Grappling with Refusal, Self-representation, and Visual Sovereignty at the Knoflokskraal Khoisan Reclaim

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorEllis, William
dc.contributor.authorVerbuyst, Rafael
dc.date.accessioned2025-10-29T11:30:58Z
dc.date.available2025-10-29T11:30:58Z
dc.date.issued2025
dc.description.abstractIn 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.
dc.identifier.citationVerbuyst, R. and Ellis, W., 2025. Grappling with Refusal, Self-representation, and Visual Sovereignty at the Knoflokskraal Khoisan “Reclaim”. Critical Arts, pp.1-16.
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2024.2434593
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10566/21324
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherRoutledge
dc.subjectVisual sovereignty
dc.subjectKnoflokskraal
dc.subjectrefusal
dc.subjectagency
dc.subjectindigeneity
dc.titleGrappling with Refusal, Self-representation, and Visual Sovereignty at the Knoflokskraal Khoisan Reclaim
dc.typeArticle

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
ellis_grappling_with_refusal_self_representation_2025.pdf
Size:
592.9 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Research Articles (Anthropology and Sociology)