No Fixed Abode: The Poorest of the Poor and Elusive Identities in Rural South Africa

The itinerant sheep-shearing Karretjie (donkey cart) People of the arid Great Karoo of South Africa are among the poorest of the poor. They represent a rural underclass. Although they trace descent from both the early KhoeKhoen and San, there is no historical continuity between the present-day impoverished foragers and their pre-colonial nomadic forebears. The structural position of the Karretjie People, particularly their asymmetrical relationship with the wider community, was largely shaped by historical events. Their wandering lifestyle was a response to the expansion of commercial agriculture, especially the production of wool, in the region. Although several factors have recently started a trend toward sedentarism, most Karretjie People are still confined to their temporary shelters on the verges of the country roads. They have no land, or even free access to any space or place. Although they have, for generations, rendered an important service to the agricultural economy of the sheep-farming Karoo, they have remained at best, largely socio-economically 'invisible' to the local population or, at worst, strangers in their own land. The recognition that they have received locally has often come in pejorative terms: Boesman (Bushman) or Hotnot (Hottentot). Nationally, 'recognition' came with their being arbitrarily categorised as 'coloured' within the apartheid system, but acknowledgement in terms of poverty relief initiatives from successive governments was either not forthcoming or has still to affect their lives significantly. The Karretjie People are not untouched by coloured and Khoesan identity politics. Opportunistically 'discovered' as citizens by the main political parties for the 1994 election, they have become increasingly sensitised to the realities of disempowerment and political manoeuvring. They have, however, not yet asserted themselves: although they are aware of their Khoesan roots, their self-perception is still ill-defined and their autochthonous status not explicitly articulated.