Resilience by the ignored

I am a week behind, so I am supposed to be sharing my thoughts on Internationalism, but instead I want to jump ahead a week, because while I do have way too many thoughts to share regarding last week's topic, I feel like I need to share my thoughts on Resilience right now and get back to the chaos of Internationalism at a later date.  I might even have to write two posts on Resilience ...  But first of all, I wanted to respond to an article by Nancy Turner (who was one of my favourite, favourite professors at UVic when I was doing my Undergrad), Robin Gregory, Cheryl Brooks, Lee Failing and Terre Satterfield, called From Invisibility to Transparency: Identifying the Implications.  The article spoke directly to the experience that I have just wrapped up in South Africa and that I have desperately been trying to document and reflect on.  The first line of their abstract sums it up nicely - "This paper explores the need for a broader and more inclusive approach to decisions about land and resources, one that recognizes the legitimacy of cultural values and traditional knowledge in environmental decision making and policy."

I just finished writing some reflections on this exact topic and I'll share them here. 

"I am finally crawling out of the bush. It has probably been about two months since I last wrote. I can't summarize those months and I'm not even going to try, but I do want to give you a taste of what my life was like while I was living at the lodge at it was truly the climax of my trip. 

As you know, I spent three weeks here at Mtentu River Lodge in February and March and then decided to come back to work at the lodge and do youth empowerment projects in the community for the rest of my time in South Africa. I came back for over two months and it was the kind of experience that leaves your head spinning and your heart a bit raw.

I want to start with a bit of context as Mtentu is a unique community and the people are constantly having their way of life threatened. I explained a bit about this in a previous travelpod, but for one of my courses I actually wrote a paper about these issues, and the introduction gives a good summary of the area and the issue. This context is significant and was a major factor of living in this area.

“There is a piece of paradise in South Africa where people are living a rural but sustainable lifestyle. They have homes that would be the envy of any aspiring green builder in the “western world”, gardens that would be the envy of any city-dweller and views that people would pay millions of dollars for. This area is called Pondoland (also known as the Transkei or the Wild Coast). The people who live here are the amaMpondo and have lived here for generations. To be cautious of idealizing these people or their lifestyle, I will add here that their life is hard and very basic. Some would say that they are impoverished, others would argue that they have everything they need. No matter how they see it, it would not be an easy lifestyle for most westerners to adopt. They work hard, food isn't overly abundant and water doesn't run from any tap. Some kids have to walk two hours to get to school, and some don't get the opportunity to attend at all because they need to be in the fields tending the cows. Despite these challenges, they have a beautiful and sustainable way of life, and most importantly it is one that they want to preserve. They appreciate the land and the lifestyle that they have and understand that the wrong type of development in the area could easily destroy it. They also have a strong connection with their ancestors and although they have adopted a form of Christianity, they hold on to that aspect of their culture and practice Zionism, which allows them to worship their ancestors as well as a God.

This area on the East coast of South Africa is also home to more than 2200 species, of which 196 are endemic. To put this in context, the entirety of the United Kingdom is home to 1400 species. In addition, stone age artifacts have been found in the Pondoland region, making it potentially an important site of archeological and cultural heritage (Payne, 2011).


So far, this coastline has somehow been spared the westernized-style development of sprawling resort towns that its neighbour to the north has been subjected to. However, it is under great threat and for the past ten years the community has been rife with concern and conflict as a result. There are two major external threats to this area that could destroy the ecosystem and their way of life.


Firstly, this land is rich in titanium and home to very few people, making it the perfect candidate for titanium strip mining (one of the most destructive types of mining in the world). Secondly, the South African government wants to build a multi-lane toll highway right through the area to replace the already existing national road that runs 30 to 50 kilometers from the coast. This toll road will be built right through communities, over top of schools that have been built with no help of the government and of course through grazing land, natural areas and ancestral graves. Mining rights were granted to an Australian mining company, but fortunately were taken away after a huge uprising and protests from the community. However, mining is not considered to be completely off the table until this area becomes protected as a nature reserve and most people believe that the threat is still looming. The two threats are not working in isolation either. The community worries that the toll road will bring back the threat of mining as it will make this area so much more accessible and less pristine.


At this stage it seems likely that the toll-road will go through. This is going to have a huge impact on these communities, most of which is very negative. They worry that the toll road will bring crime, pollution, mining, development, traffic and fragmentation to their villages and communities.

One of the unfortunate side-effects of these threats is that they have divided the community into those who want to preserve their health, their way of life and their land and those who are lured by the money promised by the mining companies. Houses have been burned down, people have been poisoned, eco-tourism has been sabotaged and activists live in fear of their former friends. This is the power of money and this is the poison of greed. However, the large majority of people in the communities are opposed to both the toll-road and the mining, and would rather see the enhancement of their lifestyles coming from eco-tourism and small-scale economic projects that are run in part by the community.” 

So that was the blog I shared with my friends and family and the beginning of a paper I wrote for my ethics course, but now for the depressing update... during my last week in the community, mining reared its ugly head again!!! I wrote about this in one of my last blogs, but am putting it in context here. I only wrote the words above a few weeks ago, and already the worst of people's fears are coming true.  The mining company is back and is moving ahead with no concern for the people.  They are not included in the decision-making process at all.  Talk about invisible losses.  There will be so many invisible and visible losses if this project goes through.  It would truly be a tragedy. As is stated in the first line of the article by Turner et al, "Human existence has always depended on our ability to respond and adapt to change. However, rapid change, particularly when enforced from the outside, can have extremely negative consequences. "

Okay... this blog is getting too long, but I think we all get the point.  I shake my head as I go to sleep absolutely baffled by how as a society and a species we can let things like this happen.