Environmental justice in South Africa

GEOGRAPHY, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND DEMOGRAPHY David A. McDonald, ed. Environmental Justice in South Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press/Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 2002. 319 pp. Notes. Bibliographical references. Index. 59. 95. Cloth. 26. 95. Paper. With contributions from academics and activists from a wide range of disciplines, this collection explores historical, theoretical, and practical engagements with South Africa's justice in the 1990s. As David A. McDonald writes in the introduction, At its core, justice is about incorporating issues into the broader intellectual and institutional framework of human rights and democratic accountability (3). Yet he also acknowledges that there is much that fragments the justice movement (4). Attempting to remedy this fragmentation, the collection considers the multiple meanings of the term environmental justice, the assumptions and negative repercussions of its past uses, and ways to reconceptualize the term in order to correct and avoid historic problems. essays critically examine the first decade of activism after the dismantling of apartheid, explicating some of the movement's victories and contemplating future courses of action. Mirroring the book's interest in encompassing both theory and practice, its organizational structure is helpfully divided into three parts: theory, practice, and narrative. first four chapters are dedicated to theoretical debates surrounding justice and offer important readings on South Africa's justice movement. second group of chapters focuses on practice, presenting case studies of struggles, such as the community of Clewer's efforts to hold a mining company accountable for solid waste management and water contamination, and the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance's attempt to prevent further expansion of a toxic waste site. Following each chapter are personal narratives of activism and destruction. pieces, powerfully written by Mpume Nyandu, serve as a constant reminder of the suffering that injustice often wreaks upon disenfranchised South Africans. Yet as McDonald stresses, Nyandu's vignettes also highlight the ability of many South African individuals and communities to challenge marginalization and demand a more just future. Of particular note in part 1 is Farieda Khan's essay, The Roots of Environmental Racism and the Rise of Environmental Justice in the 1990's, which explores the history of racism-from the first white settlements in the mid-seventeenth century to the present-and its links with current perceptions of the justice movement. …