Michela Marcatelli (author) - Naturalizing Inequality: Water, Race, and Biopolitics in South Africa (Critical Green Engagements: Investigating the Green Economy and its Alternatives)

Critical Green Engagements

Investigating the Green Economy and Its Alternatives

Jim Igoe, Melissa Checker, Molly Doane, Tracey Heatherington, Jose Martinez-Reyes, and Mary Mostafanezhad

Series Editors

Michela Marcatelli

The University of Arizona Press

www.uapress.arizona.edu

2021 by The Arizona Board of Regents

All rights reserved. Published 2021

ISBN-13: 978-0-8165-3950-5 (hardcover)

ISBN-13: 978-0-8165-4429-5 (ebook)

Cover design by Leigh McDonald

Cover photograph by Michela Marcatelli

Typeset by Sara Thaxton in 10/14 Warnock Pro (text) and Trade Gothic Next LT Pro (display)

Parts of chapters 1 and 4 were previously published as The Land-Water Nexus: A Critical Perspective from South Africa by Michela Marcatelli, in Review of African Political Economy45, no. 157 (2018): 393407, copyright ROAPE Publications Ltd., reprinted by permission of Taylor & Francis Ltd., http://www.tandfonline.com , on behalf of ROAPE Publications Ltd. Parts of chapter 5 were previously published as Suspended Redistribution: Green Economy and Water Inequality in the Waterberg, South Africa by Michela Marcatelli, in Third World Quarterly36, no. 12 (2015): 224458, copyright Southseries Inc., http://www.thirdworldquarterly.com , reprinted by permission of Taylor & Francis Ltd., http://www.tandfonline.com , on behalf of Southseries Inc., http://www.thirdworldquarterly.com . Parts of chapter 6 were first published as Medupi Power Station and the Water-Energy Nexus in South Africa by Michela Marcatelli, in Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa, no. 102 (2020): 126. Reproduced with permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Marcatelli, Michela, 1982 author.

Title: Naturalizing inequality : water, race, and biopolitics in South Africa / Michela Marcatelli.

Other titles: Critical green engagements.

Description: Tucson : University of Arizona Press, 2021. | Series: Critical green engagements: investigating the green economy and its alternatives | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021012136 | ISBN 9780816539505 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Race discriminationSouth Africa. | Right to waterPolitical aspectsSouth Africa. | BlacksSouth AfricaSocial conditions. | Water consumptionSociological aspects. | South AfricaRace relations.

Classification: LCC DT1756 .M375 2021 | DDC 305.800968dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021012136

Printed in the United States of America

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

Researching and writing this book has been at once a solitary experience and one full of encounters. If living on a farm in the bush for one year taught me a great deal about being alone, it is also true that completing this journey on my own would have simply been impossible. My biggest gratitude goes to all the people in the Waterberg, and South Africa more broadly, who generously participated in this project by sharing their knowledge, experience, and stories with me. I still clearly remember my very first visit to Vaalwater, when I sort of set up shop in the old Bush Stop Caf and spent hours observing people passing by, while trying to strike a conversation with as many as I could. A special thank-you goes to my research assistant Joshua Mabetwa, who helped me know the township of Leseding better. I would also like to thank the staff of the National Archives in Pretoria, where I conducted research on the history of the Waterberg, for their assistance.

This book started as a doctoral dissertation at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Hague.