Collective Rural Identity in Steinkopf, a Communal Coloured Reserve, c.1926-1996. p.489 - 503.

Steinkopf, a former coloured reserve locaed in Namaqualand, Northern Cape Province South Africa, provides an opportunity to explore the resiliency of collective identity across twenthieth-century industrial capitalism and the various externally imposed borders, classifications and politicies designed to fracture that identity. Ethnographic data reinforce my contention that the notion or local citizenship manifested through communal land tenure strengthened Steinkopf's capacity to problematise ethno-racial classifications through segregation and apartheid. While those who lived through these eras, and who are now elderly, discursively concede a degree of individual and collective hybridity, this seeming fragmentation does not negate a strong collective consciousness, enabling them to mobilise and protect local interests.