................................... 60 2.1.4 Reflexivity ................................................................................................. 62 2.1.5 Preliminary understanding........................................................................ 63 2.2 Ethical account ................................................................................................ 64 2.3 The land and us .............................................................................................. 65 2.4 The land changes hands ................................................................................. 67 vi 2.4.1 Into Africa
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