Threatened pre “Betterment” amaMpondo Cultural Community Landscapes of the Pondoland

Wild Coast, in particular the communities of Sigidi. Mpindweni, Mdatya, Mtolani, Gobodweni,

Mtentu aka Nyavini, and Mabaleni.

Submitted by Sustaining the Wild Coast (SWC)

Contact person. Valerie Payn. swcoastval@gmail.com.

Cell 083 4416961

Area for consideration

Sigidi is the first of a line of Pondoland villages that run along the Pondoland Wild Coast bordered by

the Mzamba and Mtentu rivers in Eastern Cape Province, Bizana Municipality. Sigidi community, as

well as villages of Mpindweni, Mdatya, Gobodweni, Mtolani, Mtentu ( also called Nyavini ) and

Mabaleni are surviving vestiges of a traditional, agrarian way of amaMpondo life that was largely

destroyed by the ‘Betterment’ schemes of the late 1950’s and which culminated in the rural

insurrection known as iKongo, or the Pondoland Revolt of 1960.

Cultural and historical importance of the landscape

In these rural communities people still choose to follow a traditional way of life that has not changed

significantly in centuries, and that has strong links to landscape and amaMpondo culture.

Indeed, looking at this landscape of rolling grasslands, scattered fields and vernacular homesteads, or

umzi, one is reminded of oral traditions and early European accounts from the 1500’s that describe the

Wild Coast as inhabited by ordered and self-sufficient agrarian societies with an abundance of

livestock and crops (Swart, 2009; Wilson, 1959).

Figure 1 A widely dispersed settlement pattern is the traditional amaMpondo way. Sigidi Village

In a traditional Pondoland ‘village’, the homesteads, or umzi, consist of small groups of clustered

family dwellings, with each cluster discreetly and spaciously scattered across the landscape. A large

proportion of umzi consist of rondavels still built in the vernacular style, with woven stick and mud-

brick walls with thatched roofs. This dispersed settlement pattern is the traditional amaMpondo way.

Each umzi has its own fields gardens and cattle kraal and may house several generations of one

family.

According the Oxford historian William Beinart, a leading authority on Pondoland history, this

dispersed settlement pattern reflects the highly independent, democratic structure of traditional

amaMpondo society, which was centred around agrarian activities. The scattered settlement pattern

enabled the amaMpondo to live self-sufficient, independent lives, as it gave each family adequate and

close access to the land needed to grow their crops and graze their substantial livestock herds.

Figure 2 Traditional umzi and fields. Near Mtentu

Figure 3 The cattle kraal is an important cultural component of many umzi. Sigidi village

Beinart argues that the independent and extensive agrarian self-sufficiency of the amaMpondo,

combined with the exceptional diplomacy shown by remarkable amaMpondo leaders such as King

Faku, enabled amaMpondo to resist the effects of colonization and maintain their independence for

much longer than other Bantu people in the region.

By the early 1900’s, though, the agrarian independence of amaMpondo was increasingly becoming a

thorn in the colonial authorities sides. Proclamation 31 in 1939, followed by the recommendations of

the 1955 Tomlinson Commission, set the scene for the introduction of “Betterment Planning”. Under

‘Betterment’, Pondoland communities were forced to give up their traditional, flexible, dispersed

settlement patterns and forcibly removed into restricted, close, demarcated European type villages.

Colonial authorities argued ‘Betterment’ was intended to promote land conservation and ‘modernise’

amaMpondo traditional agricultural practices by freeing up more land for cultivation. The

amaMpondo saw it as unwarranted authoritarian attempt to interfere with their traditional

amaMpondo way of life, control the rural population and force cheap labour into the mines. For in

losing their agrarian self-sufficiency the amaMpondo where forced into the migrant labour system.

Beinart argues that the Pondoland revolt represented “an outpouring of anger against external rule

which had transformed African societies and was now seen to threaten their surviving rural base”

(Beinart, 2000: 76).

By forcing ‘Betterment’ the colonial authorities also ignored the close relationships that often exist

between traditional customary practices, agrarian activity, and landscape amongst indigenous people.

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), and the United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), describe traditional agrarian systems as being

multidimensional representations of cultural heritage that result from particular combinations of

various „tangible and intangible, cultural and natural properties‟ (Yáñez. ICOMOS. 2010: 2).

Elements include vernacular infrastructure and architecture, locally bred agrarian crops and livestock

and the specific techniques, knowledge and skills related to the cultivation or care of these, and

agrarian related cultural activities such as rituals, festivals and spiritual beliefs. The unique

combination of the specific socio-cultural factors, agrarian practices and ecology give rise to

landscapes with unique characteristics.( My italics)

Continued……

Figure 4. Wooden sleds are an important part of local agricultural traditions and come in a variety of forms

for different uses. Sigidi Village

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation ( FAO) also recognises the importance of

maintaining Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS).

“Worldwide, specific agricultural systems and landscapes have been created, shaped and maintained

by generations of farmers and herders based on diverse natural resources, using locally adapted

management practices. Building on local knowledge and experience, these ingenious agricultural

systems reflect the evolution of humankind, the diversity of its knowledge, and its profound

relationship with nature. These indigenous and traditional agricultural systems (henceforth referred to

as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems “GIAHS” systems have resulted not only in

outstanding landscapes (some are recognised as World Heritage Sites), maintenance and adaptation of

globally significant agricultural biodiversity, indigenous knowledge systems and resilient ecosystems,

but, above all, in the sustained provision of multiple goods and services, food and livelihood security

and a certain quality of life that keeps a close link with its natural environment”.( FAO ibid ;3).

Figure 5. Ox spans are an important component of agricultural practice for many households. Cattle also

have other important cultural and spiritual significance.

iKongo seemed to have reined in the authorities enthusiasm for enforcing ‘Betterment’ in Pondoland,

ensuring that some remote rural communities such as those mentioned here escaped the corralling

into Betterment villages.

Visually, the communities of the Pondoland Wild Coast that escaped ‘Betterment’ represent a cultural

landscape with deep historical roots that pre-dates colonialism. But it is only when one talks to the

inhabitants that one gets a true sense of how deep the connections run between landscape, tradition,

culture and traditional agricultural practices in this area. The landscape is not arbitrarily arranged.

Cultivated fields and gardens, umzi, communal grazing lands, ‘wildlands’ and forests for collecting

traditional medicinal and other useful plants, reed-beds for basket and mat making, and sacred areas

for performing traditional rites all form part of these communities cultural landscape. Any significant

change to the landscape would thus constitute an immense loss of cultural heritage and land use

traditions for these traditional amaMpondo communities.

Threats to amaMpondo cultural heritage landscape

In South Africa there appears to be scant recognition for the cultural and historical importance of

assisting these amaMpondo communities, and others like them, conserve such cultural landscapes.

Perhaps the colonial idea that the settlement patterns and way of life these represent are ‘backward’

and ‘primitive’ still subconsciously prevails, even with a post-apartheid government? It is

government supported projects in the form of the Xolobeni open cast dune mining venture and the

‘Wild Coast N2 Toll Road’ that pose the biggest threats to the villages mentioned here. The mining

will force extensive resettlement amongst all these villages and completely deface the landscape, and

the ‘Greenfields’ extension to the Toll road threatens ribbon development that will irrevocably change

the nature of the landscape and the traditional way of life of these amaMpondo communities. The

amaMpondo people who reside in these communities recognise the threat that proposed mining and

toll road developments pose to the landscape and hence to their traditional agrarian way of life, and

consequently have organised a fierce resistance campaign against these developments.

See www.swc.org.za for more details.