Been reading so many posts on the SA land saga. The issue: who are the rightful owners, those that have legal ownership papers or those that were settled on the lands originally.
Obviously, the chances are the original owners are also dead. ...No one, no matter what their diet or face cream, lives millions of years. So obviously, considering the original owner scenario, we must assume the land belongs to the ancestors of those long dead original owners. But this is where it gets complicated. How far back do we go?
Palaeontologists, archaeologists and scholars of ancient history seem to favour the theory that the birth of humanity happened right here in sunny South Africa, just down the road from where I live, in fact. Apparently, at some distant point back in time, we were all pretty dark - and probably a bit hairy. Then some brothers decided to head north to Europe. During the ice ages, the weather was pretty shite, so our early brothers faded to white. Fast forward a further couple of hundred thousand years, by the time we/they got back to Africa, no one recognised them/us. But just because they/we looked different, does that mean they/we should be disinherited?
But be that as it may, let’s look at the ancient timelines to try make some sense of this kaleidoscopic mess. Remains of our most distant ancestor were discovered in Taung, in the North Western Province. Professor Raymond Dart, the guy who discovered the fossils or the nowadays well known Taung Child named it Australopithecus Africanus, which apparently means “southern ape of Africa”. Two things about this, why Australo...whatsit and not Africano..whatsit, and why southern ape of Africa and not apeman of Southern Africa? But that for another day...
In any event, this Cradle of Humankind became renowned for its Australopithecus Africanus specimens, which apparently lived between 3-million and 2-million years ago. Which makes the Cradle hypothesis a little dicey because first fossils of ancient weapons and tools were found in Ethiopia, dated to 3.3 million years ago. In any event, the earliest migrations and expansions of archaic and modern humans across continents began about 2 million years ago with the out of Africa migration of Homo Erectus.
So bottom line, weird ape-men were parading all over the place for about two million years. But if we were looking that far back, the question would become significantly more complex because we might need to begin considering the primate agenda, so moving on... and about two million years or so, according to ancient-Earth scholars, man starts dabbling with fire. In Africa evidence was found of home cooking in North West Africa from about 400 000 years ago, and Moroccan cuisine took on a whole new meaning.
Another 100 000 years pass and the remains of eight individuals considered as anatomically modern human dated 300,000 years old, making them the oldest known remains categorized as "modern", are also found in Morocco. Could they possibly have been on holiday from the South? A long shot, but who knows. Just as a matter of interest, all these early guys were naturalists. Clothing only arrived on the scene around 170 000 years ago.
But back to the subject, The Khoisan were apparently the first tribe of Africa (Khoisanid descendants of Khoi and San - a common ancestor), expanding to Southern Africa before 150 000 years ago, possibly as early as before 260 000 years ago, so that by the beginning of the MIS 5 "megadrought" 130 000 years ago, there were two ancestral population clusters in Africa; bearers of mt-DNA haplogroup L0 in southern Africa - ancestors of the Khoi-San - and bearers of haplogroup L1-6 in central/eastern Africa, ancestors of everyone else.
Due to their early expansion and separation, the populations ancestral to the Khoisan have been estimated as having represented the "largest human population" during the majority of the anatomically ‘modern’ human timeline, from their early separation before 150 000 years ago, until the recent peopling of Eurasia some 70 000 years ago. The Khoisan were much more widespread than today, their modern habitat resulting from their decimation in the course of the Bantu expansion. They were dispersed throughout much of Southern and Southeastern Africa, hundreds of thousands of years before any other tribes. So does that mean all the land belongs to them? Man, are the survivors going to have big farms - there’s not that many left who survived the brutality of all comers, since then.
So then time goes by and goes by and goes by, until the large Bantu migrations from central Africa and a few hundred years later the dreaded colonists arrived from Europe. I wonder if going by land or going by sea bears any significance?
But reverting again to the story, particularly the Cradle of Humankind theory, at times we hear we are all from one common ancestor, brothers through time, but other times, some of us are considered foreigners.
So then, who owns the land? It’s pretty clear that history cannot provide a legitimate yardstick, but just as clear, occupation and annexation is not playing cricket. A very complicated issue. But are we not maybe looking at things wrong. No one has an inalienable right to property. The best solution would probably be the African way where the land is administered by the king and all subjects have rights to the land and what their sweat can generate. But kings too are only human, so can be corrupted and favour some before others.
This is exactly the same problem today with nationalisation. Those in power will have the reigns to do what they please. So how do we address? By making sure we spread the love around. Some people are doctors, some farmers. Everyone has a role to play in society. And the toil of every single man or woman is as important as that of another. If we hold each other to ransom by virtue of our skills, the system begins to crumble. Let everyone benefit from the fruits of the land and our God-given gifts and the squabbles to survive will disappear.
But who should decide? The unfortunate reality: those of power and influence. Their decisions will prevail. I am glad not my responsibility - I do not know the answer but can see all sides’ points of view. Hopefully, men wiser than I will work it out.