Book review: Beinart, W., Kingwill, R. and Capss, G. (eds.) 2021. Land, law and chiefs in rural South Africa: contested histories and current struggles. Johannesburg: WITS University Press. 344 p. ISBN 978-1-77614-679-6

Abstract

Land, Law and Chiefs in Rural South Africa is an exciting update to the literature about land reform, associated legislation, the roles of traditional authorities in South Africa and how their subjects challenge these roles and disputes. The book exposes the often less-publicised debates and contestations around land, property and other rights in the areas that belonged to South Africa's former homelands. Chieftainship succession is contested, whilst history, identity and custom are disputed and reinterpreted. The 13 chapters, by old hands and some new ones to the land rights and customary ownership discourse in South Africa, add a rich interdisciplinary (historical, legal, anthropological and activist) perspective to this body of literature with Beinart setting the scene in the introductory chapter. The remaining 12 chapters adopt a novel case-study lens of what happens in the courts and the former homelands as different groups attempt to assert their rights around land and its resources.