Whose vision of development counts? South Africa’s Amadiba communities made maps of what matters

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South Africa's Mpondoland, on the east coast, is known for its red sand dunes and coastal forests. Here, the Amadiba people have lived sustainably as farmers, herders and fishers for centuries, since before European colonisation.

Xolobeni, about 250 kilometres south-west of the nearest city, Durban, is an Amadiba community in Mpondoland. The community has spent several years fighting against Shell and the oil and gas exploration company Impact Africa's plans to explore for offshore oil and gas on this part of the coastline.

South Africa's highest court handed the community a legal victory in August 2026. It ruled that the exploration had to stop as the communities had not been properly consulted about the impact of the mining.

The Amadiba communities formed the Amadiba Crisis Committee in 2007. This is a social movement formed to fight titanium mining on the ancestral lands. They're also still battling a coastal toll road that would cut through the villages.

As human and physical geographers, we wanted to find out whether the remote Amadiba communities could create their own maps to help defend their land against these unwanted developments.

Together with the Amadiba Crisis Committee, we set up a counter-mapping project named Maps Are Now Our Spears. A counter-mapping project is a form of activist map-making that's used to challenge powerful states or corporations and the way in which they justify land grabs for their own profit.

Each map documents how customary land use, local livelihoods and cultural heritage are interconnected and integral to a uniquely sustainable way of life.

To make the maps, 100 elders, adults and youth aged over 18 from six coastal villages came together to share stories about life on the land. They then decided together to document what was important to protect for future generations.

We also visited key places of exceptional natural beauty, places of historical, cultural and spiritual importance, and food production areas and grazing lands. At each site we used GPS trackers to record their exact location for the counter-maps.

The maps show a prosperous environment where many different local economic activities are happening. They also show how the Amadiba communities care for the ecosystem. This contradicts official planning documents like the 2025 Draft Wild Coast Coastal Development Plan which portray the area as a high poverty region whose people damage the environment, and who need jobs that only mining can bring.

This matters because, from Xolobeni to communities around the world, mining and major infrastructure projects are still sold as “development”. Promises of jobs and growth are used to justify the harm they cause.

How the community opposed one development

The state-owned South African National Roads Agency Limited is building a 410km four-lane highway with two mega and seven major bridges through the territory. This highway is planned to pass through “greenfield” areas where no previous roads existed. It cuts through villages, wetlands and farming areas.

An independent report found that construction had already caused noise, dust and cracked homes. Drinking water streams have become polluted. The completed highway will divide communities and restrict access to farmland and communal resources. Its 80-metre-wide road reserve will destroy ancestral land, wetlands and sensitive habitats.

The Amadiba Crisis Committee commissioned engineers to design an Alternative Inland Route. This road would be cheaper to build, shorter, topographically superior, and better integrated with the existing regional economy, all while bypassing sensitive coastal biodiversity areas and homes.

This alternative was sent to Parliament. It shows that the community are not “anti-development”. Instead, they want development that supports, rather than destroys, their way of life.

Mapping a thriving local economy

The maps highlight that the Amadiba communities use conservation-based practices that they've developed over generations. They make collective decisions over land use, including the mananagement of community-led ecotourism.

The people living there also have a collective system of food production. Looking after the soil, protecting biodiversity and preserving indigenous seeds achieves local food security.

Local households also practise small-scale agriculture, growing maize, amadumbe (taro) and sweet potatoes. Sales of sweet potato and amadumbe cultivation alone generate an estimated R60,000 (US$3,605) per household annually. The surplus is shared with neighbouring and more distant communities in times of crisis.

We also mapped an extensive system of wetlands in Xolobeni. They are a source of medical herbs and a habitat for unique bird and animal life. They also cleanse local streams, prevent erosion and irrigate widely eaten crops.

Overall, the maps showed a thriving land-based economy complemented by traditional crayfish diving (only done by women), and fishing in ocean and river waters.

Our mapping also revealed how the Amadiba have closely and collectively protected their historical and cultural heritage. These sites include an open-air exhibit of stone-age relics and the burial site of the first Mpondo king and queen.

Places of worship and cultural celebration, and spots of hiding and resistance, were mapped, along with the site of the 11 year Mpondo revolt between 1950 and 1961 against the apartheid government's “Betterment” programme (where rural people were forced into small areas and had their rights to farm and graze livestock restricted).

A huge array of natural beauty spots such as waterfalls, estuaries, natural pools and beaches appear for the first time on the maps. Homestays, lodges and camping grounds, all of which are essential to community led ecotourism, also appear.

Protecting the land is a way of life

Our project highlighted that the Amadiba people's resistance is rooted in a unique form of living customary law. Under this system, decision-making is communal, taking place at Komkhulu (or Great Place, the seat of customary power). This is where traditional councils of head and sub-headmen and women regulate land allocations and agricultural expansion.

To the Amadiba, land is not a disposable financial commodity, but a legacy to be preserved for future children. In the words of one elder:

The land is everything. If you sell it, the money goes. The land is forever.

A recent example of how local residents act as the environment's primary shield came when companies building the highway destroyed a colony of endangered Pondoland Pincushions. This is a highly endangered flowering plant found nowhere else. It's also vital in pollination in the area. It was the community that sounded the alarm, revealing who the true stewards are.

What needs to happen next

First, Sanral and the Department of Transport must halt their major highway and conduct an independent review to evaluate and ultimately accept the alternative route proposed by the Amadiba Crisis Committee.

Second, the Eastern Cape's Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism initially responded positively to the communities' maps. They need to formalise this by integrating the community maps into Wild Coast Spatial Plans. This has to be done through proper consultation with the community.

Finally, the South African government must respect the Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act, which says people can't be deprived of access to communal land they've always used unless they consent. They should honour the right of customary landholders to say “no” to extractivism (mining) and “yes” to sustainable local projects. True development cannot be imposed, it must grow from the soil up.

Hali Healy receives funding from the National Research Foundation

By Hali Healy, Research Fellow in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham