Pathways of song: Re-voicing women's landscapes in the Maputaland borderlands

abstract

Western Maputaland is located at the junction of South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland. The combination of poverty, rural remoteness and exceptional ecological diversity has made it a target of conservationists and development planners, locating it centrally within the Usuthu-Tembe-Futi Transfrontier Conservation Area. While rights to land remain determined by way of patrilineal customary tenure, survival in the area is dependent upon the efficacy of women as farmers, water conservators and collectors of edible and medicinal plants. Women's relationships with the environment are thus distinct from men's, yet they remain unrepresented in emerging discourses around land and community-based natural resource management. Building on narratives inspired by the revival of musical bows and the jews harp—once played by young women as walking instruments but remembered now by elderly women only—this focus explores women's experiences of land and resources in a changing political landscape. By linking sonic memories to memories of performance, in particular social and natural localities, it seeks to connect the sensual-experiential with the environmental-economic. In so doing, it aims to open new spaces for the merging of discourses between environmental policy makers and different agents within the community. It hopes to raise the level of women's voices in seeking a more equitable approach towards land rights and environmental development in the area.

keywords:

• women
• land and resource rights
• sound and memory
• western Maputaland