ABSTRACT

Land dispossession is seen by some as the central political-economic issue of colonialism and as central to the creation of modern capitalism. It has rested not only on force but also on new forms of property and discipline; it has instantiated and affirmed Lockean notions of property and civilization and constructions of racial and ethnic difference. If land bridges material and symbolic concerns, as both a factor of production and a site of belonging and identity (Shipton 1994), then the loss of land is likewise simultaneously material and symbolic. Land restitution promises the redress of such loss. It is aimed at enabling former landholders to reclaim spaces and territories which formed the basis of earlier identities and livelihoods. Drawing on memories and histories of past loss, individual claimants and informal movements – and governments or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on their behalf – have attempted to restore and reclaim their rights. Land restitution thus brings the past into the present.