Forced removals: The experience of the communities of Brak and Rooirand

Abstract

The sustained policy of demolishing homes and forcibly moving people from the land on which they had been living was for a long time one of the most reviled practices of the South African state (Desmond 1986, Du Toit 1982, Harries 1970, O'Regan 1989 and Tatz 1962). Land is (and has always been) of particular significance to humankind. Without it people would not have homes, building materials, grazing areas, places to cultivate crops, etc. The economic value of land is accordingly viewed as its 'real' value; it represents a sense of security and is a key asset in its own right. However, besides the economic aspect, a series of values (cultural, social, political and aesthetic), histories, identities and symbolic meanings are found in and on land, or are attached to it (James 2001:1 and Schneider 1981:33, 111 and 165). For this reason, according to Hydén (1999:152), the concept 'security' needs to include the aforementioned spheres (aspects) of life and cannot refer solely to the economic situation. Svedin (1999:164) is of the same opinion, and argues that conceptually it is not possible to separate culture and the environment. On the one hand, culture provides a grid for understanding nature, including concepts, normative rules (as well as the institutions encompassing and codifying such rules), practices (e.g. lifestyles and the tools developed for these purposes) and knowledge systems. On the other hand, the converse is also true. De Beer (1997:233 and 1999:21-2), for example, points out that land not only provides human beings with access to resources, but likewise creates the frame of reference which people employ to evaluate, categorise and assign meaning to other people, things, events and phenomena such as mountains, rivers, trees, the soil, etc.