Forests and the Power of Marginalised People in Southern Africa: Politics of Chronic Liminality

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Dr Frank Matose

Forests and the Power of Marginalised People in Southern Africa

Politics of Chronic Liminality

Dr Frank Matose

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

James Currey
18 November 2025

Forests, rainforests; Management of land & natural resources; Conservation of wildlife & habitats; Social impact of environmental issues

Series: Future Rural Africa

Decades after independence and the end of apartheid, why have forest communities in Zimbabwe and South Africa not been able to recover the land and resource rights they lost under colonialism?

This book explores the politics of conservation in southern Africa through the lens of chronic liminality, a 'state of in-betweenness' or 'waiting', to explain the status quo in local people-state forest relationships and why progress has been so slow. Using the Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve, the Gwayi Forest and Mafungabusi Forest as cases studies, it examines the consequences on people living in and around protected areas of neoliberal approaches to conservation and of the legacy of colonial property relations.

The book asks why local communities have not engaged in collective or rebellious action against the government and how they have instead found themselves in a liminal position, caught between waiting for conditions to change and advancing their rights through collective action. It also asks why states have likewise pursued a politics of liminality and continue to prevaricate about whether to restore local rights or maintain the status quo around forest reserves. Overall, the book advances scholarship around conservation in Africa and other postcolonial regions by providing a different perspective on the continued marginalisation of local people and arguing for a need to rethink forest ownership and management.

Published in association with the Collaborative Research Centre FUTURE RURAL AFRICA, funded by the German Research Council (DFG).

By: Dr Frank Matose
Imprint: James Currey
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781847014313
ISBN 10: 1847014313
Series: Future Rural Africa
Pages: 184
Publication Date: 18 November 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

FRANK MATOSE is an environmental sociologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Cape Town, South Africa and co-editor of The Violence of Conservation in Africa (2022) and Reclaiming African Environmentalism: Ecological Struggles for Wellbeing and Habitability (2025). His research focuses on the political ecology of people, rights and resources in Africa. He is part of the Rights, Resources Initiative Fellows Group and an affiliate editor of the journal World Development.