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Under the colonial and apartheid regime thousands of people in South Africa had their property and land taken from them. This book investigates the attempts by the post-apartheid government to provide redress for this, demonstrating that the restitution must go beyond financial compensation to address the social impact of confiscation of land.
About the author
Bernadette Atuahene is a Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, and a faculty fellow at the American Bar Foundation. She is a graduate of Yale Law School and Harvards Kennedy School of Government. She has done extensive research, writing, speaking, and consulting on land issues. We Want Whats Ours is part of a larger body of work that includes a short documentary film called Sifuna Okwethu, which is about one South African familys fight to regain their land stolen by the apartheid authorities; and a curriculum to accompany the film that encourages students to explore how land injustice in South Africa relates to the many injustices they may have witnessed in their own communities. For more information, go to the book website: wewantwhatsours.com
Summary
Under the colonial and apartheid regime thousands of people in South Africa had their property and land taken from them. This book investigates the attempts by the post-apartheid government to provide redress for this, demonstrating that the restitution must go beyond financial compensation to address the social impact of confiscation of land.
Additional text
This book is a sober and nuanced reflection on the dignitary harms that accompany displacement of a people from their place on earth. Atuahene favors remedies that acknowledge and respond to those harms while revealing the successes and failures of South Africas approach to this problem. Atuahene suggests ways to improve such responses not only in South Africa but in the many places around the world that have suffered dignity takings. A compelling and humane contribution to our understanding of what we owe each other.
