Three institutions, the Centre for Law and Society at the University of Cape Town, the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at the University of Stellenbosch and the Institute for Policy, Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape hosted a three day conference Land Divided: Land and South African Society in 2013, in Comparative Perspective from the 24th – 27th March, 2013 at the University of Cape Town. The conference was supported by the Ford Foundation, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Atlantic Philanthropies.

The conference was held to mark the centenary of the 1913 Natives Land Act. The social, economic and ecological consequences of this legislation remain deeply incised in South African society and the landscape. The event provided a major opportunity for researchers in academia, civil society and the state to reflect on the continued significance of the ‘land question’ in South African society and to provide fresh analysis and new ways of thinking to untangle the complex web of historical and contemporary factors shaping relationships to land at the start of the twenty first century.

The conference facilitated the confluence of different streams of academic and social research while enabling contemporary rural voices to be heard. The conference also saw the launch of the Umhlaba 1913-2013 photographic exhibition at the Iziko National Gallery. The exhibition was co-curated by David Goldblatt, Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa, Pam Warne and Paul Weinberg and and provided powerful insights into the multiple meanings of land in South Africa, past and present. A second photographic exhibition was hosted at the District Six Homecoming Centre, featuring the work of Sophia Klaase, a young photographer from Paulshoek in Namaqualand.