Lesedi #11 (english)

Lesedi Lesedi

French Institute of South Africa [IFAS] Research Newsletter - no. 11 - July 2010

Sommaire

valorisation events, while current research programmes have been mobilising IFAS researchers further. Several publications co-edited by IFAS-Research were finalised and presented during that period as well as celebrated with their authors, whether in France or South Africa. This was the case for Vol de vaches à Christol Cave (Sorbonne Publications) by J.-L. Le Quellec, F.-X. FauvelleAymar and F. Bon, launched in 2009 at the Société de Géographie in Paris; Sécurisation des quartiers et gouvernance locale (Karthala Publications) by C. Bénit-Gbaffou, S. Fabiyi and E. Peyroux, launched in March 2010 at the University of the Witwatersrand and in Paris in April 2010; and Struggle over Land in Africa: Conflicts, Politics and Change, co-edited by C. Alden and W. Anseeuw (HSRC Publications), launched at the South African Institute of International Affairs in April 2010. All these publications are the product of longterm research conducted by researchers who have been initiating, running and promoting pluriannual programmes since the beginning of the millennium, as well as keeping the IFAS-Research team very busy. I would like to salute all these researchers for their production: not only does it mark the end of a research cycle, but it also remains the best proof of the quality of the Institute's scientific production and that of the interest shown by our Southern African partners.

In addition to these publications, the same period saw the completion of long-term doctoral studies. This is the case for Nathanaël Tsotsa at the end of 2009 (HIV Policies), Adrien Delmas in July 2010 (Written Cultures) and will be in the near future for Vincent Darracq (ANC Transformations) and Maud OrneGliemann (Small Irrigation Schemes in Rural Areas), the four of them being part of the contingent of IFAS-Research bursary holders. It is also the case for many other doctoral students whose fieldwork were also supported by IFASResearch. We wish them all a good continuation and hope to see them on the occasion of new research collaboration in Southern Africa.

All the best to our students with their research and defending their thesis, and enjoy this issue of Lesedi.

Editorial

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Magazine...

Dealing with Xenophobic violence in South Africa: anti-politics machine?

by Lydie Cabane

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A geographical perspective on Amartya Sen’s The Idea of Justice

by Karine Ginisty

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Programmes...

APORDE

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Yeoville Studio

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“Nature in the city” Observatory

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Pedi lepedi

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Publications...

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News...

11

About us...

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Contact Details

The end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 have seen several important

IFAS - Research PO Box 542, Newtown, 2113 Johannesburg Tel.: Fax.: Mail:

+27 11 836 0561 +27 11 836 5850 research@ifas.org.za

www.ifas.org.za/research

Sophie Didier Director IFAS-Research

P.S.: IFAS wishes to thanks Anne Corval, former CNRS representative in South Africa, and Jean-Marie Fritsch, former IRD representative in South Africa, for their valued contributions to social science research in Southern Africa. We wish them all the best, Anne in her new post in Guyane, and Jean-Marie on his retirement.

The views and opinions expressed in this publication remain the sole responsibility of the authors.

Lesedi: Sesotho word meaning “knowledge”

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Dealing with Xenophobic violence in South Africa: anti-politics machine?

Lydie Cabane Doctoral student, Sciences Po Paris - Centre for the Sociology of Organisations

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In May 2008, in the space of two weeks, South Africa witnessed a flare-up of xenophobic violence, perpetrated on an unprecedented scale since the country's democratisation in 1994. During this period, 62 people were killed and around 200 000 were displaced. The response of the South African government to this crisis has been widely criticised, not only because it was slow to react and did not adequately take charge of the displaced foreigners, but also because it actually had a share of responsibility in the events. In this regard, the role of inadequate migration policies and practices of institutional xenophobia, such as in the police force, has been identified i as fuelling tensions in the communities . The crisis was managed by local disaster management centres deployed to deal with the disaster resulting from the displacement of thousands of people. Many have criticised the poor ii implementation of disaster management policies and a deeply flawed process. The perspective I would like to develop here is to go beyond the 'technical' problem of resources and implementation, and ask whether the management of disasters may constitute an 'anti-politics iii machine' . In doing so, my point is to suggest that it is not so much the failure of South African bureaucrats to solve an issue as the intrinsic design of post-apartheid policies that iv puts migrants in a vulnerable position by acting on their situation. An unexpected consequence is that these policies might be part of the problem. To this end, I will recount the different actions undertaken to deal with the

Xenophobic violence in the Western Cape.

Xenophobic violence started in the Western Cape ten nd days after the Gauteng episode, on the 22 of May 2008, and was pacified more rapidly than in Gauteng. The violence accounted for 'only' two deaths. The attacks took place in Cape Town's townships such as Kayelitsha, and in the informal settlements of Hout Bay and Du Noon in particular.

Even if they were less intense than in Gauteng, their consequences were as important: in just 24 hours, more than 20 000 people fled en masse throughout the city, taking refuge at first in community centres and churches, then in military camps and camping sites opened by the Municipality (BlueWaters, Soetwater, Silverstroom and Youngsfield). In less than three weeks, almost three quarters of those displaced had 'reintegrated' in the townships. The camps however proved difficult to close vi over the months and remained the focus of much attention.

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xenophobic violence “disaster” in the Western Cape .

When the first wave of victims appeared all of a sudden, spreading the disaster throughout the city, the governmental authorities were overcome by the situation.

The most important responses at the beginning actually came from the civil society of Cape Town, made up of many NGOs, unions (such as COSATU) and associations specialised in migration issues. They played a double role of humanitarian assistance, supplying food, shelter and care to the displaced victims, and public mobilisation, through meetings and media interventions.

This role contrasted sharply with the lack of government reaction, as pointed out by the vii spokesperson of an NGO : “it's not a job for viii civil society; it's a job for the state ”. The following six months, a forum of NGOs led by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) raised controversies highlighting the inadequacies of governmental action: the first controversy, which was brought to court, concerned the much criticised opening of camps by the City of Cape Town, and the second concerned the health conditions in these camps, which led to the adoption of humanitarian guidelines by the Disaster Management Centre of the provincial government. These humanitarian interventions contributed to framing the situation as a disaster and, at the same time, ix developing critical 'politics of life' aimed at extending 'health citizenship' to foreigners and, more generally, including them by an x . extension of rights (to health, lodging...) .

HCR tent, BlueWaters, Cape Town

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After much hesitation, after initial interventions by the police force, and after separate interventions by the municipal and provincial governments, a disaster situation was finally declared by the Premier of the Western Cape to clarify the leadership. Henceforth, managing the xenophobic violence clearly fell under the jurisdiction of the Disaster Management Centre which managed the camps for six months after that. There was however nothing obvious about allocating this role to Disaster Management: was the situation a disaster or a security issue? Besides, in the South African institutional system, Disaster Management is only a co-ordinating structure, not a xi humanitarian agency . For this reason, part of the weakness of the Centre's interventions during the crisis

View of the BlueWaters “safety site”, Cape Town

partly resulted from its difficulty as a recent and unknown actor to get the other government departments to coxii operate . This was aggravated by the politicisation of the crisis, due to the confrontations between Helen Zille, Cape Town Mayor and Democratic Alliance leader, and Ebrahim Rasool, ANC leader of the provincial government.

Moreover, the well-known reluctance of the South African xiii government to deal with xenophobia at that stage was further complicated by the organisation of disaster management, which requires that the authority in charge of each type of disaster be identified; yet, neither social conflict nor xenophobia presumptively came under the scope of this policy. Knowing who should be dealing with xenophobic attacks was not obvious as it could have been the Department of Home Affairs, Social Development or other departments. Given the complexity of the problem, there was no perfect solution. Moreover, no government department wanted to see its agenda or budget burdened by unexpected events, especially before an electoral period when its performance is under scrutiny as far as public service delivery is concerned.

In which way do these technical difficulties and the way the social and political conflicts are being managed, contribute to making post-apartheid public policies resemble “anti-politics machines”, with technical bureaucratic formulations devoid of political answers?

Managing this type of conflict like a disaster, equates to managing 'vulnerable' victims without taking into consideration the complexity of the social situation behind

it, i.e. tensions and integration difficulties experienced by the poor communities of South Africa. This depoliticised management of disasters is actually nothing exceptional; it can also be observed in the way routine disasters such as xiv fires and floods are dealt with in the townships . The logic underlying assistance to victims of xenophobic violence illustrates further the limits of this strategy: the sums of money offered by the High Commissioner for Refugees and the South African government to the displaced living in the camps were, to the bafflement of the authorities, refused by the victims, precisely because being taken care of in this way would inflame the envy of South Africans and make the displaced even more vulnerable to xenophobic violence. As I was told by some migrants during various field trips to the camps “they don't understand our problem, it's not about money.” The government's interventions mostly dealt with the effects of the disaster, not its causes, i.e. social integration and political regulation in the townships.

Despite occasional initiatives, few significant interventions have actually been carried out. The only conflict regulation methods leading to (fragile) solutions so far result from local initiatives, in continuity with interventions in communities as was the case for Gugulethu, where a mediation process conducted by the Anti-Eviction Campaign NGO made it possible to find a compromise between local associations of businessmen and the Somali owners of small shops. Nonetheless, these initiatives require individuals to become responsible for their own social integration, thereby revealing a failure to xv address issues raised by the moral economy of xenophobic riots that, on the contrary, called for the government to act as the driving force behind the social, economic and political integration of the most destitute in post-apartheid South Africa. In this regard, the public service delivery protests taking place regularly since 2008 reveal similarities with the demands for state intervention.

Despite these limits, does the interpretation of social conflict as disaster have a future? Managing a disaster presents an easy solution in that it depoliticises the xenophobic issue, while avoiding tackling the problem.

Moreover, the 2008 crisis produced an institutionalisation of hastily chosen solutions, and later a repetition of the same patterns. In the Western Cape, 'social conflict' was added to the list of risks and vulnerabilities, leading to the xvi elaboration of a social conflict management plan .

However, since social conflict can hardly be managed without dealing with underlying political issues, the management plan of such disasters should consequently be linked to migration policies and local development policies, with a view to integrating migration issues into xvii urban development , so as to tackle the risks related to urban social problems and not just to the actual situation of violence.

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A new upsurge of xenophobic violence in November 2009 in De Doorns, a rural district in the heart of the Winelands of the Western Cape, illustrates the difficulties and limits of this approach. 2 000 Zimbabweans were chased away from the local township under the pretext that they represented competition on the local agricultural job xviii market . Solutions similar to those used in Cape Town in May 2008 were rapidly implemented: the Disaster Management Centre of the Winelands District opened a protection site on a sports field, at the entrance of town, with the support of the HCR. This did not help resolve the local conflict in any way, and may even have stirred tensions since the Zimbabweans received aid while still receiving a salary. The situation appears to be even less solvable in a rural area like De Doorns than in Cape Town, as the Zimbabweans have nowhere else to go for as long as the agricultural season lasts, and as long as the local community refuses to reintegrate them. In the end, the situation is stuck, the camp is still in place after many months and, to date, no solution has been found.

A major part of the difficulty to act on these crises resides in the fact that integrating various departments, organisations, politicians and associations, from a political perspective, remains a challenge in contemporary South Africa. This difficulty reflects Frederick Cooper's definition of politics in the context of the post-colonial state in Africa: “Politics is not obvious; it entails to bring people to think about connections they had not necessarily thought about xix previously” . And it is not certain that the separation between “victims” and communities resulting from the management of disasters, contributes to developing these kinds of political connections.

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iii. iv.

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vi. vii.

Landau, Loren. “Loving the Alien? Citizenship, Law and the Future in South Africa's Demonic Society”. African Affairs, vol. 109, n° 435 (2010), pp. 213-230; Wa Kabwe-Segatti, Aurélia. “Violences xénophobes en Afrique du Sud : retour sur un désastre annoncé”.

Politique Africaine, vol. 112 (2008), pp. 99-118.

V. Igglesden, T. Polzer and A. Monson. Humanitarian assistance to Internally Displaced Persons in South Africa. Lessons learned following attacks on foreign nationals in May 2008. Forced Migration Studies Programme/University of the Witwatersrand and Oxfam, January 2009, 187 p.; UNOCHA – ROSA. Recommendations stemming from Lessons Observed. Response to Internal Displacement Resulting from Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa.

May – December 2008. 62 p.

Ferguson, James. The anti-politics machine: "development", depoliticization, and bureaucratic power in Lesotho, Cambridge, CUP, 1990.

In this regard, the parallel with domestic workers who, despite the implementation of a protective legislative framework, deem that their situation is worse than under apartheid is enlightening. According to Shireen Ally, the issue is not the implementation of public policies, but the specific fact that the South African government made the domestic workers vulnerable and disempowered them. Thus, rather than a failed implementation, the cause of the apparent policy failure is the actual democratisation process and its unexpected consequences. See Ally Shireen. From Servant to Workers. South African Domestic Workers and the Democratic State, Ithaca; Durban, Cornell University Press, UKZN Press, 2009.

This article stems from my ongoing thesis on the reform of civil defence after 1994 and its transformation into “disaster risk management”. I received financial and logistical support from IFAS to carry out my field research in 2008 and 2009.

To date, 187 people are still living in BlueWaters and are threatened with expulsion.

Historically, the institutionalisation of an emergency system within

Crisis meeting in De Doorns During a field trip, I accompanied provincial disaster managers in De Doorns to attend a crisis management meeting, following a failed first reintegration attempt. There were also police officers, COSATU officials, representatives from local women's NGOs, members of an association for the defence of human rights as well as HCR representatives. The meeting could only start with the presence of local councillors and political representatives.

Unfortunately, they happened to be attending a district council meeting, fighting over political loyalties and divisions. As a result, the crisis management meeting never took place. The day passed without any progress and revealed the incapacity of the various actors to manage the crisis in the absence of a political authority. The situation appeared deadlocked.

viii. ix. x. xi. xii.

xiii. xiv.

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xvi. xvii. xviii.

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the state dates back to the end of the 1970s with the establishment of a 'civil defence'. Although other forms of assistance existed already in the 1950s with, in particular, the funds for assistance to victims of disasters, the protection of individuals was weak and politicised and relied mainly on charity and religious associations. In this light, the weak response of the government to the violent xenophobic attacks of 2008 and the important role of the civil society are not in any way exceptional; in fact, they highlight the difficult implementation of post-apartheid reforms and the dependance on former policies.

Nathan Geffen, “Shattered Myths: the Xenophobic Violence in South Africa” 1st of June 2008, Treatment Action Campaign (http://www.tac.org.za/community).

Robins, Steven. “Humanitarian aid beyond "bare survival": Social movement responses to xenophobic violence in South Africa”.

American ethnologist, vol. 36, n° 4 (2009), pp. 637-650.

Although at this stage we should mention the role of international organisations in providing assistance and framing the disaster , we will refrain from doing so for lack of space in this publication.

As indicated by the Disaster Management Act of 2003. For the Western Cape, the Provincial Disaster Management Framework implementing this legislation is as recent as 2007.

The difficulty with co-ordinating state structures is not peculiar to this crisis and is rooted in a long history of fights between government departments; cf. Seekings, Jeremy “South Africa After Apartheid: Who Holds Power?” in Abdul Raufu Mustapha et Lindsay Whitfield.

Turning points in African democracy. Oxford, James Currey, 2009.

Report on the South African Human Rights Commission investigation into issues of rule of law, justice and impunity arising out of the 2008 public violence against non-nationals; March 2010.

Murray, Martin J. “Fire and Ice: Unnatural Disasters and the Disposable Urban Poor in Post-Apartheid Johannesburg”.

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 33, n° 1 (2009), pp. 165-192.

Cooper, Adam. “Let us eat airtime”: youth identity and 'xenophobic' violence in a low-income neighbourhood in Cape Town, Cape Town, CSSR, University of Cape Town, 2009; Thompson, Edward P. Customs in Common: Studies in Traditional Popular Culture. New York, The New press, 1992; Siméant, Johanna. ““Économie morale” et action collective dans les Afriques. Valeur heuristique et usages d'un concept.” Colloque Lutter dans les Afriques, Université Paris-I Panthéon Sorbonne. Janvier 2010, 30 p.

A similar initiative was developed in Gauteng, each time with the support of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Wa Kabwe-Segatti, Aurélia and Loren Landau. Migration in PostApartheid South Africa: Challenges and Questions to PolicyMakers, Paris, Agence Française de Développement, 2008.

Access to agricultural work in De Doorns is crucial as it is the only economic resource for both Zimbabwean and South African workers. However, there does not seem to be a real shortage of jobs; the cause of the tensions should rather be sought in a complex relation between farmers, intermediaries and local politicians.

Cooper, Frederick. Africa Since 1940: The Past of the Present.

Cambridge, CUP, 2002.

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A geographical persective on Amartya Sen’s The Idea of Justice1 Karine Ginisty, Doctoral student, University of Paris Ouest Nanterre IFAS

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Foreword : The annual seminar of the ANR research programme JUGURTA was an opportunity for IFAS-Research bursary holder Karine Ginisty to present the new publication of Amartya Sen, The Idea of Justice. Although, of late, geographers have been concerned with 'justice', 'spatial justice' is the new craze. A review has been dedicated to it and several young researchers are writing their doctorate on the subject.

JUGURTA is the acronym of the French wording for 'Spatial Justice, Governance and Territorialisation in the Cities of the South'. It is a research programme of the ANR/AIRD coordinated by Prof. Philippe Gervais-Lambony of the University of Paris Ouest Nanterre-La DĂŠfense. It involves 4 teams from France and 5 from various countries of the South. IFAS is linked to this research programme which focuses on case studies from Africa and Southern Africa in particular (for more information on the partners and scientific objectives of the programme, visit www.jugurta.org). The annual seminar of the programme th th was held in Nairobi from the 24 to the 26 of May 2010.

One of the main objectives was to structure the various conference papers around the three main research axes defined in Johannesburg in May 2009 (1. Scales, Governance and Spatial Justice; 2. Territorialisation, Governance and Spatial Justice ; 3. Local Representations of Justice, Mobilisation and Control). Another objective was to determine possible collaborations within these themes on which to base the collective work at the closure of the programme.

A

geographical perspective on justice focuses on the way in which the organisation, representation and experience of distance on the ground, in our societies, contribute to justice and injustice in the world. In The Idea of Justice, many geographic references shake up certain received ideas concerning the a-spatial nature of the Universalist approaches and philosophical thoughts on justice.

First of all, Sen highlights the importance of thinking about justice on a worldwide scale. This requirement breaks away from the transcendentalist approach according to which the State is the preferred territorial framework for defining and implementing justice. Indeed, by giving institutions priority, societies open themselves up to compartmentalising public reasoning on a national scale and to (re)produce injustice. In this regard, border effects reflect localisms (i.e. social and cultural particularities) with collective values and standards able to outlive the critical

examination of injustice. Moreover, spatially limiting thinking frameworks, in societies marked by globalisation, amounts to ignoring that part of the world concerned with fair as well as unfair decisions and actions. Finally, attempts at ensuring more justice in the world turn out to be reduced to an international procedure, calling up an inter-State and institutional decision framework. According to Sen, promoting justice worldwide, i.e. on the scale of humanity, requires a public reasoning which is as open as possible and which puts different scales into perspective. This scalar interconnection is permitted through the right of each person to participate in the public debate and through recognising the plurality of our identity memberships. As such, the issue is not so much about the 'appropriate' scale as it is about the choice between different concurrent and impartial justice logics.

Therefore justice is an idea based on comparativism. By rejecting the necessity and feasibility of the transcendental approaches to justice, Sen turns away from imaginary societies presented as models of justice, and devotes himself to the analysis of concrete realisations. More than an ethical stance, studying the lives which people lead or could lead has a significant heuristic value. According to Sen, focusing on the means, which is characteristic of Utilitarist approaches, does not inform on possibilities for developing these assets for our own purposes or that of others. Having similar incomes or public services at one's disposal, ought to be considered as a means to access desired lifestyles and not as an end in itself, which would suppose that the distribution of the means equates to enjoying the lifestyles to which they contribute. Sen develops the concept of capabilities, builds on the plural meaning of freedom (as a set of possibilities and procedure to chose from). Ignoring the differences in capabilities during the life of an individual, and between individuals, is at the basis of injustice in our societies. As such, the idea of justice raises the issue of the assessment of the capabilities and the role played by justice in examining the different logics of justice that are deemed impartial. The search for equality between capabilities is neither indispensable nor desirable to put right injustice.

Furthermore, the lack of consensus on the best impartial option is not incompatible with the choice of partial justice solutions. In the end, what matters in the course of public reasoning is not so much the identification of what is more fair, as the mobilisation of the greatest amount of knowledge possible, so as to objectively examine what is impartial and rule out what is not. Consequently, justice calls up empirical knowledge, built on knowledge and information stemming partly from our representations of the world. The significance given to the informational basis in critical examination opens the way to empirical approaches, thereby legitimising a geographer's interests in issues of justice. Knowledge takes place at two levels: it leads to the understanding and evaluation of capabilities, and partakes of the objectivity of public reasoning. With this approach, a geographer can take part in the elaboration of a pertinent point of view: his knowledge partakes of the

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comprehension of the capabilities. Furthermore, once his knowledge is mobilised, does it not make of him one of the potential impartial spectators of public reasoning?

While the empirical dimension of the idea of justice opens up a thinking space for the geography of justice, Sen gives us a few leads for reflecting on the link between justice and space: ?

Open impartiality: decision scale and process

Sen calls up the notion of scale to define the objectivity of public reasoning. Objectivity is not defined in opposition to what is subjective (concept of the positional viewpoint), but refers to the impartiality of viewpoints. Impartiality qualifies a viewpoint that can sustain critical examination from various individuals who are or not concerned with the issue of the decision process. As such, Sen establishes a relation between partiality and localism. Certain values and practices shared collectively on a given scale, in a context of 'closed' public debate, can take part in the reproduction of injustice (context of oppression and chronicity of injustice). Justice improvement is then conditioned by introducing other viewpoints, different to those of interested individuals. The participation of external individuals is legitimised by the pertinence of their viewpoints, a pertinence which is based on the different character of their experiences, values and standards in terms of justice. The scale is the instrument that enables the passage from closed to open impartiality. Linking the scale concerned with public reasoning with other scales of reasoning (individual scale, group or country scale etc.), helps laying the foundations for objective public reasoning vis-à-vis experienced injustice. ?

Neighbourhood and u niversalism : justice solutions and ethics

While institutions and individuals form complex relations, with reciprocity effects in line with different temporalities (inertia phenomenon etc.), Sen recalls that individuals can choose to act for more justice without having to wait for the law to ask them to. Indeed, the outcome of public reasoning is not so much the (re)definition of institutions as becoming aware of injustice in our neighborhood and our power to act. Beyond the plurality of our identity memberships, our ideas and values

as regards justice, even if they are competitive, refer to sharing a similar experience, that of Being. As a result, Sen lays the foundations for the universalism of the idea of justice: the impossibility of a consensus on what constitutes a fair solution is outmatched by the sharing of objective viewpoints on what is impartial, revealing an agreement on what relates to human rights. Consensus as regards a set of rights necessary for a life worthy of being lived, opens up on the wording of ethical duties which each and every person is free to follow. The implementation of these ethical duties as solutions for justice transcends any type of borders, from experienced space borders to State borders.

Since knowledge and information invalidate the classic meaning of neighbourhood in our interconnected societies, the notions of proximity or distance are no longer determinant in the construction of our relations to the Other. Our responsibilities towards the injustice around us are then in line with the scale of humanity.

Associating 'justice' with an idea sums up on its own Sen's project and its entire significance beyond the world of political philosophy. Since justice is an idea, it refers to a way of reading the world around us and, by definition, includes a vague and incomplete dimension which Sen calls non fulfilment, which takes shape in the procedures and realisations of justice.

Despite its incomplete nature, justice as an idea is not incompatible with more justice in today's societies. On the contrary, justice as an idea is a strong intellectual position, which legitimates any individual, group or society, and particularly those who have the most responsibilities, in questioning and re-examining our decisions and actions in the face of injustice. Every one can reason about justice, although Sen thinks that it requires the participation of the majority of people, thereby ensuring the plurality of the interests at stake and pertinent viewpoints. Sen endows our own words, experiences, knowledge and values – as imperfect as they are – a wealth which is useful to the critical examination of the reasons for injustice in our neighbourhood. As such, Sen opens the door to all forms of knowledge contributing to the fight against injustice.

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Sen A. (2009) The Idea of Justice, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Belknap Press, 467 p.

The review Justice Spatiale / Spatial Justice was launched in 2009. www.jssj.org Such as the author on “Spatial Justice and Urban Services in Maputo (Mozambique)” or, still, Quentin Mercurol on “Spatial Justice, Urban Governance and Scale Policies, Kisumu (Kenya)”.

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APORDE African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics Coordinators Nicolas Pons-Vignon Course director Nicolas.Pons-Vignon@wits.ac.za

Christian Kabongo Administrator aporde@ifas.org.za

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This year saw the fourth edition of the African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics (APORDE), a joint initiative of the DTI, the AFD (French Development Agency) and IFAS. This programme aims to improve the quality of the debate on development in Africa and to strengthen economic policy design and implementation capacity.

APORDE is a closed high-level seminar, with participants selected through an open call for applications. In addition to the closed seminar, the programme also included research workshops and a series of public seminars. It was held in

Umhlanga, near Durban, with several public seminars organised in collaboration with the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (Durban), the University of Cape Town, the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg).

Two sessions of closed workshops organised in Pretoria by the DTI rounded out the activities of this year’s edition.

For more information, visit the website: www.aporde.org.za.

Yeoville Studio / Yeoville Stories Coordinators Naomi Roux Naomi.Roux@wits.ac.za

Sophie Didier sophie@ifas.org.za

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The School of Architecture and Planning at Wits University has launched a project called “Yeoville Studio” in the suburb of Yeoville, which aims to give students the opportunity to conduct research and fieldwork in the area and to produce useful and relevant research in partnership with the Yeoville community.

The project is supported by the Yeoville Stakeholders Forum and the Yeoville Bellevue Community Development Trust. A number of projects and research areas fall under Yeoville Studio. IFAS is working closely with Wits University on a series of workshops and activities around “Yeoville Stories”, coordinated by Naomi Roux (Wits) and Sophie Didier (IFAS). The Yeoville Stories project aims to collect stories both about Yeoville in general, and about the lives of the inhabitants of this suburb. The project explores notions of urban and neighbourhood identities and the places of memory in ordinary, often unremarkable sites. Yeoville is a particularly interesting study in this regard because of its diverse and often transient character.

To date, three very successful workshops have been run with community members which have included mapping,

photography, drawing and storytelling. Residents have marked maps of Yeoville with sites of personal importance, have constructed and shared stories about “home”, about Johannesburg and about the space where they currently live, and are currently engaged in a photography project based on the theme “What does Yeoville mean to you?” Later in the project, more work will be done towards collecting life stories on a more intensive one-on-one scale; however, many participants have mentioned that a large part of the value in attending the workshops is the discovery that all people share the same kinds of stories, memories and hopes for the future, regardless of background or origin.

The research from the Yeoville Stories, as well as from some of the other Yeoville Studio projects, was showcased during the Africa Week Festival which took place in Yeoville th th between May 19 and May 29 2010.

For more information on Yeoville Studio / Yeoville Stories, contact Naomi Roux: Naomi.Roux@wits.ac.za. http://web.wits.ac.za/Academic/EBE/ArchPlan/YEOVILLESTUDIO.htm

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“Protected Urban Areas” network “Nature in the city” Observatory Coordinator Estienne Rodary Estienne.rodary@wits.ac.za

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part of its programming, IFAS-Research has established a new multi-disciplinary research theme on “Environmental Justice”, associating colleagues from the IRD and the Master of Public Affairs from Sciences Po, all within the framework of a wider project for the establishment of an Observatory of “Nature in the city”.

The programme, launched in January 2010, consists of drafting a study on the management problems experienced by the Table Mountain National Park, focusing on the way the municipal authorities perceive the conservation policies implemented by the South African National Parks (SANParks). In this regard, the many uses and pressures exerted on the park (squatting, gathering or even informal hunting) call for a re-examination of the Park's management and traditional approach to sanctuary status.

The problems have been found to be similar in the national parks in cities of the South (Brazil and India in particular).

As part of the project, a team of four Master's students in Public Affairs from Sciences Po, guided by Glen Hyman, researcher from the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations (Sciences Po in Paris), spent two weeks in the field in Cape Town at the end of January, to conduct a study on the multi-actor governance of the Park. On IFAS' side, Estienne Rodary (IRD Researcher posted at Wits) is

responsible for the scientific monitoring of the study together with our colleague from Sciences Po. The final product in the form of a report will be handed over to the relevant South African authorities.

Although the Protected Urban Areas programme is not a far reaching project, its long-term objective is to link with a broader structure for the comparison of management issues between national parks in urban environments in India, Brazil, Kenya and South Africa, associating French laboratories and institutions (Gecko and Libertas, Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense), and universities from the countries concerned (Saõ Paulo, University of Cape Town), as well as the French Research Institutes in these countries (IFRA Nairobi, IFAS Johannesburg, CSH Delhi) and the Master's programme in Public Affairs from Sciences Po. The project must allow with its implementation the establishment of a platform for dialogue and the exchange of best practices between the park administrators and the municipal officials of the various countries in question.

In parallel to this programme and within the framework of the International Year of Biodiversity, the Urban Protected Areas Network is organising an international conference in Paris (6-8 September 2010) on urban-nature relations via the challenges and strategies related to the sustainable management of protected areas confronted with urban dynamics in the North and the South.

For more information on the conference, please visit: http://biodivercities.net.

Pedi lepedi Development and modernisation of African languages

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involved in the education process but which rarely attend events of this kind, such as the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU), Parents in School Governance (PSG) and NGO Read.

'The current status of African languages in education', workshop hosted by the Faculty of Education at the th University of Pretoria, on the 12 of March 2010.

The workshop, dedicated to issues pertaining to the use of African languages in education, especially as LoLT during the Foundation Phase, included papers and panels.

This workshop, co-organised between CentRePoL and

Opened by the Umalusi Senior Manager for the Qualifications, Curriculum and Certification Unit, Liz Burroughs, the morning saw a variety of contributions.

Among them was the paper of Mr Prinsloo from the HSRC, dealing with issues pertaining to staged processes in early learning, based on findings from psycho- and neurolinguistics. His paper left a lasting impression as it brought new insights into the language issue in the first grades of schooling, if not earlier. Afterwards, all the panels were combined, offering an opportunity to a number of speakers to present their problems and resulting in a lively debate.

Coordinator Michel Lafon michel@ifas.org.za

Umalusi, with the help of colleagues from the UP Faculty of Education, was part and parcel of the IFAS-Research programme entitled Pedi lepedi, Development and Modernisation of African Languages. It followed on a previous workshop held in March 2009 dedicated to the training of teachers in the use of African languages.

The workshop gathered academics from both Gauteng and other provinces thanks to the financial support of Umalusi, as well as representatives from organisations

IFAS Research Newsletter - no. 11 - July 2010

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Land, Liberation and Compromise in Southern Africa Chris Alden and Ward Anseeuw, October 2009, Palgrave-Macmillan Publishers ISBN-13 : 978-0-230-23048-2 ISBN-10 : 0-230-23048-9 272 pages, £57,50.

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Launch of the online journal Carnets de géographes Edited by Karine Ginisty and Amandine Spire

D

isputes over land are an enduring feature of African politics.

Although many of these issues are not new, they change continuously and are extremely complex and embedded. This may lead to the inability to deal with such issues and, subsequently, to questions about the legitimacy of the forms of intervention and prevention of conflicts. The ways in which these issues are dealt with often do not take into consideration this complexity of their major - and thus potentially recurring - causes.

Sécurisation des quartiers et gouvernance urbaines Enjeux et défis pour les villes africaines (Afrique du Sud, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibie, Nigeria)

To each geographer his own corner...

Three young geographers created a new space for geography publications, called Les carnets de géographes. The first issue, entitled Varia and due in September 2010, will promote emerging research while overcoming the difficulties related to research development and current scientific requirements (AERES classification, format and academic style, schedule of reviews). By promoting more freedom in terms of formats, subjects and attitudes in the writing, this online journal aims primarily to transmit new research problems, raise method and field issues as well as communicate all new stances.

Les carnets de géographes is a biannual online journal divided into five sections: debates, research, reading, fieldwork and doctoral theses.

It also offers the possibility of non thematic publications.

Karine Ginisty, Amandine Spire, Jeanne Vivet

Claire Benit-Gbaffou, Seyi Fabiyi and Elisabeth Peyroux (eds.)

www.carnetsdegeographes.org

December 2009, Co-edition Karthala/IFAS ISBN: 978-2-8111-0318-7 468 pages, 32€.

Collection : Hommes et Société : Histoire et Géographie Book in French with four chapters in English.

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The book, published in French by IFAS-Karthala , is the result of a research programme that was initiated in 2003 by Philippe Guillaume (then research director of IFAS), who was particularly interested in road closures, GIS mapping and the middle class suburban quest for security. He started the project gathering a number of academics from France, Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, … and involving other French research institutes in Africa (IFRA Nairobi, IFRA Ibadan).

The project was later re-framed to be more reflective of the diverse research interests of participants: GIS became less prominent, road closure and suburbia

IFAS Research Newsletter - no. 11 - July 2010

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remained a key object of research, while the project shifted towards including lower-income neighbourhoods and other forms of community responses to crime (vigilantism, community policing). It also adopted a less spatial and a more socio-political approach of the issue of security and the city – shifting towards the study of security governance. The research programme enjoyed continuous support from IFAS-Research, and involved a fruitful workshop in Ibadan (Nigeria) in 2005 – which today still continues to inspire in many ways a number of the researchers involved in this project.

The book aims at documenting security governance and spatial issues in African contexts, relying on actual practices rather than institutional systems of governance, and based on extensive case studies, mostly at the local level; at testing and challenging Northern theories of security governance through the African lens; and at setting a comparative framework between the various African cities (it ended being more a reflection on security governance in South African cities in a comparative African perspective, due to the prominence of the South African case).

It is divided into three sections.

The first section focuses on how and why a specific security initiative originates locally, and how it becomes a 'model' that circulates in space and in time, at different scales (why for instance are road closures more important in Johannesburg than in Cape Town?). The second section analyses how local security schemes produce exclusion and inclusion, based mainly on agents' spatial and social practices; it questions what their effects is at different scales of the city (at the neighbourhood and the metropolitan scales in particular).

Finally, the third part examines how the proliferation of local security initiatives and security agents (communities / private companies) challenge the state and its ability to govern the city.

The Struggle over Land in Africa: Conflicts, Politics and Change Ward Anseeuw and Chris Alden (eds.), March 2010, Co-edition HSRC / IFAS ISBN-13 : 978-07969-2322-6 ISBN-10 : 0-7969-2232-1 280 pages, R280.

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This publication analyses the role of land as a place and source of conflict, especially with regard to policy development, crisis management and post-war/post-conflict reconstruction.

The authors' main aim is to gain insight into the nature of policy-making concerning land and to delve into the underlying causes of these land issues, not only at national level but also in terms of broader Africa. The book covers land issues in Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, northern Cameroon, Namibia, Mozambique, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Some of the themes explored include: Ethnic and indigenous land conflicts; Traditionalism versus modernity; renewed land interests; land use and conflict; state building; politics and land; land policy development; planning; inclusiveness/noninclusiveness; regional scopes of land conflicts and changing norms.

Vivre avec le sida après l’apartheid.

Afrique du Sud Frédéric le Marcis, June 2010, Karthala Publications ISBN : 978-2-8111-0387-3 Collection : Hommes et Sociétés : Anthropologie 192 pages, 24€.

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When South Africa was finally liberated from the Apartheid regime and designated its first democratically elected president in 1994, the AIDS epidemic exploded on the national scene to touch close to 20% of the general population by the beginning of the new millennium. The young nation found itself forced to construct while navigating both the heritage of over a hundred years of racist and unequal policies, and an unprecedented epidemic.

How do the South Africans from the townships - the main victims of both apartheid and AIDS - succeed to live with this heritage on a daily basis? What can they hope for while the treatment that will allow them to live with AIDS is not available?

IFAS Research Newsletter - no. 11 - July 2010 10

Rio Loco Festival “Rock Art” stand

An archaeologist in the Congo Web documentary by Geoffroy Heimlich

17 - 21 June 2010 Toulouse

For its 16

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Web-documentary produced with Le Monde.fr and ARTE Radio.com: www.lemonde.fr/congo

edition, French World Music Festival 'Rio Loco' invited South Africa.

300 South African artists travelled to Toulouse (in the South of France) in June, to export their culture through various concerts and events organised all over town. Within the framework o f ' R i o L o c o ' , I FA S Research supported the creation of a 'Rock Art' stand, manned by Karim Sadr (University of the Witwatersrand), Jean-Loic Le Quellec (CNRS) and Francois-Xavier Fauvelle Aymar (CNRS). Scientific conferences and a presentation of the publication Vols de vaches à Cristol Cave (Jean-Loïc le Quellec, François-Xavier Fauvell-Aymar, François Bon, 2009, Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne) also took place.

Workshop series Chaînes opératoires

Destination Johannesburg Web documentary by Laure Poinsot

Doctoral student in Archaeology, University of Toulouse / Free University of Brussels

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He has paced the Lower Congo for years in search of rock art sites. Determined, he travels alone on the trails rarely visited by modern archaeology.

An uncommon and timeless adventure.

29 March - 1st April 2010 University of the Witwatersrand

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Four

days were dedicated to the specialised workshop on Prehistoric stone technology, organised by N i c o l a s Te y s s a n d i e r ( C N R S Researcher, UMR 5608-TRACES, Toulouse), with the support of Karim Sadr, for the Archaeology students of Wits University . Theoretical presentations led to the definition of the foundations, objectives and methods of the technological and behavioural approach related to Prehistoric stone productions.

Applications were then envisaged from modern and experimental sets of cut stones. The idea was to put theory into practice and give students the main methodological foundations to classify and interpret stone industries. The students were also shown how to cut rocks. Finally, concrete applications based on South African Lithic industries were also studied.

Sprawling and contrasting, "Joburg" is not a city easily tamed. With its social confrontations and criminal reputation, tourists often neglect it... Yet this metropolis constitutes the economic heart of the country and a laboratory where communities learn to live together since the end of apartheid.

Via the discovery of their areas, 10 Joburgers share with us the richness of their city and their vision of the "rainbownation".

Site in French, with interviews in English www.destinationjohannesburg.tv

IFAS Research Newsletter - no. 11 - July 2010 11

The team

IFAS-Research

IFAS-Research Director Sophie Didier

The French Institute of South Africa was created in 1995 in

Researchers Michel Lafon - Linguist Doctoral Students Adrien Delmas - History Karine Ginisty - Geography Maud Orne-Gliemann - Geography Administrative Personnel Laurent Chauvet – Translator Werner Prinsloo - Website and Library Christian Kabongo - APORDE Administrator Marie-Eve Kayowa - Research Secretary Claire Doyen - Communications Intern Doctoral students based at IFAS Raphael Botiveau - Political Science Pauline Guinard - Geography Marie Jacobs - Education Sciences Mélanie Kuhn - Economy

Johannesburg. Dependant on the French Deparment of Foreign Affairs, it is responsible for the French cultural presence in South Africa and to stimulate and support French academic research on South and Southern Africa.

IFAS-Research (Umifre 25) is a joint CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) - French Foreign Affairs Research Unit, and part of USR 3336 “Africa south of the Sahara”. Under the authority of its scientific council, IFAS-Research takes part in the elaboration and management of research programmes in the social and human sciences, in partnership with academic institutions and research organisations.

The Institute offers an academic base for students, interns and visiting researchers, manages a specialised library, assists with the publication of research outcomes and organises colloquiums, conferences, seminars and workshops.

To find more information and updates on our research programmes and activities, please visit our website:

www.ifas.org.za/research To receive information via our mailing list, please send an e-mail to ifas@ifas.org.za, with ‘subscribe research’ in the subject field.

Institut de Recherche pour le Développement Mr Yves Savidan, the new IRD (French Institute for Development Research) representative in Southern Africa, is a geneticist and an expert in the biology of reproduction and tropical forage plants. He worked in Côte d'Ivoire, Brazil and Mexico. Until recently, he was the Chairman of the Centre International d'Agriculture Tropicale (CIAT) in Columbia, and the Chairman of the Conseil Scientifique d'Agropolis Fondation in France.

Yves Savidan IRD Representative for Southern Africa c/o IFAS - 66 Margaret Mcingana Street PO Box 542 - Newtown 2113 Johannesburg - Afrique du Sud Tel.: +27 11 836 0561 Fax.: +27 11 836 5850 irdafsud@iafrica.com Mail:

www.ird.fr IFAS Research Newsletter - no. 11 - July 2010 12