Peter Delius

• PhD
• Professor Emeritus at University of the Witwatersrand

This short book, published in 2017, discusses two aspects of South Africa's land reform policy and practice, Restitution and Tenure Upgrading. It does not deal with the broader issues of land redistribution. Rights to Land analyses past policies and makes suggestions for future directions, including a response to draft tenure legislation that was p...

too many unsuccessful projects. A hardheaded debate about what of unrealistic targets, unmet deadlines, administrative failures and new agencies and other initiatives. There have been two decades able to fund, launch and oversee complex legislation as well as makes recommendations rooted in the idea that the state will be capacity constraints and p...

When John Kgoana Nkadimeng travelled from Sekhukhuneland to the Witwatersrand in 1944 he was one of thousands of migrants seeking work in town. But his encounters with racial injustice and contact with activists drew him down a very different path, dedicated to the struggle. Mokgomana tells the story of Nkadimeng, from his origins in the rural vill...

South Eastern Bantu-speaking (SEB) groups constitute more than 80% of the population in South Africa. Despite clear linguistic and geographic diversity, the genetic differences between these groups have not been systematically investigated. Based on genome-wide data of over 5000 individuals, representing eight major SEB groups, we provide strong ev...

This article examines the way in which disputes about the ranking of chiefdoms and succession to high chiefly office have been handled in the democratic era. It focuses particularly on the extent to which these processes have been in alignment with South Africa’s democratic Constitution. It discusses the prevalence of disputes about succession and...

South Eastern Bantu-speaking (SEB) groups constitute more than 80% of the population in South Africa. Despite clear linguistic and geographic diversity, the genetic differences between these groups have not been systematically investigated. Based on genome-wide data of over 5000 individuals, representing eight major SEB groups, we provide strong ev...

research report written for DLA Tenure Reform Group 1997

This article, largely on the basis of in-depth research in archives in Lisbon, provides an account of the trading systems linking Delagoa Bay to its southern hinterland. Within this framework we argue that the role of the slave trade has been previously underestimated. There is evidence that the booming demand for slaves in Brazil and on the Mascar...

South Eastern Bantu-speaking (SEB) groups constitute more than 80% of the population in South Africa. Despite clear linguistic and geographic diversity, the genetic differences between these groups have not been systematically investigated. Based on genome-wide data of over 5000 individuals, representing eight major SEB groups, we provide strong ev...

Land reform through restitution and redistribution policies has made some progress, with over 9% of commercial farmland (over 8-million hectares) redistributed through government schemes, say the writers. Picture: DAILY DISPATCH Image: Ben Cousins has recently argued in Business Day for a rapid and radical land reform in SA with the purchase or exp...

It is often suggested that the work of E. P. Thomson played a pivotal role in shaping South African historical writing and provided the foundations for a new school of social history. Thompson's writings – often refracted through many other texts – were one influence amongst many. This article, drawing on my own experiences of key moments of indivi...

The Natives Land Act of 1913 was a key example of the segregationist and racist legislation that fixed discriminatory foundations in South African law. We argue in this article that the Act did not take land away from African people directly, and that in the short term its impact was limited. Its most immediate effect was to undermine black tenants...

In the transgenerational and transcontinental history of the Winter family, conflict and divisions played a major part. J.P.D. Winter, a son of nineteenth-century missionary parents, married twice to establish himself in the Limpopo and Mpumalanga regions. In his first marriage, wealth and regional connection constituted the resources he converted...

The Bokoni settlement in Mpumalanga, South Africa is the largest known terraced site in Africa. The settlement consisted of intensively farmed terraced fields spanning 150 kilometres along the eastern escarpment. It flourished from around 1500 until the 1820s, after which it all but disappeared. This article first sets out to interpret the growing...

In 1881 the Pedi king Sekhukhune and the German missionary Johannes August Winter were drawn into a close relationship which included a wide-ranging discussion of their beliefs and values. It also involved their families. Indeed, the most startling outcome of their interactions was the planned betrothal of Sekhukhune to the missionary's infant daug...

This article demonstrates that the interdisciplinary research that has been conducted on Bokoni under the auspices of the 500 Year Initiative has had significant outcomes. We have created a more periodised account of the development of the settlements. Narrow and ethnically determined conceptions of identity have been subjected to critique and the...

Stonewalls connect over 10,000 square kilometres of the Mpumalanga highveld into a complex web of homesteads, towns, terraces and roads, that stretches for 150 kilometres in an almost continuous belt. They suggest a substantial population, and speak to the investment of vast amounts of labour in infrastructural development along with extraordinary...

This article focuses on the life of the missionary J.A. Winter who is best known for his role in the formation of the Lutheran Bapedi Church in 1890. It explores the vital part he played in a range of other important historical processes, including the struggles over the political and economic controls imposed on Pedi society after colonial conques...

The central argument of this article is that the role of captives in African society has been neglected despite there being sufficient evidence to explore the issue in some depth. This omission has limited our understanding of important dimensions of the historical experiences of women and children, and of vital power dynamics in decisive phases of...

This paper attempts to analyse historically why stigma and denial around HIV/AIDS is so powerful in South Africa, so powerful that ailing family members can be shunned and evicted. For many observers, the answer lies simply in its being a venereal disease, in its connotation with promiscuity and unregulated sexuality. We argue that this is not an a...

The HIV/AIDS pandemic in Southern Africa has focused attention on how children and youth learn about sex. This research has revealed an alarming failure of communication between parents and children on sexual issues. Parents find it very difficult to broach the issue of sex with their children who as a result have little option but to seek informat...

In the late 1999 concern over the inadequacies of social research prompted a group of academics and nongovernmental organization (NGO)-based researchers and activists to plan a conference. It was held at the University of the Witwatersrand in April 2001 entitled "Aids in Context: Explaining the Social Cultural and Historical Roots of the Epidemic i...

This article argues that the published and unpublished records of the Berlin Missionary Society in the Transvaal in the nineteenth century are sufficiently rich to allow for at least a partial reconstruction of perceptions and practices with regard to witchcraft in African societies. It also uses the perspective provided by this material to re-inte...

This paper examines the ways in which the formulation and implementation of strategies of soil conservation in South Africa during the period 1930–1970 were powerfully influenced by racist attitudes and by the differential political and economic position of whites and blacks within the systems of segregation and apartheid. The paper traces and comp...

Poverty and malnutrition are major problems in South Africa, especially among black people in rural areas. The poorest are heavily dependent on social pensions, remittances, low wages, piece jobs and, to a very small extent, household agriculture. Industrial safety nets are weak and do not necessarily help the vulnerable to overcome their poverty....

Suitable work activities have been identified for short-term employment creation programmes in the South African context. Community participation in the planning of employment creation programmes is essential, albeit fraught with difficulties. Simple or well-established organisational structures requiring little new training and capacity-building a...

Sebatakgomo — a migrant worker-based movement – was founded in 1954 and went on to play a central role in the Sekhukhuneland Revolt of 1958. It was launched from within the ANC, and a number of its leaders were also members of the Communist Party. This article explores the roles played by these wider political movements in the formation of Sebatakg...

This article argues that Sebatakgomo — a migrant worker based political organization formed from within the ANC in 1954 — played a crucial role in the events that culminated in the Sekhukhuneland Revolt of 1958. It places the emergence of the movement in the context of changing patterns of migrant employment and association from the 1930s. And it t...

Introduction Operation Hunger is a South African non-governmental organisation concerned with the problems of chronic and acute malnutrition and poverty. Participatory methodologies are used at the village level to help understand the underlying causes of malnutrition and poverty. They are also used to develop plans to overcome the identified devel...