The 54th national conference of the African National Congress, the ruling party in South Africa, resolved amongst other things to review the country’s constitution such that it enables the government to implement land expropriation without compensation. This resolution has faced an array of contestations, ranging from the question of the original owners of the land to that of ownership in relation to title deeds. However, the contestations seem to be premised on an understanding of identity as fixed and of land as a commodity. Whilst there is significant literature on the different understanding of identity and land from an African perspective, there is very little consideration of this worldview in the debates on land. It would seem that African societies are understood as a “field from which to mine raw data,” as Nhemachena has stated, but not as having fully developed knowledge systems that can inform the debates and discourses on land. The expression singabantu bendawo [we are people of this place], which was commonly used by community members of Esihlengeni in KwaZulu-Natal province, reveals an understanding of identity as fluid and of land as a place of belonging.

南非的执政党非洲国民代表大会第54届全国会议决定，除其他事项外，还应审查该国的宪法，以使该国政府能够无偿实施土地征用。这项决议面临着一系列争执，从土地的原始所有者问题到所有权契据的所有权问题。但是，竞争似乎是以对固定身份和土地作为商品的理解为前提的。尽管从非洲的角度来看，有很多关于身份和土地的不同理解的文献，但在土地辩论中却很少考虑这种世界观。正如Nhemachena所说，非洲社会似乎被理解为“挖掘原始数据的领域”，但是还不具备能够为陆地辩论和话语提供参考的完善的知识体系。表达方式夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省Esihlengeni社区成员普遍使用的singabantu bentawo（我们是这个地方的人）揭示了对身份认同的理解，即对作为流动的身份和作为归属地的土地的理解。