Unisa Press
A Matriarchal Ecology
Indigenous Women’s Environmental Activism in Venda, South Africa
| Author: | Kimberly B Ross |
|---|---|
| Published: | 2025-07-01 00:00:00.0 |
| ISBN: | 978-1-77615-224-7 |
| Number of pages: | 169 |
| This book is also available in electronic format | |
|---|---|
| ISBN: | 978-1-77615-225-4 |
About the book
In this ground-breaking book based on original research, Author Kimberly Ross explores the environmentalism and biocultural diversity preservation efforts of the Dzomo La Mupo. This is a community-based organisation headed by indigenous activist, Vho-Mphatheleni Makaulule in the former apartheid homeland of Venda, South Africa.
Ross undertook three trips to South Africa, did an additional six months of fieldwork, ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and archival research, to delve into the heart of the historical and contemporary land legislation and gender politics that have contributed to the erosion of biocultural diversity in Venda’s Vhembe District Municipality. She analyses how political and corporate actors such as coal companies, appropriate colonial and apartheid frameworks and gender ideologies - which in turn disenfranchise indigenous Vhongwaniwapo women amidst new power relations in the region.
Specifically examining the role of the paternal aunt or the makhadzi, who are the women who comprise the members of Dzomo La Mupo, Ross chronicles how women activists define their agency by reinvigorating their ancestral roles to preserve the sanctity of the environment in South Africa’s post-apartheid era.
While reclaiming their eco-cultural roles in the community, these indigenous women are working to protect sacred natural sites and forests, water, indigenous agriculture, and food security and sovereignty. Ross takes readers on a journey shaped by the vision of activist, Vho-Mphatheleni Makaulule to protect culture and the environment, and instill earth jurisprudence.
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