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History and the here and now

This paper explores the lesser-known histories and present-day realities of small towns and non-metropolitan areas in the internal provinces of South Africa. It is different inasmuch as it focuses on transformations that have taken place at the local level, and where possible, generalises from these, rather than following the normal route taken by social scientists – at least from 1994, which has been to examine them from the top down. One feature of such changes has been the growth of gated communicates across the length and breadth of South Africa, but there are many more. One reason for their anonymity is that their evolution has been gradual and corpuscular, that they have become unconsciously familiar and are left unexamined. Another is our collective preoccupation with the metropolitan areas rather than the smaller localities where such processes are subterranean and confined. This paper presents very briefly some of the results of the researchers of the Local Histories and Present Realities programme over the past five years, in 19 separate centres. It examines the history and present circumstance of chiefdoms of Ga-Mphahlele and reveals the surprise finding that much of recent and contemporary politics revolve around events 200 years old. An analogous situation has arisen in Venda as well as in Mpumalanga and elsewhere, where a combination of new legislation to revive chiefly powers, and land reclamation legislation have lent a new legitimacy to chiefly powers, and inspired hundreds of phantom – and time-consuming – quests. Another massive development which has gone on around us but whose internal dynamics have never been observed is the rise of game hunting and ranching all over the interior of South Africa. This is a monster subject which is likely to have influence on all of our lives into which our group is now in a position to offer insights. A change of equal proportions is the rise of mining all over the interior Bushveld Igneous Complex – Mokopane is a good example of this and the huge social consequences this has brought in its wake. One final theme which embraces all the communities that we have studied is the local histories of transformation – collectively the most important – since 1994. This is almost entirely hidden to a wider world, including the transformed positions of local Indian residents.