Paper short abstract:

We explore the dynamics of institutionalized traditional authorities in the Lubombo TFCA. As colonial and liberation forces previously mobilised traditional leaders and healers, today’s criminals also create alliances with local community structures and traditional authorities.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the interrelations between mobility and the dynamics of institutionalized traditional authorities in the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation area, on the borders of South Africa, eSwatini (Swaziland) and Mozambique. Patrick Harries (1983) has described the long durée evolution of this interstitial zone, which was once a trade route lying between powerful Swazi and Zulu kingdoms, and then in the colonial era a frontier between contesting Afrikaner, Anglophone and Portuguese settler colonialisms. Likewise, Stephen Ellis (1994) wrote about how the insurgencies and counterinsurgencies of the liberation war against apartheid -- fuelled by the traffic of ivory, AK47s and stolen cars -- flowed through this trans-frontier region. Our paper focuses on the intensification of these flows of contraband in the post-apartheid/post-civil war era. The establishment of the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation area in 2002, and Spatial Development Initiative prior to that, have been frustrated largely as a result of perpetual instability associated with interstitial zones that make it attractive to criminals. Organised criminality thrives amidst inconsistencies and conflict in governance such as in traditional or customary vs constitutional governance, institutional incompetence and corruption. In particular, we focus on the role of traditional leaders (amakhosi) and traditional healers (izangoma) in the illicit transfrontier trade. For just as with both colonial and liberation forces, today’s criminals are also reliant on alliances with local community structures and traditional authorities. (Clive Poultney & Tim Gibbs)