The Politics of Harmony
Land Dispute Strategies in Swaziland

The Politics of Harmony analyses how traditional ruling elites in Swaziland, as in other parts of Africa, use harmony ideologies to downplay and resolve land disputes.

Laurel L. Rose (Author)

9780521392969, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 January 1992

256 pages, 3 b/w illus. 14 maps 7 tables
23.7 x 15.9 x 2 cm, 0.514 kg

"The core of this book provides a fascinating ethnographic glimpse into the operation of customary courts in the 1980s....this is an absorbing and provocative book, amply demonstrating the need for a new historical anthropology of Swaziland." Jonathan Crush, The International Journal of African Historical Studies

Laurel Rose analyses how traditional ruling elites in Swaziland, as in other parts of Africa, use harmony ideologies to downplay and resolve land disputes. Such disputes could be used by foreign development agents or indigenous new élites as justification for implementing land tenure changes, including a reduction of traditional elites' power based upon land control. Swazi commoners accept the cultural value and legitimacy of most harmony ideologies, but they use strategies when disputing about particular land rights to produce more favourable outcomes. This book is unusual in its focus on political rather than economic dimensions of land tenure and disputes. It searches for links between individual concerns with land use rights and national concerns with land policy. It also examines gender and leadership issues associated with land, showing how women and new élites threaten land interests of men and traditional leaders.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. National and Local Settings: 1. The geographical, historical, political, and social bases of customary land tenure relations
2. The legal structure for customary land tenure relations
3. Two communities: arenas for land disputes
Part II. Harmony and Land: 4. The politics of harmony: land dispute strategies
5. Land dispute cases in the political hierarchy
6. 'A woman is like a field': women's land dispute strategies
7. 'How could I take my land dispute to the person with the stick?': elites' land dispute strategies. 8. Conclusions
Appendix
Notes
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]