Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

46
recognition and inclusion could be attained.
But there was, from the beginning, also
an evident commitment to attain inclusion
in a manner that altered the nature of
the system in various respects. One was
with regard to how decisions are made.
Reflecting on that moment, S’bu Zikode, a
participant in the early discussions, recalls:
“There was a realization, at the onset, that
it was a mistake to give away our power.”
There was a clear resolve that the right of
people to fully participate in all decisionmaking
relating to themselves and their
communities, a right understood to have
been expropriated by colonialism, needed
to be restored.
The implication of this is that there was a
commitment to dispersing power and to
changing the nature of the relationship
between the state and society. Another
commitment that was present at the outset
was a rejection of the commodification of
land. Again this was often framed in terms
of restoration.
AN AUTONOMOUS POLITICS
The political form of the movement was
constituted around elected structures in each
settlement affiliated to an elected central
structure. Meetings were required to be
open to all and held in the settlements at set
times. They took the form of inclusive and
slow deliberative processes that continued
until consensus was attained. It was a politics
consistently constituted around an open and
face-to-face democracy. The role of elected
leaders was understood to be to facilitate
this kind of decision-making and to adhere
to it. There were also frequent assemblies,
often attended by hundreds of people, and
the smaller meetings would refer important
decisions to these assemblies.
The slow politics that results from the need
to attain consensus before acting sometimes
meant that political opportunities were
missed. But because people – wary of the
frequently crass instrumentalization of
impoverished people by parties, the state
and later NGOs too – knew that they fully
owned this movement, popular support was
sustained.
The early decision to refuse any
participation in party politics or elections
was vital to sustaining unity, and deflecting
constant allegations of external conspiracy.
For some people it was purely a tactical
measure while for others it was a point of
principle. But a clear distinction was drawn
between “party politics” and “people’s
politics”. For Zikode, “we realized that to
be in a political party was to be confined,
as in a coffin.” Despite extraordinary
inducements and pressures the movement
SHEEP IN THE ROAD : NUMBER ELEVEN