Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities

by Mahmood Mamdani

In 1936 the Native Trust and Land Act doubled the allocation of land to peasant communities, and the area was cordoned off from private possession, whether by white settlers or native proprietors. The natives were not, however, able to possess land under the civil system of freeholding and leasing; rather, their land tenure was based on customary law. The idea was to maintain a pipeline of migrant labor. By shielding landholding from the disintegrative forces of the market, customary law ensured the continued reproduction of the peasant family supported by remittances from the migrant father. The wife and children cultivated the family farm, on which future generations of adult laborers were reared and to which the adult or aging male laborer returned when no longer needed at his place of employment.