Research Articles (Anthropology and Sociology)

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Browsing by Author "Ellis, William"

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    Grappling with Refusal, Self-representation, and Visual Sovereignty at the Knoflokskraal Khoisan Reclaim
    (Routledge, 2025) Ellis, William; Verbuyst, Rafael
    In 2020, a group Khoisan activists began occupying state-owned land near Grabouw, South Africa. Knoflokskraal has since attracted thousands of residents against the backdrop of widespread disappointment with land reform, heritage policies, and various forms of socio-economic marginalisation. The common labelling of Knoflokskraal as a “land invasion” overlooks the unique features of this self-styled “reclaim”, not least the agency that its residents embody in asserting a sense of indigenous visual sovereignty. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2022 among residents and community representatives, we highlight instances of interlocutors refusing to go along with mainstream research practices and conforming to widely held expectations surrounding Khoisan representation, but instead imprinting their presence on the landscape in unique ways. Knoflokskraal offers a rare glimpse into self-representation through land reform beyond the purview of the government. Read through the lens of refusal, this case study also prompts researchers to grapple with broader issues relating to research practices, indigenous agency, and visual sovereignty.
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    Swearing at plants: A flash ethnography from Namaqualand
    (Jos� Frantz, 2021) Ellis, William
    In November 2018 we are at Willem�s veepos (stockpost) halfway between Paulshoek and Leliefontein in the Kamiesberg mountains. It is early summer and the scarlet red milkweed locusts (Phymateus morbilossus) have begun to feast on the remaining green vegetation. The melkbos (Asclepias fruticosa) covers the field where we are conducting our interview. This plant is one of the favourite foods of the locusts and the milkweed�s poisonous chemicals help the locust synthesise a noxious liquid that it shoots out at possible attackers. The glands from which this fluid issues are in the rear of the animals and locals call it Jan-pister (Jan the pisser).