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No description available.

No description available.

In 1997 South Africa came out with a policy aimed at addressing the legacy of apartheid in respect of an unequal division of land in the country. About 3.5 million people were moved from rural and urban areas between 1960 and 1980 and deposited in the reserves or areas designed for the exclusive occupation of black people. The new land policy attempts to deal with the resultant problems. The policy advocates a three-pronged approach to land reform encompassing (i) land restitution, (ii) land redistribution and (iii) land tenure reform. A number of projects have been carried out under these three aspects. This study aims to investigate and evaluate the results of a completed land restitution case. The Mfengu of Tsitsikamma was chosen as a case study because the people have moved back and are now living on their land. The Mfengu were dispossessed of their land in 1977 by the apartheid government and their land was returned in 1994. Although this case was processed outside of the land restitution legislation (Restitution of Land Rights Act, 22 of 1994), all restitution cases where people return to their original land have to deal with the problems of resettlement. From its involvement in various involuntary resettlement projects, the World Bank concluded that the new communities of resettlers should be designed as a viable settlement system equipped with infrastructure and services and integrated in the regional socio-economic context. The host communities receiving the resettlers should be assisted to overcome possible adverse social and environmental effects from the increased population density. These concerns are valid for the South African situation, and the question is, whether this resettlement encapsulates the above. The goals of the research are twofold. To evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the resettlement project and its sustainability. In particular focussing on the constraints to the implementation of the land policy. Research questions include the following: How was the project carried out? Is the resettlement integrated into the socio-economic and development planning of the area? How viable and sustainable is the new settlement? What are the major problems and challenges facing this area and how can they be overcome?

This thesis examines the sedentarization of bedouin nomads in Saudi Arabia: partly in general, but mostly focussing on a particular region (Sajir) which was studied in the field. Our approach emphasizes that such bedouin communities were never self-contained, but rather an integral part of their regional and (latterly) national setting. Their integration has been crucially affected by broader processes: early political changes, development of the oil-based national economy, and recent rural policies (not all targeted specifically at bedouin). Moreover, we show how the bedouins themselves, far from being passively shaped by these pressures, have actively taken advantage of their opportunities and thus internalized these broader developments. Particular attention is paid to the settled agricultural alternative, with its associated land reforms and development programmes. More broadly, the heritage and shifting meanings of "bedouinism" are scrutinized in this context of rapid change. To these ends, the early chapters aim to: 1) Develop theoretical framework on nomads and sedentarization from the relevant literature (mostly authropological); 2) Review and evaluate previous studies of the sedentarization of Saudi nomads in particular; and 3) Give a comprehensive overview of the Saudi agricultural sector as a whole, thereby assessing its land reforms and development programmes. The latter four chapters report observations gathered from fieldwork in Sajir. These examine this comunity's sedentarization patterns, their present mix of agricultural and pastoral activities, and some of the specific socio-economic factors operative in the region. The main conclusions of the thesis emphasize: 1) The strength of bedouin integration (politically, socially, and economically) into the national context; 2) The unbalanced and differentiated nature and consequences for the bedouin of national land and agricultural policies; 3) The definitive impact of recent transformations of the rural econony on traditional bedouin occupations and livelihood; and 4) The continuing active (if changing) role of a specifically bedouin identity and ideology within the comunity.

Magister Legum - LLM / The participation of African countries in the Dispute Settlement System (DSS) of the Worlt Trade Organisation ( WTO) is insignificant. This research seeks to find a suitable model/mechanism which meets the particular needs of developing countries. The practical aim of this reseach was to enhance active participation of various stakeholders in developing countries who may be adversely affected or who face potential damage by unfair trade pracices of other players in the brutal and complex battleground of world trade. Thus the research seeks to suggest a suitable legal framework which can be utilised by stakeholders in African countries as part of the process of trade dispute initiation when their interests are threatened or adversely affected. / South Africa

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Like most young colonies, British Columbia in 1858 was economically undeveloped. Nevertheless, the colony possessed a valuable natural resource in its public lands which might be sold to raise additional revenue, or given to immigrants in place of financial aid. Unfortunately, geography limited the immediate value of the Grown Lands and made settlement extraordinarily difficult. While attempting to define a successful land-settlement policy for British Columbia, the government could not ignore the instructions from Great Britain that the colony was to become self-supporting as soon as possible. Sales of land were therefore expected to be an important source of revenue. Unfortunately, the unstable mining population cared little for farming. The indifference of the miners and the inability of the government to confine the mining population within the limits of surveyed land brought about a gradual reduction in the price of land. Although it was originally intended that the Wakefield system should be applied to British Columbia, the proximity of the United States made the adoption of the pre-emption system inevitable. While intended as a temporary measure the pre-emption system was adopted in 1860 and remained on the statute books throughout the colonial period. The question of free grants of land was widely discussed in British Columbia during the colonial period after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862 in the United States. However, the lack of surveyed land resulting from the financial and geographical problems of the colony made its adoption impossible. The pre-emption system was therefore the main feature of the colony’s land-settlement policy from 1858 until Confederation. New Westminster was the only district on the mainland in which country land was sold at auction. In that district, by 1868, of the 83,440 acres of surveyed land offered for sale, 27,797 acres had been bought. Of this amount not more than 250 acres had been brought under cultivation. By 1868 a total of 1696 pre-emption claims had been recorded of which 6000 acres had been brought under cultivation. Throughout the colonial period agriculture remained secondary to mining and it is probable that the discoveries of gold had much more influence upon farming than the actual land-settlement policy of the government. The best justification for the pre-emption system is the fact that it allowed settlers in the vicinity of the mines and beyond the limits of surveyed land to produce for the local market. Although the absence of a free-grant system was blamed by some for the slow growth of settlement, they failed to discern that settlers who pre-empted in many parts of the colony enjoyed the benefits of a free grant. For, since the government was financially unable to survey their land, no payment was required. Yet to make agriculture a parmanent and substantial industry, some confidence in the prosperity of the colony, such as that promised by Confederation with its guarantee of railway connections, was needed to support the pre-emption system. Farmers in the upper country were the chief support of the colony in the depression of 1867. On the other hand the lower Fraser Valley was still dependent upon imported food; for in that district uncertainty as to the future of the colony had hindered the investment of capital which was needed to clear and drain the land, In addition to a pre-emption claim the settler in British Columbia, after 1865, was entitled to a pastoral lease. Although no uniform policy was adopted in granting these leases, the average lease ran for a period of five years at the rate of 4¢ an acre. The fine quality of the bunch grass in the interior of the colony coupled with the government regulations concerning its use resulted in a decrease in the list of imported meat. That the colony had to import meat at all can be blamed not upon the system of pastoral leases adopted by the Government but rather upon the ever-present difficulties of transportation. It was impossible to drive cattle down the Cariboo Road to the lower mainland markets because of the dangerous route and scarcity of food. During the colonial period the revenue gained from the sale of surveyed land and town lots was insignificant compared with that received from custom duties and road tolls. In the year 1870, it contributed only a little more than one-fortieth of the total revenue of the colony. After 1871 Confederation and the promise of a railway diverted the colonial government's point of view from the land policy of the United States to that of the Canadian Government. In 1873 British Columbia adopted the rectangular system of surveying as used by the Dominion Government in Manitoba. In the following year it adopted a system of free grants similar to that contained in the Dominion Lands Act of 1872. Although nothing could have been more liberal- than the free-grant system provided for by the Land Act of 1874, its influence upon the settlement of the province in the period under consideration was negligible. In other words the charge often made during the colonial period that the absence of a free grant system hindered the settlement of the colony was erroneous. The rapid settlement of the province in those early years was beyond the unaided power of any land-settlement policy. The transcontinental railway was badly needed to overcome the isolation of the Pacific province. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

In October 1869, the fledgling Canadian federation was preparing for the transfer of Rupert's Land and the Northwestern Territory when the Métis set up a Provisional Government in order to resist what they saw as a unilateral annexation of their homeland. Although there were multiple references made to 'republicanism' during the Resistance, no scholar has ever explored whether republican conventions were actually present in political discourse in the District of Assiniboia prior to the Resistance and whether they were effectively activated during the Resistance. Working from the Cambridge School approach of discourse analysis, this thesis first identifies the conventions of democratic rhetorical republicanism, which includes positive and negative liberty, the rule of law, the mixed and balanced constitution and citizenship, which in turn involves virtue, the militia and real property. It then looks at the gradual introduction in Assiniboia of republican discourse from multiple sources, including the United States, Lower Canada, Upper Canada, Ireland, France and Great Britain and its circulation throughout several practical political struggles during the period from 1835 to 1869. In doing so, it shows that certain 'organic intellectuals' acted as 'transmission belts' of republican conventions and that institutional structures were a factor that rendered the activation of such conventions almost inevitable. By the time the Resistance took place in 1869, a more or less fully developed republican paradigm formed part of the linguistic matrix and was available to political actors in Assiniboia. Finally, the thesis shows that republican discourse was effectively mobilised by identifying fragments of republican conventions that were harnessed in various speechacts during the Resistance. It is argued that republican language was fundamental to the success of the ideological and political manoeuvres of the leaders of the Resistance as it was particularly effective both as an instrument of anti-colonialism and as a pragmatic ideal of self-government that sought to correct the iniquities of colonial government.

This research project proposes to examine the role of religious/secular identities and spaces in processes of newcomer settlement. By focusing on how newcomer participants performed socio-spatially contingent religious/secular identities and experienced religious/secular spaces fluidly, I shed light on the importance of these negotiations of identity and space as settlement strategy. I examined these settlement strategies through participants’ navigation of religious organizations and other spatial contexts such as the workplace, school and home. Informed by their individual agency, participants were shown to perform identities and experience different spaces in such a way as to address a variety of structural constraints and settlement challenges. This thesis research was conducted using a feminist geography framework, drawing on qualitative research methods. I relied on a mixed-methods approach, using participant observation, individual semi-structured interviews and mental maps to collect data. My data collection took place in Ottawa, focusing on the settlement experiences of 11 newcomers to the National Capital Region of Canada.