Allison Goebel

Urban advantage or Urban penalty? A case study of female-headed households in a South African city.

Basic services have improved in many urban areas of South Africa, which should improve health and well-being. However, poverty and ill-health persist and are unequally distributed by race, class and place. This paper explores conditions of the most marginalized group, female-headed households, in a case study of Msunduzi Municipality (formerly Pietermaritzburg). Data from two household surveys conducted in 2006 show important patterns regarding the incidences of and coping strategies around, illnesses and deaths. While some positive environmental health outcomes are apparent, considerable stresses face households in relation to HIV/AIDS related deaths, poverty, and lack of health services. The insights of both urban environmental health and feminist geography assist in explaining the gendered and spatialized patterns of health in post-apartheid urban South Africa.

Zimbabwe's ‘Fast Track’ Land Reform: What about women?

The wave of occupations of commercial farms in Zimbabwe starting in the year 2000 captured worldwide attention. By the end of that year, the government of Zimbabwe initiated the ‘fast track’ land reform process meant to formalize the occupations, and encourage further land appropriation and redistribution. Where are women in this process? The Women and Land Lobby Group (WLLG) was formed in 1998 by Zimbabwean women activists committed to the land issue. Since 1998 they have lobbied government to include womens interests in the design of land reform, and have made some inroads in improving womens formal rights to land as stated in policy documents. However, the current ‘fast track’ practices continue to privilege men as primary recipients of resettlement land, and the emerging role of traditional authorities in the land reform process marginalizes women. Other legal provisions that may help women struggle for changes remain weak. The contradiction between customary law, practices and attitudes and modern individual rights represents a complex battleground for women and land in Southern Africa, and calls for new feminist conceptualizations of the state as a vehicle for gender justice.

People, values, and woodlands: A field report ofemergent themes in interdisciplinary research in Zimbabwe

The Value of Trees project, funded bythe International Development Research Council ofCanada (IDRC), supported the joint efforts of theUniversity of Alberta and the University of Zimbabweto investigate the economic costs and benefitsassociated with trees and forests in the small holderfarming sector in Zimbabwe. The Value of Trees project provided funding for graduate students andfaculty from the two participating universities tocarry out studies in the disciplines of forestry,agricultural economics, and sociology in order toprovide policy recommendations regarding the role ofwoodlands in sustainable small holder farming in acontext where agricultural production appears to putincreasing stress on woodlands. The numerous projectsincluded such topics as the following: the use offuelwood under conditions of scarcity, tree tenure andlocal institutions in woodland use and sustainability,gender and wealth as related to tree planting andconservation, time preferences in natural resourceconsumption, ownership and economic impact ofeucalyptus woodlots, cultural and economic valuesassociated with woodlands, and uses and conflictsrelating to woodlands across different land categoriessuch as resettlement land and state forests. Manyother studies were not funded by, but were associatedwith Value of Trees. The findings fall withintwo broad categories. The first set includes thosedirectly related to generating values for differentaspects of the woodlands, particularly from theperspectives of rural households. The main finding isthat despite being highly valued by local people forboth economic and social reasons, woodlands are rankedlower in importance by local farmers than agriculturalland. The second set of findings relates to thecomplexities of the social system of the woodlands.Local institutions, history, resource conflicts, andtenure issues emerge as key to understanding the waythat people interact with the woodlands. Finally,local people have valuable knowledge and strategies tooffer in the design of sustainable management. Thepolicy implications of these findings for Zimbabwe arethat economic incentives could be important in asustainable woodlands strategy, but that anysuccessful program must incorporate an understandingof the profoundly complex and at times contradictoryhuman dynamics of woodland use and values.

“Men these days, they are a problem”: Husband-taming Herbs and Gender Wars in Rural Zimbabwe

ResumeLes analyses feministes des vies de femmes et des dynamiques entre les sexes au Zimbabwe ont mis l’accent sur les contraintes structurales imposees par des lois inequitables, des pratiques coutumieres et les circonstances economiques. Si ces questions sont indispensables a la comprehension des experiences vecues par les femmes dans le Zimbabwe rural, cet article declare que l’interet accorde a la micro-dynamique des relations entre les sexes offre une perspective nouvelle sur l’action des femmes et les definitions donnees par les femmes elles-memes a leurs combats, tout en permettant une comprehension plus grande du contexte culturel et des negociations quotidiennes dans la lutte entre les sexes. Examine sous l’angle de l’institution sociale mupfuhwira ou “plantes pour le domptage de l’homme,” cet article nous eclaire sur l’etat actuel desastreux du mariage dans le Zimbabwe rural, sur le role des guerisseurs traditionnels et des reseaux feminins dans les questions de mariage et sur la transmission r...

Is Zimbabwe the future of South Africa? The implications for land reform in Southern Africa

In both South Africa and Zimbabwe, a history of race-based colonial land dispossession led to the domination of white commercial farmers and rural underdevelopment and impoverishment of black Africans. In both countries, the question of land reform emerged in the post-independence contexts, linked to the dual challenges of redistributive justice and economic development. The dramatic events in Zimbabwe since the year 2000 involving massive and often violent land occupations of white-owned commercial farms have sparked concern about developments in South Africa (Human Rights Watch 2002). The ‘radical’ land reform in process in Zimbabwe is discredited by most analysts as well as the development establishment of the World Bank, United Nations, the Commonwealth and others, for the corruption, disregard of the rule of law, marginalisation of the poor, anti-democratic political forms and violation of human rights that it has entailed. The process has also so far resulted in dramatic agricultural productivity declines, including massive food shortages and losses of exports, and has failed to decongest in any significant way the Communal Areas (the former Tribal Trust Lands) where the poorest farmers reside and practise subsistence agriculture (Bowyer-Bower and Stoneman 2000; Briggs 2004; Human Rights Watch 2002; Waeterloos and Rutherford 2004; Worby 2001). Is it reasonable to suggest that South Africa could face a similar series of events? More specifically, could South Africa face widespread, race-based, state-endorsed occupations and expropriations of commercial agricultural land? Or, from another perspective, will the revolution be completed, and land returned to its rightful owners (Hansungule 2000; Thomas 2003)?

‘Our Struggle is for the Full Loaf’: Protests, Social Welfare and Gendered Citizenship in South Africa

The waves of popular protest sweeping contemporary South Africa are inadequately explained by anti-globalisation, anti-neoliberal and even anti-government sentiments and analysis. Attention to the gendered dynamics of township life, including the nature of households, gender relations and the critical importance of social welfare provisions to poor women and their households, yields a revised understanding of protests and movements. The Durban-based shack-dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo is used to illustrate these points, as are original quantitative and qualitative data from urban townships in KwaZulu-Natal.

Gender, Environment and Development in Southern Africa

ABSTRACT Using data from research in a Zimbabwean resettlement area, this paper argues that considering the environment enriches gender analysis in Southern Africa. The paper also provides an overview of various feminist approaches to the study of women and the environment in Southern Africa over the past two decades. Ecofeminist approaches are found to be problematic, particularly the theoretical position that women are somehow closer to nature than men are. The paper argues that a feminist political ecology approach that calls for careful consideration of the cultural, ideological and institutional context under study works well to reveal important gendered social dynamics and relations regarding the environment. Finally, through challenging the “crisis narrative” that runs through environmental studies, including feminist political ecology, the paper argues for a new dimension in gender and environment research.

'We are working for nothing': livelihoods and gender relations in rural Zimbabwe, 2000-06

AbstractThis article draws on interviews with women resettlement farmers in Wedza District, Zimbabwe, to trace changes in livelihood strategies and gender relations from 2000 to 2006. The research indicates a shrinking number of viable options for livelihoods, and the severe erosion of formerly critical activities. Thewomen interviewed see increases inmarital discord and collapse, with implications for family formation, social order, and survival. The article explores the linkages between changing livelihoods and gender relations, focusing especially on marriage in relation to agriculture and land issues, gendered incomes, sexuality, AIDS orphans and other effects of HIV/AIDS. Within this overall difficult context, the enduring ethic of caring and the buffering effects of people’s access to arable land and other natural resources are apparent. Throughout, the article discusses the theoretical implications of the research, participating in debates about regional conditions and theoretical understandings of...

Housing and Marginality for Female-Headed Households: Observations from Msunduzi Municipality (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa)

Abstract South Africas constitution enshrines the right to adequate housing, and policy since 1994 has attempted to address this issue. However, realities of poverty, rapid urbanization and limited resources for local authorities undermine the states ability to meet housing needs. This article presents a case study from Msunduzi Municipality (formerly Pietermaritzburg) to evaluate state policy in the urban low-cost housing sector, particularly in terms of the needs of female-headed households. While subsidized housing allocation has successfully reached female-headed households, and recent policy documents acknowledge gendered housing needs, the situation on the ground remains problematic. Gender-based social and economic inequalities persist, and new government-subsidized housing suffers problems including inappropriate location, poor housing quality, and inadequate protection of tenure security. Applying a gender lens to housing highlights shortcomings in South African housing policy, while applying a housing lens to examine gender inequality demonstrates limitations to the transformative potential of gender mainstreaming in this sector.

Gender and agrarian reforms

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