Briefing Paper

Intricacies of Land Restitution in Africa The Case of the Mkambati Community, South Africa

“This study illustrates the benefit of distinguishing between bonding and bridging social capital. It also shows that collective action reinforces bonding social capital, but that to attain large-scale
goals commonly requires both bonding and bridging social capital. The community of Mkambati used social capital for nearly a hundred years to mobilise collective action, particularly in land restitution. Engaging
in collective action in their attempts to regain their land helped reinforce social capital within this community. Secondly, this study demonstrates that bridging social capital, and more specifically the inability to establish it with other role players,
played an important role in retarding progress of the community towards land restitution.”