[OSGeo Africa] 1913 Natives Land Act Exhibition on Social Media Platforms

[Chris]

    Aslam ,

    With due respect .......

    I had a look at your links and I am afraid I came away with the 
    impression that the RDLA effort is all pure progaganda -- geared to an 
    election next year..Talking about van Riebeck and colonialism ( of a 
    special type ) nearly four hundred years after the event , shows how far 
    some have drifted from the spirit of "Ubuntu" , Mandela and the Freedom 
    Charter.  ( Yes I can also read and understand "comrade-speak" ! ) I am 
    sure many ,  less well read in the REAL history are going to come away 
    with the crudely simplistic impression -- Very bad White man stole good 
    peace loving black mans land -- perhaps this is the message that the 
    ruling party intends they should have ? Apart from "open-eyes" I would 
    think that people should also have "open-minds"  ?

    As you know I have been doing some reading on this issue and the 
    associated history. Without claiming to have any expert knowledge on the 
    subject and not having been directly affected ( I am not a land owner ) I 
    found the pages referenced did not contain anything that I would consider 
    educational -- at least in  any sense of offering a detailed intellectual 
    unbiased account. ( and when are people going to learn that if 
    information is behind a "sign-in-and-come-and-join-us" *Facebook* then I 
    am really not interested  ) -- BTW it appears you have 57 "likes' ? I am 
    not sure if that says anything significant ?

    There are detailed accounts ( documents ) that are extant and which a bit 
    of searching will reveal.

    I refer to the work of Professor Harvey M Feinberg  [ with Andre Horn 
    University of Pretoria ]

    and an even more detailed account presented in the Masters thesis of 
    Patricia Grattan Dickson

    "The Natives Land Act .1913: It's Antecedants , Passage and Reception"

    University of Cape Town  December 1970

    Which looks at original source records like  HANSARD and official 
    Government documentation.

    Then there are the papers read at the LandDivided2013  Conference that 
    was held recently , also at UCT

    Papers like that of Prof Peter Delius and William Beinart ( who if they 
    are reading this should get their paper out of draft form and onto the 
    LandDivided  website )

    In short -- I see lots of emotion and very little REAL coverage of the 
    very complex and multi layered issues.

    History ( especially when the issues are so sensitive ) needs to be 
    RIGOROUS !

    For all the politicking , the money could rather have been given to 
    something like 

    [the] African Centre for Food Security

    http://acfs.ukzn.ac.za/Homepage.aspx

    That said , I do intend to visit the "show"  if / when it gets to UKZN


    CM



On 1 Aug 2013 at 8:50, Aslam Parker wrote:

> Please circulate this to members.
 
> >>>>>>>
> Dear members of GISSA/SAGI/OSGEO
> 
> As you know the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has put a
> major interactive exhibition on the effects of the Native Land Act and
> other Apartheid Legislation on human settlements and society. It is now at
> Nasrec in Gauteng and will move to every province of the country. I
> strongly recommend that you visit this free exhibition and encourage
> colleagues and family to attend as well.
> 
> To unlock access to Facebook and other social media, like our Facebook
> page on Facebook/reversingthelegacy and follow us on Twitter
> @reversinglegacy #sa1913land act.  
> 
> Also check out these You Tube links
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIXqnDdaeJo ,
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L3kYeseFpQ ,
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3NKcTsa1aUto catch up on the latest
> developments taking place at the 1913 Natives’ Land Act Exhibition.
> Visit the Reversing the Legacy of the 1913 Natives’ Land Act website on
> www.reversingthelegacy.org for more information on the exhibition. To view
> the clip on the eNCA go to
> http://www.enca.com/exhibition-set-open-eyes-about-native-land-act