Edited to reflect updated information on 29/08/2025
After being shortlisted for the National Arts and Culture Awards in the Outstanding Book, Non-Fiction category, the Wits Centre for Journalism is proud to report that PhD candidate Lebogang Seale’s book ‘One Hundred Years of Dispossession’ has been announced as the winner. The book covers the evocative story of how his Limpopo community lost their land, and have fought – and are still fighting – to regain it.
One Hundred Years of Dispossession: My Family’s Quest to Regain their Land grew out of his master’s in journalism research report in which he began an investigation of what happened to his community, once rich in land and produce, tracing the impact of the loss through three generations. Supervised by Kevin Davie and Prof Lesley Cowling, Seale’s masters project was produced in the longform narrative format.
“Lebogang’s commitment to telling his community’s story through his research is something we encourage our students to do,” says WCJ Director Dr Dinesh Balliah. “The resulting texts have a profound restorative impact on communities which often do not see themselves or their lives in the mainstream media.
“The WCJ is proud to have played a small role in guiding and shaping Lebogang’s book.”
Published by Jacana, the book was also featured on the non-fiction longlists of the Sunday Times Literary Award and the CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa.
“When I set out to write this book, I was only motivated by the desire to share my family’s plight with the broader public, hoping that our land claim case would be resolved,” says Seale. “Not once did I ever imagine that travelling long distances tracing elders in our family and hearing their pain of land dispossession and living in false hope about land restitution, as well as risking my life interviewing the farmers who now occupy our land, would turn into some form of recognition.
“I express my sincere gratitude to the Wits Centre for Journalism for guiding me with the structuring and shaping of the book, I couldn’t have achieved this without their support. I also dedicate this recognition to my family and its wider community.”
Seale’s current PhD research is titled “The Impact of Media Ownership on News Production: The Case of The Star, One of South Africa’s Preeminent Newspapers, Since 2013.”