Amadiba communities map wetlands and sacred sites to resist mining
Human and physical geographers worked with the Amadiba Crisis Committee in Xolobeni, Mpondoland, on a counter-mapping project called Maps Are Now Our Spears. A total of 100 people from six coastal villages shared stories, and the team recorded key places with GPS trackers.
The researchers, who wrote about their own project, say the maps show a thriving local economy. They say this contradicts the 2025 Draft Wild Coast Coastal Development Plan, which portrays the area as poor. The maps record wetlands, sacred places, grazing land and food areas. The authors give an estimate of R60,000 a household each year from sweet potato and amadumbe sales. This is the researchers' own account, and it gives no results on how the maps were used.