Casting a voice for rural struggles during apartheid : the case of AFRA

This paper explores the attempts to co-ordinate rural resistance and struggles in South Africa during apartheid through a case study of the Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA), a land NGO established in Natal in 1979. It was a small group but had a significant local and national impact. The paper addresses three key questions concerning the character and works of AFRA: (1) What was the character and strategy of AFRA in the politicised context of the late 1970s and 1980s? (2) Was there any historical continuity and discontinuity with early attempts by Natal liberals and African landowners to organise anti-removal campaigns in the 1950s? (3) How and to what extent could AFRA negotiate the increasing influence of the Inkatha and KwaZulu government over Natal rural communities? The paper aims to serve as a critical evaluation of AFRA's strategies and activities, and its relationship with rural communities up to 1990 when land movements became nationwide.

Regional differences regarding land tenancy in rural Rwanda, with special reference to sharecropping in a coffee production area

This paper examines land tenancy systems and tenant contracts in Rwanda, with respect to socioeconomic contexts. Our research in southern and eastern Rwanda produced data suggesting that land borrowing with fixed rents has been generally practiced, and that rent levels have been low in comparison to expected revenues from field production. In the western areas of coffee production, however, the practice of sharecropping has recently appeared. This system is advantageous to landowners, as they are able to acquire half of the harvests; in addition, the fixed rent levels in this region are much higher than those of other regions. In the southern and eastern regions, because land borrowing with fixed rents has been the only tenancy pattern and rent levels have remained low, the economic situation should be interpreted in the context of a continuing traditional Rwandan land tenure system. In contrast, in the western coffee production area, the soaring of fixed rents and the emergence of sharecropping have been brought about by high pressures for land use, which were caused not only by a population increase but also by the development of cash crop production and the existence of a labor exchange system. The increase in rent levels has therefore been offset by a corresponding increase in agricultural productivity.