0
Your cart

Your cart is empty

Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history

Buy Now

These Potatoes Look Like Humans - The Contested Future Of Land, Home And Death In South Africa (Paperback) Loot Price: R660
Discovery Miles 6 600
These Potatoes Look Like Humans - The Contested Future Of Land, Home And Death In South Africa (Paperback): uMbuso weNkosi

These Potatoes Look Like Humans - The Contested Future Of Land, Home And Death In South Africa (Paperback)

uMbuso weNkosi

 (sign in to rate)
Loot Price R660 Discovery Miles 6 600 | Repayment Terms: R62 pm x 12*

Bookmark and Share

Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days

These Potatoes Look Like Humans offers a unique understanding of the intersection between land, labour, dispossession and violence experienced by Black South Africans from the apartheid period to the present.

In this ground-breaking book, uMbuso weNkosi criticises the historical framing of this debate within narrow materialist and legalistic arguments. His assertion is that for most Black South Africans the meaning of land cannot be separated from one’s spiritual and ancestral connection to it, and this results in him seeing the dispossession of land in South Africa with a perspective not yet explored.

Nkosi takes as his starting point the historic 1959 potato boycott in South Africa, which came about as a result of startling rumours that potatoes dug out of the soil from the farms in the Bethal district of Mpumalanga were in fact human heads. Journalists such as Ruth First and Henry Nxumalo went to Bethal to uncover these stories and revealed horrific accounts of abuse and routine killings of farmworkers by white Afrikaners. The workers were disenfranchised Black people who were forced to work on these farms for alleged ‘crimes’ against National Party state laws, such as the failure to carry passbooks.

In reading this violence from the perspectives of both the Black worker and the white farmer, Nkosi deploys the device of the eye to look at his research subjects and make sense of how the past informs the present. His argument is that the violence against Black farmworkers was not only on the exploitation of cheap labour, but also an anxiety white farmers felt about their settler-colonial appropriation of land. This anxiety, Nkosi argues, is pervasive in current heated public debates on the land question and calls for ‘land expropriation without compensation’. Furthermore, the dispossession of Black people from their land cannot be overcome until there is a recognition of the dead and restless spirits of the land, and a spiritual return to home for Black people’s ancestors. Until such time, the cycles of violence will persist.

This book will be of interest to academics and scholars working in the area of land and workers’ struggles but also to the general reader who wants to gain a deeper understanding of redress and social justice on multiple levels.

General

Imprint: Wits University Press
Country of origin: South Africa
Release date: September 2023
Authors: uMbuso weNkosi
Dimensions: 229 x 152 x 12mm (L x W x T)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 172
ISBN-13: 978-1-77614-840-0
Categories: Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history
Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Equal opportunities
Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history
Promotions
Books > Local Author Showcase > Lifestyle
LSN: 1-77614-840-1
Barcode: 9781776148400

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!

You might also like..

The Lie Of 1652 - A Decolonised History…
Patric Tariq Mellet Paperback  (7)
R380 R356 Discovery Miles 3 560
Ambivalent - Photography And Visibility…
Patricia Hayes, Gary Minkley Paperback R420 R388 Discovery Miles 3 880
Safari Nation - A Social History Of The…
Jacob Dlamini Paperback R320 R295 Discovery Miles 2 950
Stellenbosch: Murder Town - Two Decades…
Julian Jansen Paperback R360 R337 Discovery Miles 3 370
The ANC Spy Bible - My Alliance Across…
Moe Shaik Paperback R375 R352 Discovery Miles 3 520
A History Of South Africa - From The…
Fransjohan Pretorius Paperback R580 Discovery Miles 5 800
The Rise & Demise Of The Afrikaners
Hermann Giliomee Paperback R460 Discovery Miles 4 600
Our Long Walk To Economic Freedom…
Johan Fourie Paperback R412 Discovery Miles 4 120
Tell Me Your Story - South Africans…
Ruda Landman Paperback  (3)
R390 R366 Discovery Miles 3 660
Fighting For The Dream
R.W. Johnson Paperback  (3)
R303 Discovery Miles 3 030
Lydia - Anthem To The Unity Of Women
Kally Forrest Paperback R330 R170 Discovery Miles 1 700
Sala Kahle, District Six
Nomvuyo Ngcelwane Paperback R274 Discovery Miles 2 740

See more

Partners