LAND RIGHTS, LANDLESSNESS AND POLITICAL UNREST IN THE UNITED MONARCHY OF ISRAEL: READING 1 SAMUEL 22:1-8 FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF STRUGGLE FOR LAND OWNERSHIP IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

The present article proposes a reading of 1 Samuel 22:1-8 from the perspective of struggle for land ownership in Southern Africa. This approach allows the article to argue that the same question of access to or exclusion from land, which is currently claiming an important share in the South African political space, was a great contributor to the conflict that opposed King Saul to his army commander David. The conflict occurred at a time when budding political centralization in the nascent monarchical regime was bringing a shift in land tenure. The two antagonists may have clashed over their high political ambitions; their respective supporters were driven, at least partly, either by the hope of acquiring land or by the bitterness over being deprived of it