Andries Du Toit

Affiliate Researcher

Andries du Toit is a Professor at the School of Government (SOG) at the University of the Western Cape, where he has spent over 13 years leading the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS). With a PhD from the University of Essex, Andries is deeply committed to understanding how power and inequality shape South Africa’s rural and farming communities. His research focuses on issues like landlessness, poverty, and the political and social effects of inequality in South Africa’s agriculture sector.

Andries has published widely on the restructuring of farming in South Africa and the persistent issues of poverty at the margins of society. His current work explores how South Africa’s past of colonialism and apartheid still influences the country today, particularly in terms of social justice and the idea of belonging. He also looks at how the country’s political and social systems can heal and move forward after years of racial and colonial violence.

Through his research and teaching, Andries contributes to the New South Institute’s mission of addressing inequality and promoting social justice. His work helps to deepen understanding of the challenges faced by post-colonial countries and provides insights into how they can build more equitable societies.

Publications

• Du Toit, Andries. (2024). A Blow to the Head – a History of Violence. Cape Town: Handmade Books
• Du Toit, Andries. (2023). ‘The Mountain in the Sea: Place, Wilderness and History on the Sunset Side of Hoerikwaggo’. Multilingual Margins: A journal of multilingualism from the periphery 10(1).
• Du Toit, Andries. (2019). ‘The Vampire Squid: Value, Crisis and the Power of Finance’. Development and Change 50(4):1109–20.
• Du Toit, Andries. (2019). ‘Agriculture, Value Chains and the Rural Non-Farm Economy in Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe’. Pp. 185–201 in Value Chains in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges of Integration into the Global Economy, Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development, edited by S. Scholvin, A. Black, J. R. Diez, and I. Turok. Springer International Publishing.
• Du Toit, Andries. (2018). ‘Without the Blanket of the Land: Agrarian Change and Biopolitics in Post–Apartheid South Africa’. The Journal of Peasant Studies 45(5–6):1086–1107.
• Du Toit, Andries. (2017). ‘Post-Agrarian Biopolitics’. Development and Change 48 (6)