June 2016 – jill.e.kelly

Local Elections and the Legacies of War

This is the fourth of an oral history scraps series.* When commentators consider the contemporary state of South Africa, they discuss it as a country still transitioning from apartheid. Not enough is made of the fact that parts of the country are also recovering from civil war sponsored by the apartheid state. Between 1985 and 1996, at least 20,000Continue reading “Local Elections and the Legacies of War”

Dispossession & Land Myths

*For more on the context of this particular oral history interview, see previous post. The “myth of the empty land” is one of the most pervasive myths of South African history. In 2012, Freedom Front Plus leader and then deputy minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries Pieter Mulder declared that black South Africans had noContinue reading “Dispossession & Land Myths”