Johannesburg - If there’s a book that could steer the country in the direction of catalysing constructive action on land reform, it may just be Bulelwa Mabasa’s “My Land Obsession”.
In this title Mabasa describes how she was born into a “matchbox” family home in Meadowlands, Soweto, at the height of apartheid.
She shares her colourful Christian upbringing, framed by the lived experiences of her grandparents who endured land dispossession in the form of the Group Areas Act, and the migrant labour system.
Bulelwa’s world was irrevocably altered when she encountered the disparities of life in a white-dominated school.
Her ongoing interest in land justice informed her choice to study law at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), with the land question becoming central to her postgraduate studies.
“My Land Obsession” sets out notable legal cases Mabasa has dealt with and lessons that may be drawn from them, as well as detailing her contributions to national policy on land reform and her views on how the land question must be inhabited and owned by all South Africans.
When she joined the practice of law in the early 2000s as an attorney, she felt a strong need to build on her curiosity around land reform, moving on to form and lead a practice centred on the topic at Werksmans Attorneys.
“It’s a case of my two passions converging: my one passion is for the law profession as an attorney and particularly having spent over 20 years in the attorney’s profession where I saw land reform as one issue that can either divide or unite the country; and my other passion is for writing. When I thought about the two, I felt the need to have land reform seen and perceived from a personal perspective,” she said.
While discussions around land have been political, what Mabasa does in “My Land Obsession” is bring the topic back to the self and relays her personal journey, her paternal grandfather’s life as a mineworker, and her maternal grandfather’s life as a migrant labourer.
Her urban and rural upbringing in her formative years is also incorporated into her writing.
“I was able to track and trace why I ended up becoming a lawyer who was so involved, and found land reform so important,” she said.
In her book, she tells the story that when she was five-years old living in Meadowlands in her grandmother’s house, there was a painting in most households of a little dark-skinned boy or girl with a teardrop, and theirs was of the little girl.
“I remember asking my father why the girl in the painting was crying and he said, “It is because she is of a generation of landless people.” I don’t know where he got that from, maybe it was his interpretation of the painting because her clothes in the painting were torn and she was crying.
“That seed was unconsciously embedded in my mind because I then grew up feeling that it was unfair for someone to have land taken away from them,” she said.
Mabasa said her book was a call to action on a national-level where she believes that each and every one of us can make a difference on land reform and can contribute beyond racial politics and the divided nature of our country.
“My Land Obsession” is published by Pan Macmillan and is available at all major bookstores.