Articulations of Aboriginal Title, Indigenous Rights, and Living Customary Law in South Africa

Abstract

Contemporary postcolonial scholarship often argues that common law Aboriginal title and the rights of indigenous peoples are regulated by colonial legal regimes that determine the limits of recognition and subjects indigenous peoples to oppressive forms of government. In this article, I challenge this view by focusing on the application of Aboriginal title in the South African land restitution program. I use theories of articulation and assemblage to illustrate how, in conditions of neoliberalism, Aboriginal title, indigenous rights, and living customary law are co-constituted through litigation and social activism involving both self-identified indigenous peoples and rural peoples who live by customary law. By tracking how Aboriginal title is brought into the efforts of indigenous and rural peoples to assert natural resource rights, we begin to see that this area of international common law is used much more creatively and expansively than is often acknowledged.