squatter
Under Squatter ( Engl. Squatter , squatter ', of squat , squat') refers to people in English usage, which settle without legal title to undeveloped land ( land occupation ), or those with residence rights in exchange for the provision of labor services. More recently, squatters have also been referred to as squatters or refer to themselves as such. There are other interpretations of squatting in some countries, such as Australia , South Africa and developing countries . The earliest known movement of this type are the Diggers .
Squatter in the US
In the United States of America , a squatter is a settler who settles without legal title on vacant and unused government land. From the 17th century onwards, this individual land grab promoted rapid settlement, especially in the western regions. The branches established by the pioneers prepared the later planned colonization . It was therefore in the general interest to legally protect the squatters' acquis. The regulations in the individual states were different. In Massachusetts, for example, B. a law since 1808, according to which the property right to a property could be acquired through forty years of use. In 1839 Texas, which was not yet part of the Union at the time, gave the settlers security through a homestead law that offered protection from seizure. Almost all states later followed suit.
At that time, the Squatters received support from, for example, Horace Greeley , the editor of the reputable New York Tribune . From it comes the call: "Go West, young man!" The distribution of land to destitute farmers was also the main concern of the Party of Free Soil men , the Free Soil Party , which later in the Republican Party came up.
At Union level there were also considerations to give the squatters easy access to property. 1862 which entered Homestead Act (Homestead Act) for the entire United States into force. By paying the symbolic price of $ 1.25 per acre , any citizen over the age of 21 could acquire a legal title to the property they cultivated, with the area limited to 160 acres (0.6 km²) = $ 200 and no public interest was allowed to oppose. If the settler was unable to pay, the property was transferred free of charge after five years of use.
This generous regulation was lifted after the end of the settlement policy.
Squatter in Australia
In Australia , squatters are the ranchers who lease large areas of land from the government.
Squatter in South Africa
In South Africa , squatter camps are simple hut districts that are predominantly inhabited by the black population. Squatter is the person who lives in a squatter camp . Settlements of this type still exist in South Africa. A well-known historical example is the development of the district Orlando in Soweto through the land occupation of Squattersiedlern in the 1940s. Depending on how it is used, the word squatter can form an ideologically charged term. In this regard, it refers to people who live in a territory for which they do not pay a usage fee or for which they have no other permission.
Squatter in developing countries
Squatter camps in developing countries are often set up illegally or without a secure legal title. The consequences are mostly neglect by the state, a lack of infrastructure, hygienic and health problems and the risk of fire. Squatter settlements are often located on unsuitable terrain, where they are threatened by landslides and floods.
Literary reception
The life of the squatters is described in detail and from the point of view of a staunch advocate of colonialism in the volume of memoirs Afrika - dark alluring world (1937) by the Danish writer Karen Blixen . The term refers to the Kenyan “natives” of the Kikuyu ethnic group living in the countryside with the consent of the large landowner , who cultivate small plots of land for their subsistence and in return have to work 180 working days per year on Blixen's coffee plantation. Whether the 12 shillings paid by the landlady for 30 days was calculated per person, per family, or per hut is not clear from Blixen's memoirs, but the author states that the squatters have to pay 12 shillings per hut to the state , which is particularly stressful for men with several women , whereby Blixen states that there were also rich squatters on her land. The squatters sometimes live according to their own legal norms, with their own civil jurisdiction, but are subject to a paternalistic and, in general, feudalistic supremacy of European settlers and colonial authorities. Culturally and religiously they are subject to westernization and are courted by Islamic and various Christian missionaries . When Blixen is forced to sell her coffee plantation to investors, all squatters are relocated to a nearby reserve.
See also
literature
- Tamara Venit Shelton: Squatter's Republic. University of California Press, Berkeley 2017, ISBN 978-0-520-28909-3 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig and Vienna 1895, Vol. 8, p. 552
- ↑ An Overview of Soweto . on www.soweto.co.za (English)
- ^ Gerry Maré: African Population Relocation in South Africa . SAIRR , Johannesburg 1980, p. 8 ISBN 0-86982-186-5