(Fwd) HISTORIOGRAPHY SERIES: Steyn, South African Environmenta

[STEFANIE S. RIXECKER]

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The H-Environment Historiography Series continues with Phia Steyn's
assessment of South African environmental historiography. Dr. Steyn is a
member of the Department of History, University of the Orange Free State,
Bloemfontein, South Africa. She originally delivered this historiography at
a session at the 2000 meeting of the American Society for Environmental
History, Tacoma, Washington, which was entitled, "Across Continents: A
Rountable on the Practice of Environmental History Outside the United
States." It has been published in the _New Contree_, Volume 46, November
1999, to whom we are grateful for permission to publish online.

The H-Environment Historiography Series is archived on-line at
<http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~environ/historiography/>.

--------------------------------------------

"THE GREENING OF OUR PAST? AN ASSESSMENT OF SOUTH AFRICAN ENVIRONMENTAL
HISTORIOGRAPHY"
PHIA STEYN1

1. INTRODUCTION

The general interest in and concern for the state and the future of the
environment, brought about by the perceived environmental crisis and the
corresponding environmental revolution in the 1960s, left its imprint on
historical writing across the globe. It directly contributed to renewed
historical interest in the processes of nature and the impact of humans on
the environment over time:2 interest that was in part driven by the
conviction that an understanding of the reciprocal impact between humans
and the environment in the past would enable humankind to reverse the
world-wide environmental degradation and thus ensure a healthy future for
planet earth and its inhabitants. Since the late 1960s, this historical
interest in environmental issues has found expression in the publication of
numerous environmental histories, the founding of environmental history
societies (for example the American Society for Environmental History in
1976) and the division (in some countries) of this wide historical field
into various streams.3

In the absence of television to bring the environmental crisis into
people's homes,4 and due to the growing isolation of South Africa in the
international political arena (as a punitive measure because of the
government's domestic policy of apartheid and its continued governance over
South West Africa - present-day Namibia), the environmental revolution went
by largely unnoticed by the general public and professional historians in
this country.5 The emergence of the environment as a central character in
some historical narratives from the late 1960s onwards, therefore initially
had limited influence on historians writing on the South African past.
South African historiography at that stage was far more concerned with the
emergence of a strong revisionist interpretation of the country's past.

The rise of South African revisionist historiography was stimulated by two
factors, namely the publication of the Oxford History of South Africa in
two volumes (in 1969 and 1971 respectively) under the editorship of liberal
historians Monica Wilson and Leonard Thompson, and the socialistic academic
character prevalent abroad with which numerous South African historical
emigrés came into contact in the course of the 1960s.6 Revisionist
historians took a critical view of the fundamental assumption of the Oxford
History that the central theme in South African history is the interaction
between the various racial groups in the country.7 The conclusions of the
Oxford History that apartheid was the result of racist prejudices of the
Afrikaners and that economic interests had no influence on the racial
policies of the National Party government were also found to be
unacceptable interpretations of the South African past.8

Revisionist historians, on the other hand, held the opinion that class
interest was the dominant theme in South African history, and investigated
the reciprocal relationship between apartheid and capitalism, concluding
that apartheid as a political system was developed to serve capitalistic
ends. A bitter debate ensued between liberal and revisionist historians for
most of the 1970s, a debate to which Afrikaner nationalistic historians
(being the third most dominant historiographical school at the time) more
often than not made limited contributions. By the late 1970s a shift
occurred within the revisionist theoretical framework. Class interests as
the sole determinant in South African history were replaced by the view
that racial relations, along with class interests, played an important role
in shaping the South African society.9

The theoretical shift in South African revisionist historiography from the
late 1970s onwards had important repercussions for the development of South
African environmental history. While caught up in the argument that class
interests were the only determinant in South African history, revisionist
historians focused predominantly on the state and its relationship with
capital as well as on various aspects of the white working class. Once
racial relations began to be taken into consideration (something that was
in particular stimulated by the Soweto uprising of 1976), the revisionist
historiographical agenda broadened considerably and came to include inter
alia studies on the impact of capitalism and industrialisation on
pre-colonial societies, the creation of the South African working classes,
black resistance to white domination and the history of pre-colonial black
ethnic groups.10

Increasing attention was also paid to various environmental issues such as
ecological factors that enabled the rise of Shaka and the Zulu kingdom,
which in turn opened up other environmental themes to revisionist
historians. This development, coupled with the emergence of a general
interest in the state of the environment in South Africa in the 1980s,
directly contributed to the development of South African environmental
history as an identifiable sub-discipline within South African
historiography in the past two decades. Though initially limited mostly to
revisionist historians, environmental history in South Africa has slowly
caught on with historians in other historiographical traditions. The
majority of environmental historians writing on the South African past,
however, can still be labelled revisionist.

2. PRELUDE TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Alfred Crosby writes that American historians in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries "were fully, almost painfully, conscious of
immense and accelerating change but did not yet think of it
ecologically".11 The same argument is valid within the South African
context. Even though historians dealt with a variety of aspects that
directly and indirectly impacted on the South African environment, few
historians ventured beyond the limitations of their historiographical
paradigms to address the environment as a central character in their
narratives.

One of the earliest examples of South African environmental history is the
short historical essay on the influence of the tsetse fly on the South
African past, written by B.H. Dicke in 1932.12 Dicke offered some daring
observations in his essay for the period in which he lived. This is
especially true for his comments on the fate of the early Voortrekkers in
the trek led by Johannes Hendrik Janse van Rensburg. The Van Rensburg group
was one of the first groups of Voortrekkers to leave to the Cape Colony in
1835 in what became known as the Great Trek. Unlike most of their fellow
Voortrekkers, with the exception of the Louis Trichardt trek, the Van
Rensburg group did not trek from the Transgariep (present-day Free State
province) to (KwaZulu-) Natal, but continued on the route northwards into
the Transvaal in search of a route to Delagoa Bay (present-day Maputo). By
the middle of 1836 the whole Van Rensburg trek had been wiped out by the
Amatongas of the Makuleke and Mahlengwe clans.13

According to Dicke the role of the Amatongas in the massacre of the Van
Rensburg trek had been overemphasised by historians and he held the opinion
that they merely "administered the coup-de-grâce". Of more importance to
him was the role played by the tsetse fly which destroyed the Voortrekkers'
draught animals once they entered the fly belt in the Transvaal. The loss
of animals compelled the Van Rensburg trek to leave their wagons behind,
without which they were unable to follow the standard Voortrekker tactic of
forming a wagon laager when faced with danger. With only ten guns and no
wagons that could provide some form of protection, the Van Rensburg trek
had no chance of survival against the onslaught of the Amatongas.14

Dicke's conclusion that the tsetse fly "killed" the Van Rensburg trek long
before the Amatongas did, was a controversial statement given the Afrikaner
sentiments regarding the Great Trek at the time. However, he was not the
first historian to focus on the influence of the tsetse fly belt on the
settlement patterns of white people in the South African interior in the
course of the nineteenth century. Frontier history is a well-patronised
field in South African historiography. Due to the far-reaching, and at
times devastating, impact the environment in the South African interior had
on the newly arrived Voortrekkers (and vice versa), frontier history has
traditionally incorporated some environmental themes into the narrative.
But, despite attention afforded to the environment in these histories, the
environment rarely made it to the centre of the narrative and remained
important only insofar as it provided explanations for the different trek
routes and settlement patterns of the white settlers, as well as the
economic basis of their newly founded societies.15

The first historical publication to consider in some depth the
environmental impact of white settlement in the interior was F.J.
Potgieter's Die vestiging van die blanke in die Transvaal (1837-1886) met
spesiale verwysing na die verhouding tussen die mens en die omgewing [The
settlement of whites in the Transvaal (1837-1886) with special reference to
the relationship between man and the environment].16 Potgieter, as a
historical geographer, not only investigated the environmental factors that
influenced white settlement patterns, but also focused inter alia on the
exploitation of natural resources such as indigenous forests, wildlife,
minerals, water resources and soil. He further addressed the environmental
factors that motivated the seasonal migration of farmers between their
winter and summer farms, and stressed the point that the government of the
Transvaal (formally known as the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, i.e. the
South African Republic) was in no position to make war on indigenous black
groups whenever they chose to. The government first had to consider
environmental factors such as the tseste fly (harbouring the protozoal
disease, trypanosomiasis, that causes sleeping sickness among humans and
nagana among draught animals), horse illnesses and malaria, as well as the
movements of farmers and hunting expeditions during the winter season. With
most Transvaal burghers out of reach for at least three months of the year,
the Transvaal's ability to defend itself during certain periods was
extremely poor.

Historians also focused their attention on other environmental themes such
as C.F.J. Muller's study on the history of the fishing industry in the Cape
until the mid-eighteenth century.17 Though Muller approached the subject
from an economic position, he does focus inter alia on the way in which the
exploitation of marine resources impacted on various aquatic species in
terms of numbers and how it altered the distribution patterns of these
species in the Atlantic ocean along the Cape coastline. While his focus
remained predominantly economic, Muller afforded the marine environment a
greater role in his narrative than most of his colleagues did when
addressing agricultural history.18 Scant attention was paid to the
environment in most of these histories, with environmental factors in most
cases being downgraded as mere agricultural problems.19 Prior to the 1980s,
professional historians, with few exceptions, equally neglected the history
of nature conservation, which in most cases was written by authors with
little regard for historical processes.20

As mentioned in the Introduction, the environmental revolution of the 1960s
initially had limited influence on historians writing on the South African
past. On the other hand, academics in other disciplines, especially the
natural sciences and law, reacted positively to the world-wide
"rediscovery" of the importance of the environment to humankind.21 In the
course of the 1970s and early 1980s these academics published a number of
books and articles in which they also focused on the historical development
of a great number of environmental issues such as soil erosion and soil
conservation.22 While historians have acknowledged these publications, they
are generally criticised for being too technical in focus and for providing
background information that lacks historical depth and analyses.23

Despite the criticism from historians, the aforementioned publications are
important to South African environmental history for a number of reasons.
Firstly, in the absence of historical interest in numerous environmental
issues, these scholars set out to provide historical background on which
they could base their contemporary analyses of environmental issues such as
soil and water management and pollution control. Though in no way
professional history, these histories are essentially academic and not
intended to amuse the masses in the popular market. Secondly, until
historians get around to focusing their attention on neglected
environmental issues such as the environmental consequences of industrial
growth, these non-professional histories will remain the only historical
arguments available. Thirdly, in the absence of historical publications
these non-professional environmental interpretations of the past have
become popular with environment-related academic disciplines. Publications
such as that of André Rabie and Richard Fuggle,24 and that of A.C. Brown,25
have became standard reference material for non-historical academics when
addressing the historical development of various environmental issues and
problems.

3. SOUTH AFRICAN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORIOGRAPHY SINCE 1980

South African environmental historiography does not have a "true" beginning
in the sense that its genesis can be traced back to a publication that
sparked off the current historical interest in environmental themes in
South Africa's past. South African environmental history rather seems to
have slowly grown out of the broad revisionist historiographical agenda of
the early 1980s, with revisionist historians such as Jeff Guy, Roger
Wagner, Stanley Trapido and William Beinart bringing the environment to the
centre of their narratives from which it had previously been absent. Jane
Carruthers, on the other hand, focused attention on the history of nature
conservation and in turn has inspired a growing number of historians to
embark on similar studies.

South African environmental history was further stimulated by the seminal
conference on conservation in Africa (1884-1984) hosted by the African
Studies Centre of the University of Cambridge in April 1985. A special
conservation history issue of the Journal of Southern African Studies,26 on
the other hand, brought environmental history to the attention of a wider
range of historians specialising on the Southern African region. The
popularity of environmental history among South African historians has
grown tremendously in the past few years. Not only has the body of
literature increased, but a growing number of history departments at South
African universities, for example the University of Cape Town, the
University of the Free State and the University of Zululand, have
incorporated environmental history courses into their under and
post-graduate programmes. With the environment included in the South
African government's list of key issues in South African society that needs
to be addressed, new opportunities have been opened for historians to
participate in interdisciplinary research teams dealing with environmental
issues such as water management, desertification and sustainable agriculture.

While South African environmental historiography can in no way be compared
in volume and in scope with that of American environmental history, the
field has diversified in recent years and is no longer predominantly
concerned with aspects of conservation. Other broad focus areas include
studies on the exploitation of natural resources, development and the
environment, environment and disease, the environment in pre-colonial
societies and, to a lesser extent, the modern environmental movement in
South Africa (since 1972).

3.1 The history of nature conservation

The history of the conservation of South Africa's diverse collection of
fauna and flora species is a major field in South African environmental
historiography. Historical research on wildlife protection was pioneered in
the 1980s by Jane Carruthers who has published widely on the history of
wildlife protection in the Transvaal from the mid-nineteenth to the
mid-twentieth centuries.27

Carruthers' publications have a strong "corrective" character to them in
that she sets out to deconstruct some of the popular myths regarding
wildlife protection in the Transvaal, and especially in regard to the role
played by Paul Kruger in the establishment of the Kruger National Park
(eventually established in 1926) during his term as president of the
Transvaal (1884-1902). Popular histories of nature conservation have
promoted Kruger as a conservation-minded president who aspired to create a
game reserve in the Transvaal from as early as 1884.28 Though Kruger's
government established two game reserves, namely the Pongola Game Reserve
(1894)29 and the Sabi Game Reserve (1898; in 1926 this small reserve became
part of the Kruger National Park),30 before the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer
War in 1899, Carruthers concludes that Kruger did not act out of a desire
to see wildlife formally protected. The reserves were rather established
for political reasons, with Kruger responding to the appeals of officials,
Volksraad (i.e. parliament) members and the public.31

The consolidation of the Sabi and Singwitsi Game Reserves into the
Transvaal Game Reserve in 1923 was the first step in the establishment of
South Africa's first national park. In terms of the National Parks Act of
1926, the Transvaal Game Reserve was elevated in status and was renamed the
Kruger National Park. According to Carruthers, Kruger was honoured in this
way not because of his conservation efforts, but rather to invoke support
for the need to establish a national park among Afrikaners who at the time
were not inclined to support wildlife conservation measures. Within the
political context of South Africa in the 1920s, characterised by a strong
Afrikaner nationalism which manifested inter alia in the adoption of
Afrikaans as an official language together with English, as well as the
adoption of an own flag and anthem for the country, the naming of the
national park after Kruger ensured the support of the majority of Afrikaners.32

Carruthers also traces the history of protectionist legislation and
policies and demonstrates how they evolved in the Transvaal as emergency
regulations to counter the over-exploitation of wildlife resources through
excessive hunting by white settlers.33 Not willing to acknowledge their
part in the extermination of game in the Transvaal, white people laid the
blame on the hunting practices of black indigenous groups. As a result,
black access to free-ranging wildlife was severely restricted by denying
them legal access to weapons, making them non-eligible for hunting licences
and prohibiting their ownership of hunting dogs.34

Carruthers' focus on black alienation from land and wildlife resources
through the establishment of game reserves and national parks, forms part
of the broader debate regarding the role of these institutions since 1994
in the new democratic South Africa. Since the late 1980s, the prevailing
belief that people (especially black people) were the enemies of
conservation and that they should be kept out of protected areas, has been
severely criticised. Starting with the Purros Project in Namibia,
neighbouring communities have begun to demand a greater share in the
management of protected areas and to date a number of such arrangements
have been negotiated with the National Parks Board.35 The traditional white
conception of black people being squanderers of nature and the denial of
their right to enjoy nature in protected areas during the apartheid era,
have stimulated Farieda Khan's interest in the history of black
conservation efforts in the twentieth century.36 Khan's work therefore has
a strong corrective character aiming at, and succeeding in, correcting the
distorted view that black people have made no effort to conserve the South
African environment.37

Due to the presence of nagana, nature conservation in Natal, despite some
similarities, has developed somewhat differently from that in the rest of
the country.38 The history of nature conservation in Natal, and in
particular Zululand, has attracted a greater number of historians than that
of nature conservation in other parts of the country.39 Of particular
importance is the Masters' degree dissertation of Shirley Brooks entitled
"Playing the game: the struggle for wildlife protection in Zululand,
1910-1930".40 Brooks, in what seems to be an emotive quest to correct
popular or "coffee-table" publications on the history of nature
conservation, sets out to place the conservation initiatives in Zululand
between 1910 and 1930 within the context of colonial conquest, ecological
disruption and the failure of development in Zululand. Central themes in
her study include the transition from idealistic preservationism in 1910 to
a more pragmatic approach by 1930 in which game outside game reserves were
excluded from official protection, the lack of understanding on the part of
white people of the hardships black people in Zululand had to endure
because of the loss of their cattle to nagana, and the ignorance about the
disease and its causes prevalent among white farmers and the administrators
in the region.41

Another aspect of the Natal environment that has received historical
attention is the development of botanic gardens. Donal McCracken has done
extensive research on this theme focusing inter alia on the economic impact
and function of botanic gardens, the management thereof and the
plant-hunting craze in colonial Natal.42 The link between the botanic
gardens in Natal and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew is a central theme in
his work, and he focuses in particular on the plant exchanges that took
place between these two institutions. Kew played in leading role in
introducing plant species to Natal through the many wardian cases sent to
the colonial botanic gardens. These wardian cases contained specimens of
guava, litchi, mango, queen pineapple, camellias, magnolias and trees such
as blue-gums, black wattles and jacarandas to name only a few. The Natal
plant hunters also sent large quantities of flora specimens from Natal to
Kew where they formed an important part of their imperial collections.43
McCracken has also researched the history of the Kirstenbosch Botanic
Gardens in Cape Town, focusing in particular on the difficulties of this
botanic gardens to establish itself as the leading botanic gardens in South
Africa.44

The historiography of conservation in the Cape has, in contrast to that in
the Transvaal and Natal, concerned itself largely with discourses on
colonial environmentalism.45 In his publications on the environment in the
Cape Colony in the nineteenth century, Richard Grove places the
environmental discourse present in the Cape within the broader context of
British imperialism in the 1800s and the remarkable contributions made by a
great number of Scotsmen to environmental discourse and the development of
the conservation movement. In "Scottish missionaries, evangelical
discourses and the origins of conservation thinking in Southern Africa
1820-1900"46 he explores the origins of conservationism in the Cape Colony
as a product of the way in which evangelical missionaries such as Robert
Moffat and Dr John Croumbie Brown viewed the Cape environment. In a later
work he expands on his research by focusing on the social context of
Scottish immigrants to South Africa, linking the critique of Brown on the
social and the ecological impact of white settlement in the Cape to a
nascent Scottish environmentalism that was nurtured by social response to
post-1707 colonial rule in Scotland.47

Historians have largely neglected the history of nature conservation in the
Free State, with the first historical work on the theme only being
published in December 1999.48 Charl le Roux's interest in the theme was
stimulated by the publications of Jane Carruthers and Shirley Brooks, and
he sets out to explore the relationship between humans and wildlife in the
Free State, the reasons for the near extermination of wildlife in the
region by 1890 and wildlife protectionist policies of the Boer republic of
the Orange Free State and its successor, the Orange River Colony. He
concludes that the near extermination of wildlife in the republican era was
due to the lack of interest in nature conservation displayed by the
government and private interest groups. After Britain took over the control
of the region (and renamed it the Orange River Colony) in 1900, game
legislation was enforced on a regular basis. Proper conservation of the
region's small wildlife resources was however severely hampered by natural
disasters, physical drawbacks (such as bad roads) and the strained
relations between Afrikaners and the British administrators of the colony
in the aftermath of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902).

3.2 The exploitation and conservation of natural resources

Another major field in South African environmental historiography deals
with the exploitation and conservation of natural resources. To date
attention has mostly been directed at soil erosion, resistance to soil
conservation measures, indigenous forests, water issues and marine
resources. These represent only a small fraction of the natural resources
present in South Africa, the result being that environmental historians
have as yet hardly touched this wide field.

William Beinart's initial interest in soil erosion and soil conservation
evolved out of his research into the changes within black rural political
movements in South Africa. In his article "Soil erosion, conservationism
and ideas about development: a southern African exploration, 1900-1960",49
he considers the methods of and reactions to schemes to combat soil erosion
and degradation in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland
(Malawi). Beinart traces the development of soil conservation thinking and
policies, focusing in particular on the shift away from white farming
practices towards those of black peasant farmers within the colonial
governments.

 From the 1920s onwards attention was increasingly directed at black
peasant agriculture, black attitudes towards cattle (which as a symbol of
prosperity has led to overstocking in certain areas) and the methods in
which crops were cultivated. Among white officials there existed the
perception that soil erosion in black regions was the result of what they
considered inadequate peasant farming methods. Officials therefore not only
set out to combat soil erosion in these areas, but also to change the
character of peasant farming. In South Africa the government constructed
the policy of betterment planning that, on an environmental level, aimed at
combating erosion, conserving the environment, and changing the
agricultural and land-use methods of black communities. On a political
level it was believed that the successful implementation of betterment
planning would curtail black urbanisation to what the government considered
"white" cities by keeping more black people in reserves.

Central to the aim of changing peasant farming practices was the perception
that black land-use patterns had to be altered radically (this involved the
division of land into grazing land, land for cultivation and the
establishment of villages to counter the scattered homesteads), the
implementation of contour farming and the culling of cattle to reduce their
numbers (this involved enforced sale rather than actual slaughter).
Betterment planning did not succeed in the way the South African government
had envisaged and by the 1960s not only had soil erosion increased, but
numerous rural communities had resisted state attempts to control their
environment. Beinart's work on colonial conservation has been followed by
studies by P.A. McAllister,50 Chris de Wet,51 Fred Hendricks52 and S.
Beerstecher,53 who have focused on reactions and resistance to betterment
planning in specific areas, and by J. McCann who has dealt with soil
conservation in the Free State.54

Given the insufficient water resources available in South Africa and its
impact on farming and industries in the country, it is surprising how
little has been written about water use in South African history. In the
article "Landscape of conquest: frontier water alienation and Khoikhoi
strategies of survival, 1652-1780", Leonard Guelke and Robert Shell55
re-examine the decline of the Khoikhoi, after the permanent settlement of
white people in the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, from an environmental
perspective. They conclude that the central factor that led to the decline
of the Khoikhoi was not the smallpox epidemics of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, but the alienation from land and water that
accompanied white expansion in the Cape. White trek farmers in general
sought the best grazing land with ample local water resources during their
eastern and northern expansions which brought their land needs in direct
conflict with those of the Khoikhoi communities in the interior. In the
conflict that ensued, white settlers more often than not ended up
victorious (either through violence or through obtaining title deeds to the
land). The curtailment of the Khoikhoi's access to water and grazing land,
meant that the Khoikhoi lost political control over their land, which in
turn led to the economic and social disintegration of their society in the
course of the eighteenth century.

In his work on environmentalism in the Cape, Grove has touched on Moffat's
initiative to develop an irrigation system at Kuruman in the Northern
Cape.56 The management of the water source of this irrigation system, the
Eye (i.e. spring) of Kuruman is the focus of Nancy Jacobs' article "The
flowing eye: water management in the Upper Kuruman Valley, South Africa, c.
1800-1962".57 Jacobs considers the importance of this water source to the
local Tswana-speaking Tlhaping chiefdom, and the way in which the
development of an irrigation system from 1818 onwards influenced
agricultural production in the community. Ownership of the eye became an
issue once the area came under colonial rule in the 1880s. Although the
British authorities failed to grant individual title to the Tswanas, the
irrigation system remained open for use by all races. The creation of the
Union of South Africa in 1910 and the implementation of apartheid, after
the National Party (NP) came to power in 1948, led to segregation of the
environment in Kuruman in which local black people were systematically
alienated from their traditional water source and from land, through
relocations. The whites-only irrigation system that was put into place in
1918 never expanded after the eviction of the black cultivators at the eye
in 1919 and did not develop into a commercial success.58

The overexploitation of groundwater resources by gold mines in the
Oberholzer district (Carletonville area, Guateng) and its impact on
irrigation farmers in the district have been the focus of Elize van Eeden's
research into water issues.59 The two eyes in the area, Wonderfontein Eye
and the Eye of Wonderfontein, had served irrigation farmers from the
establishment of the Oberholzer Irrigation Council in 1925 until gold
mining in the area from the 1950s onwards impacted negatively on water
levels and water quality. The gold mines gradually dewatered most of the
groundwater compartments which led to the lowering of the water table and
the eventual drying up of these two eyes. With limited dry-land agriculture
practised in the area, the water shortages as well as the situation of
sinkholes which altered agricultural patterns, forced a great number of
farmers in the district to sell their land and resettle in areas that were
not close to mining activities. Though sympathetic to the grievances of the
farmers, the government of the day placed a higher premium on the gold
mining industry and the profits thereof, and they consequently allowed the
gold mines to overexploit and, at times, to pollute the limited water
resources that were left in the area.

The exploitation of forests has been a key issue in the history of South
African society due to the fact that they remained the main source of fuel
until the end of the nineteenth century and in some communities well into
the twentieth century. Though white settlers in the interior of the country
had been aware of the existence of large quantities of coal and had started
to use it as an energy source in their houses and in smithys, lack of
railways and industries in the interior ensured that wood remained in
general consumption. A number of historians such as Johann Tempelhoff60 and
Donal McCracken61 have conducted research into the exploitation of forests
and wood resources in South Africa.62

Tempelhoff, for example, notes that the development of the diamond and gold
mining industries increased the demand for wood from the Transvaal. As a
result wood resources had diminished to such an extent by the 1890s that
the government had to impose restrictions in a desperate attempt to
conserve what limited sources were left. However, the rapid population
increase, the expansion of the mining industries and the rinderpest
(1896-1897) which led to widespread poverty, compelled the government to
lift most of its conservation measures in order to allow people to make a
living as woodcutters.63

McCracken, on the other hand, focuses on the commercial exploitation of the
indigenous forests in Zululand in general, and in the Qudeni forest in
particular. He traces the development of the commercial exploitation of
Qudeni from 1871 through its heyday in the 1890s and 1900s (when it was
believed that Qudeni could supply all the timber demands of the authorities
in Zululand and the northern part of Natal) until its demise in importance
in the early 1930s. By 1934 Qudeni was so low on the priority list of the
forestry services that they placed a forester in charge of the Qudeni and
Nkandla forests who did not even know the names of the indigenous trees.64

3.3 Environment and disease

Coping with both animal and plant diseases, and other environmental
challenges such as locust plagues, have been part and parcel of agriculture
in South Africa since its inception, and in recent years a number of
historians have started to address these themes from an environmental
perspective. In his article on the rinderpest epidemic of 1896-1897, Phule
Phoofolo focuses on the social and political impact of this epidemic on
black communities in South Africa.65 While the rinderpest epidemic caused
the cattle herds of both black and white farmers to be decimated, the
predominant role cattle played in black society (as economic and political
assets) meant that the epidemic radically altered the social and political
structures within these communities. Lack of information on the rinderpest
as well as the inability of the two colonial (Cape and Natal) and the two
independent (Transvaal and the Orange Free State) governments in what is
today South Africa to control the disease, in turn led to the general
assumption among black communities that their cattle were being poisoned by
the governments and the white people in their regions.66

Lack of understanding of the origin, treatment and prevention of both
animal and plant diseases on the part of governments and their subjects, is
a central theme in histories that deal with diseases in South Africa.
Literature on nagana in Zululand, for example, details many years of
fruitless efforts by government officials and veterinarians to combat the
disease, while white farmers in the area would have been perfectly
satisfied to exterminate all wildlife in Zululand if the government had
allowed such an action. Both black and white farmers in the region had to
deal with recurrent nagana epidemics until 1950 when the mixture of benzine
hexachloride (similar to DDT but cheaper to produce locally) and antrycide
proved effective in combating tsetse flies.67

At the end of the nineteenth century Cape wine farmers were equally
ignorant about the effects of the insect Phylloxera vastatrix.68 Phylloxera
was first recorded in France in 1861 where it arrived along with some
American vines. While the American vines were immune to the insect, the
vines in France proved very susceptible to it and in the end a large
percentage of vineyards had to be destroyed. From France, the Phylloxera
spread across Europe and to other parts of the world (for example Austria
and Portugal, 1872; Switzerland and Hungary, 1875; Australia, 1878). In
South Africa the first insects were discovered in a vineyard in Mowbray on
January 1886 from where they spread rapidly to all the vine-growing regions
in the Cape such as Stellenbosch and Paarl. It took the Cape authorities
many of years to bring the situation under control, which in no small part
was due to the unwillingness of wine farmers to remove and burn all
affected vines.69

Other animal diseases that have been researched by historians include east
coast fever70 and rabies,71 as well as the role of veterinarians in the
Cape in the nineteenth century in the combating of diseases.72 Charles
Ballard and A. de V. Minnaar have also done interesting work on the
destructive powers of locust plagues. Ballard, in his article " 'A year of
scarcity': the 1896 locust plague in Natal and Zululand",73 focuses on the
impact of the red locust plague on black people in the region. The year
1896 in particular was a bad one for black farmers with the rinderpest
killing off most of their cattle, and the clouds of red locusts devouring
their crops. This in turn led to wide-spread hunger in the region; hunger
which the colonial authorities in Natal were slow to address and which they
tried to relieve by encouraging black farmers to enter the wage economy in
order to earn money to buy food. A de V. Minnaar, on the other hand,
focuses attention on the government initiated campaigns to combat the
1933-1937 red locust "invasion" in Zululand which dealt a severe blow to
white sugar cane farmers and black farmers in the reserves.74

3.4     Other themes: the environment in pre-colonial societies, development
and modern environmentalism

Historians from all the historiographical traditions in South Africa have
written extensively on the history of the Zulu kingdom during the various
stages of its development. Depending on the historiographical paradigm, the
focus of these studies shifted between the rise of Shaka, the murder of
Piet Retief, the Anglo-Zulu War (1879) and the participation of Zulus in
the Anglo-Boer War, to name but a few. In his study "Ecological factors in
the rise of Shaka and the Zulu kingdom" Jeff Guy extended the focus of Zulu
historiography to incorporate environmental factors in explaining the
development of the Zulu societal structures under the rule of Shaka.75

According to Guy, the social changes that took place within the Zulu
society, especially the introduction of the regiment system by Shaka, were
rooted in the environmental crisis that occurred in the region in the late
eighteenth century, which was exacerbated by a disastrous famine in the
first decade of the nineteenth century. Guy argues that the introduction of
the regiment system should not be viewed as a military innovation but
rather as a revolution in production in that it allowed the king to control
labour and therefore production in his territory.

Both male and female members of Zulu society were placed in age regiments
from time they reached puberty until the king gave their whole age regiment
the permission to marry (about 15 to 20 years later). The male age
regiments had many duties such as being soldiers, cattle raiders and
labourers (herding royal cattle, sowing and reaping in the king's lands).
Though female age regiments were not expected to perform royal duties to
the extent that men had to, these age regiments were not allowed to marry
until the king gave them his permission. This normally occurred when an
associated male age regiment had obtained permission to take wives.

The power vested in the Zulu king to decide when the age regiments were
allowed to marry, in turn gave the king the power to decide upon the rate
at which the population under his control would increase. Since female age
regiments were granted the right to marry several years after puberty, the
potential increase in population was severely restricted. Because of
population control, the king took control of the rate at which new
production segments could be established within the Zulu society, which in
turn gave the king extensive control over the intensity of environmental
exploitation in his region and the rate at and direction in which
production would expand.

*      *      *

The permanent settlement of white people in South Africa not only impacted
on indigenous societies such as the Khoikhoi and the Zulus, but more
importantly, in terms of the scope of this paper, it radically altered the
environment in the country. In their efforts to build communities that
closely mirrored those of Europe in terms of physical structure and social,
political and economic organisation, white people became masters of the
Southern African environment.76 The establishment of white political
control over the whole of the country at the end of the nineteenth century
in turn meant that white people also came to control the environment with
all its resources, possibilities and limitations.

One such way in which white people extended their influence over the
natural environment was through the development of road networks. Tim
Goetze has done pioneering work on the way road building impacted on both
human and natural environments. The road building and mountain pass
constructions of Thomas Bain (1830-1893) have received special attention
from Goetze. He emphasises the environmentally friendly techniques employed
by Bain in the nineteenth century to build mountain passes such as the
Passes Route between George and Knysna in which the roadway was built up
and a dry stone pack retaining wall used.77

Goetze further addresses road building in South Africa in the second half
of the twentieth century, noting that while the country lagged behind the
USA in terms of environmental legislation from the 1960s till the 1980s,
people involved in road building in fact were already conscious of
environmental considerations in the 1960s. As early as 1967 the National
Transport Commission appointed a landscape officer to look into
environmental aspects of road building along the Garden Route, while the
Environmental Planning Professions Interdisciplinary Committee (EPPIC) was
established in 1974 to advise engineers, architects and planners on the
management of conflict between development and conservation. Special
attention is directed at the role of civil engineers in promoting
environmentally friendly road building such as restoring disturbed
vegetation and removing of debris from building sites with limited
environmental disruptions.78

*     *     *

The environmental awareness showed by road building projects in South
Africa from the 1960s onwards is not remarkable when placed within the
context of the emergence of the environment as a global political issue in
the same period. However, when placed within the context of South African
environmentalism between the 1960s and the Earth Summit in 1992, it is
remarkable that such considerations took place at all. In her Masters'
degree dissertation, Phia Steyn traces the developments within the South
African environmental movement between the United Nations Conference of the
Human Environment (Stockholm) in 1972 and the Earth Summit (Rio de Janeiro)
in 1992.79

She concludes that South African environmentalism developed differently
from its counterparts in other countries in the period owing to limited
participation of both governmental and non-governmental role-players in the
global environmental movement, and because of the political situation
within South Africa in the same period. The environment never made it on to
the government's list of top priorities and because of economic and
political sanctions, they were more interested in pursuing policies that
allowed unbridled economic growth than policies that would in some way
limit development to incorporate environmental considerations. This
resulted in the South African government being by 1992 as much as twenty
years behind other governments in terms of environmental management and
legislation.

The non-governmental sector of the South African environmental movement
also responded differently to the challenges of the environmental
revolution. Whereas the environment became a political issue for a large
number of environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) in other
countries, South African ENGOs opposed this trend until the establishment
of Earthlife Africa (ELA) in 1988. ENGOs in general also failed to address
the environmental problems of an industrialised society, and continued to
focus predominantly on issues that involved the conservation of fauna and
flora. However, the founding of ELA in 1988 marked the beginning of radical
changes in the South African environmental movement, and in less than three
years it succeeded in establishing the environment as a political issue by
directly linking the widespread environmental degradation in South Africa
with the government's domestic policy of apartheid.

4. CONCLUSION

The recognition of environmental history as an identifiable sub-discipline
in South African historiography is long overdue. The developments in this
field in the past two decades challenges the conventional classification of
most of South African environmental histories under the broad label of
economic history,80 with the environment and the reciprocal impact between
humans and the environment replacing economic determinants as the focal
point of the narrative. It is therefore important that the broad historical
community in South Africa not only starts taking notice of these
developments, but also starts acknowledging the existence of this new
sub-discipline.

The time has also come of South African environmental historians to rid
themselves of the ideological constraints of the historiographical
traditions in which they find themselves at home. A startling
characteristic of South African environmental history is, with few
exceptions, the near total absence of a historiographical perspective that
is strongly influenced by environmental philosophy. Instead, South African
environmental historians tend to ground their environmental narratives in
the ideological foundations that characterise South African historiography
in general. While Alfred Crosby could observe that American environmental
historians tend to be conservationists,81 the same can not be said of South
African environmental historians. With few exceptions, such as Tim
Goetze,82 our environmental historians have not yet taken in positions
within environmental philosophy and their work are, more often than not, so
focused on human interaction that they at times seems to loose sight of the
environment.

On 10 March 1971 John Jordi, the editor of The Star (a daily newspaper
based in Johannesburg), made the following observation in his Editor's Letter:

"In this particular part of the globe we have subdued the land, fenced in
its creatures and harnessed its wild rivers. It was a massive task at first
- foolhardy almost - but now we have emerged totally victorious. And it
might be our trouble: our victory was too total. In places nature has
capitulated leaving behind poisoned, lifeless streams; exhausted infertile
soil; and each spring becomes more silent."83

As we enter the new millennium the big challenge for South African
environmental historians will be to address natures capitulation in this
part of the world by broadening the scope of the investigation to include
issues such as the environmental impact of industrial growth and the
domestic policy of apartheid. Not only will this lead to the growth of
environmental history in South Africa, but their work will also make
valuable contributions to the national debate on what the priorities should
be in the "development versus conservation/preservation" dilemma that the
South African government has tried to come to grips with since 1994.

_________________________


1 I would like to thank André Wessels and Nico Combrink for commenting on
some aspects of the paper. The financial assistance in the form of a travel
grant by the Division for Social Sciences and Humanities of the National
Research Foundation towards my participation in this conference is further
acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of
the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the National
Research Foundation.
2 According to Alfred Crosby the environmental movement that emerged in the
1960s was "the engine that drove environmental history" in the USA. A.W.
Crosby, "The past and the present of environmental history" in The American
Historical Review 100(4), October 1995, p. 1186.
3 See for example R. White, "American environmental history: the
development of a new historical field" in Pacific Historical Review 54(3),
1985, pp. 297-335 for the divisions within environmental history in the USA.
4 The National Party government withheld permission to establish a
television broadcasting company until as late as 1975. The South African
Broadcasting Corporation only started transmitting television broadcasts in
1976.
5 See P. Steyn and A. Wessels, "The roots of contemporary governmental and
non-governmental environmental activities in South Africa, 1654-1972" in
New Contree 45, September 1999, pp. 77-80 for a discussion of the impact of
the environmental revolution on South Africa.
6 S. Marks, "Towards a people's history of South Africa? Recent
developments in the historiography of South Africa" in R. Samuel (ed.),
People's history and socialist theory (London, 1981), pp. 300-301.
7 M. Wilson and L. Thompson (eds), The Oxford History of South Africa 1
(Oxford, 1969), p. v.
8 C. Saunders, "Historians and apartheid" in J. Lonsdale (ed.), South
Africa in question (Cambridge, 1988), p. 19.
9 Numerous studies provide detailed information on revisionist
historiography as well as on the conflict between liberal and revisionist
historians in the 1970s. See for example Saunders, "Historians and
apartheid"; C. Saunders, The making of the South African past: major
historians on race and class (Johannesburg, 1988), pp. 165-191; K. Smith,
The changing past: trends in South African historical writing
(Johannesburg, 1988), pp. 155-228; G. Verhoef, "Die radikale
geskiedskrywing oor Suid-Afrika" [The radical historiography on South
Africa], unpublished M.A. dissertation, Rand Afrikaans University, 1982.
10 Saunders, "Historians and apartheid", p. 29; Verhoef, "Die radikale
geskiedskrywing oor Suid-Afrika", p. 17; Saunders, The making of the South
African past, pp. 183-184.
11 Crosby, "The past and present of environmental history", p. 1179.
12 B.H. Dicke, "The tsetse-fly's influence on South African history" in
South African Journal of Science 29, October 1932, pp. 792-796.
13 C.F.J. Muller (ed.), Five hundred years South African history (3rd
edition, Cape Town, 1986), pp. 159, 162.
14 Dicke, "The tsetse-fly's influence on South African history", pp.
795-796. Dicke repeated this argument in his unfinished work on the
Northern Transvaal Voortrekkers that was published posthumously. See B.H.
Dicke, "The Northern Transvaal Voortrekkers", Archives Year Book for South
African History 1941/I (Cape Town, 1941), pp. 128-134.
15 See for example D.W. Kruger, "Die weg na die see" [The way to the sea],
Archives Year Book for South African History 1938/I (Cape Town, 1938); A.N.
Pelzer, Geskiedenis van die Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek 1: wordingsjare [The
history of the South African Republic 1: formative years] (Cape Town, 1950).
16 Archives Year Book for South African History 1958/II (Cape Town, 1959).
17 C.F.J. Muller, "Die geskiedenis van die vissery aan die Kaap tot aan die
middel van die agtiende eeu" [The history of fisheries at the Cape up to
the middle of the eighteenth century], Archives Year Book for South African
History 1942/I (Cape Town, 1943).
18 Exceptions did occur such as: W.R. Thompson, Veld burning: its history
and importance in South Africa (Pretoria, 1936); C. van Onselen, "Reactions
to the rinderpest in southern Africa, 1896-97" in Journal of African
History 13(3), 1972, pp. 473-488; J.P. Kotzé, "Die runderpes in die
Transvaal en die onmiddelike gevolge daarvan, 1896-1899" [The rinderpest in
the Transvaal and its immediate consequences, 1896-1899], unpublished M.A.
dissertation, Rand Afrikaans University, 1974.
19 See for example J.I. Janse van Rensburg, "Die geskiedenis van die
wingerdkultuur in Suid-Afrika tydens die eerste eeu, 1652-1752" [The
history of viticulture in South Africa during the first century,
1652-1752], Archives Year Book for South African History 1954/II (Cape
Town, 1954); A.J. du Plessis, "Die geskiedenis van die graankultuur in
Suid-Afrika tydens die eerste eeu, 1652-1752" [The history of grain
cultivation in South Africa during the first century, 1652-1752], Annals of
the University of Stellenbosch II (Stellenbosch, 1933); D.J. Jacobs,
"Landbou en veeteelt in die O.V.S., 1864-1888" [Agriculture and animal
husbandry in the O.F.S., 1864-1888], Archives Year Book for South African
History 1969/I (Johannesburg, 1969).
20 Exceptions include A.P.J. van Rensburg, "Die geskiedenis van die
Nasionale Bontebokpark, Swellendam" [The history of the National Bontebok
Park, Swellendam] in Koedoe 18, 1975, pp. 165-190; P.J. Venter, "An early
botanist and conservationist at the Cape, the Reverend John Croumbie Brown,
LL.D., F.R.G.S., F.L.S.", Archives Year Book for South African History
1952/II (Cape Town, 1952).
21 M.S. Steyn, "Environmentalism in South Africa, 1972-1992: an historical
perspective", unpublished M.A. dissertation, University of the Orange Free
State, 1998, pp. 72-73, 75.
22 See for example A.C. Brown (ed.), A history of scientific endeavour in
South Africa (Cape Town, 1977); R.F. Fuggle and M.A. Rabie (eds),
Environmental concerns in South Africa: technical and legal perspectives
(Cape Town, 1983). The numerous publications of André Rabie on
environmental law contain a wealth of historical information. See for
example M.A. Rabie, "Soil conservation and the law" in The Comparative and
International Law Journal of South Africa 6(2), July 1973, pp. 145-198;
M.A. Rabie, South African environmental legislation (Pretoria, 1976).
23 See for example the criticism in J. Carruthers, "Dissecting the myth:
Paul Kruger and the Kruger National Park" in Journal of Southern African
Studies 20(2), 1994, p. 264; W. Beinart, "Empire, hunting and ecological
change in Southern and Central Africa" in Past and Present (128), August
1990, p. 173.
24 Fuggle and Rabie, Environmental concerns in South Africa; R.F. Fuggle
and M.A. Rabie (eds), Environmental management in South Africa (Cape Town,
1992).
25 Brown, A history of scientific endeavour in South Africa.
26 Journal of Southern African Studies 15(2), 1989.
27 See for example E.J. Carruthers, "The Pongola Game Reserve: an
eco-political study" in Koedoe 28, 1985, pp. 1-16; E.J. Carruthers, "Game
protection in the Transvaal 1846 to 1926", Archives Year Book for South
African History 1995 (Pretoria, 1995); J. Carruthers, The Kruger National
Park: a social and political history (Pietermaritzburg, 1995).
28 Carruthers, "Game protection in the Transvaal"; J. Carruthers,
"Dissecting the myth";
J. Carruthers, "Creating a national park, 1910-1926" in Journal of Southern
African Studies 15(2), 1989, pp. 188-216; J. Carruthers, "Game
protectionism in the Transvaal, 1900-1910" in South African Historical
Journal 20, November 1988, pp. 32-56.
29 For more details see Carruthers, "The Pongola Game Reserve".
30 For more details see Carruthers, "Game protection in the Transvaal 1846
to 1926"; Carruthers, The Kruger National Park.
31 Carruthers, "Dissecting the myth", pp. 266-271.
32 Ibid., pp. 271-275. Carruthers' view on the role played by Paul Kruger
in conservation in the Transvaal has met with strong resistance from Hennie
Grobler. For details of his position and Carruthers' reply see H. Grobler,
"Dissecting the Kruger myth with blunt instruments: a rebuttal of Jane
Carruthers's view" in Journal of Southern African Studies 22(3), 1996, pp.
455-472; J. Carruthers, "Defending Kruger's honour? A reply to Professor
Hennie Grobler" in Journal of Southern African Studies 22(3), 1996, pp.
473-480.
33 For environmental histories on the exploitation of wildlife resources
through hunting, see for example R. Wagner, "Zoutpansberg: the dynamics of
a hunting frontier, 1848-67" in S. Marks and
A. Atmore (eds), Economy and society in pre-industrial South Africa
(London, 1980), pp. 312-349; S. Trapido, "Poachers, proletarians and gentry
in early twentieth century Transvaal", paper read at the African Studies
Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, March 1984.
34 Carruthers, "Game protection in the Transvaal 1846 to 1926"; J.
Carruthers, " 'Police boys' and poachers: Africans, wildlife protection and
national parks, the Transvaal 1902-1950" in Koedoe 36(2), 1993, pp. 11-22.
35 For more information see D. Fig, "Flowers in the desert: community
struggles in Namaqualand" in
J. Cock and E. Koch (eds), Going green: people, politics and the
environment in South Africa (Cape Town, 1991), pp. 118-121; Association for
Rural Advancement, "Animals versus people: the Tembe Elephant Park" in Cock
and Koch (eds), Going green, pp. 223-227; E. Koch, D. Cooper and
H. Coetzee, Water, waste and wildlife: the politics of ecology in South
Africa (London, 1990), pp. 17-22, 27-30.
36 Interview: Farieda Khan, Cape Town, 30.3.1998.
37 See for example F. Khan, "Rewriting South Africa's conservation history:
the role of the Native Farmers  Association" in Journal of Southern African
Studies 20(4), 1994, pp. 499-516; F. Khan, "Soil wars: the role of the
African National Soil Conservation Association in South Africa, 1953-1959"
in Environmental History 2(4), 1997, pp. 439-459.
38 After the 1896-1897 rinderpest epidemic eradicated nagana from the
Transvaal lowveld, this disease only occurred in the north-eastern corner
of Natal in Zululand where it affected only draught animals and not humans.
39 See for example A.E. Cubbin, "An outline of game legislation in Natal,
1866-1912" in Journal of Natal and Zulu History 14, 1992, pp. 37-47; A.E.
Cubbin, "The history of Mkhuze Game Reserve", paper read at the History
Workshop on Natal and Zululand since the 1890s, University of Natal,
Pietermaritzburg, October 1993; B. Ellis, "Game conservation in Zululand,
1824-1947: changing perspectives", paper read at the History Workshop on
Natal and Zululand since the 1890s, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg,
October 1993; S. Kotzé, "Conservancies in Natal: the origin and application
of informal conservation in Natal, 1978-1993", paper read at the History
Workshop on Natal and Zululand since the 1890s, University of Natal,
Pietermaritzburg, October 1993.
40 Queen's University, Kingston, 1990.
41 See also S. Brooks, " 'Ropes of sand': soldier-settlers and nagana in
Zululand" in A. Jeeves and
J. Crush (eds), White farms, black labour: the state and agrarian change in
Southern Africa, 1910-1950 (Portmouth, 1997), pp. 243-264; S. Brooks, "Save
the game: conservationist discourse in early twentieth century Natal",
paper read at the biennial conference of the Economic History Society of
Southern Africa, Pietermaritzburg, 14-17.7.1992.
42 See for example D.P. McCracken, "The economic impact of botanic gardens
in the Victorian British empire with special reference to colonial Natal",
paper read at the biennial conference of the Economic History Society of
Southern Africa, Pietermaritzburg, 14-17.7.1992; D.P. McCracken, "Colonial
botanic gardens in the Victorian British empire", paper read at the 23rd
International Horticultural Congress, Florence, Italy, 27.8-1.9.1990; D.P.
McCracken, "The Victorian colonial botanic gardens curator", paper read at
the South African Association of Botanists conference, Durban, 7.2.1992.
43 D.P. McCracken and P.A. McCracken, Natal: the garden colony. Victorian
Natal and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Johannesburg, 1990).
44 D.P. McCracken, "Kirstenbosch: the final victory of botanical
nationalism" in Contree 38, 1995,
pp. 30-35. See also D.P. McCracken and E.M. McCracken, The way to
Kirstenbosch (Cape Town, 1988).
45 An exception is L. van Sittert, " 'Keeping the enemy at bay': the
extermination of wild carnivora in the Cape Colony, 1889-1910" in
Environmental History 3, July 1998, pp. 311-332.
46 Journal of Southern African Studies 15(2), 1989, pp. 163-187.
47 R. Grove, "Scotland in South Africa: John Croumbie Brown and the roots
of settler environmentalism" in T. Griffiths and L. Robin (eds), Ecology
and empire: environmental history of settler societies (Pietermaritzburg,
1997), pp. 139-153. See also R. Grove, "Early themes in African
conservation: the Cape in the nineteenth century" in D. Anderson and R.
Grove (eds), Conservation in Africa: people, politics and practice
(Cambridge, 1987), pp. 21-39; D. Anderson and R. Grove, "The scramble for
Eden: past, present and future in African conservation" in Anderson and
Grove (eds), Conservation in Africa, pp. 1-12.
48 C. le Roux, "Game protection in the Orange Free State 1848-1910" in
Historia 44(2), November 1999, pp. 390-408.
49 Journal of Southern African Studies 11(1), 1984, pp. 52-83. See also
Chapter 4, "Agriculture: exploitation unlimited and limited" in W. Beinart
and P. Coates, Environment and history: the taming of nature in the USA and
South Africa (London, 1995), pp. 51-71.
50 P.A. McAllister, "Resistance to 'betterment' in the Transkei: a case
study from Willowdale district" in Journal of Southern African Studies
15(2), 1989, pp. 346-368.
51 C. de Wet, "Betterment planning in a rural village in Keiskammahoek,
Ciskei" in Journal of Southern African Studies 15(2), 1989, pp. 326-345.
52 F.T. Hendricks, "Loose planning and rapid resettlement: the politics of
conservation and control in Transkei, South Africa, 1950-1970" in Journal
of Southern African Studies 15(2), 1989, pp. 306-325.
53 S. Beerstecher, "Witzieshoek: women, cattle and rebellion", unpublished
Ph.D. thesis, University of  Cape Town, 1996. See also M. Rakometse,
"Environmental issues underlying the Witsieshoek Rebellion, 1940-50", paper
read at the biennial conference of the Economic History Society of Southern
Africa, Pietermaritzburg, 14-17.7.1992.
54 J. McCann, Green land, brown land, black land: an environmental history
of Africa (Portmouth, 1999).
55 Journal of Southern African Studies 18(4), 1992, pp. 803-824.
56 Grove, "Scottish missionaries, evangelical discourses and the origins of
conservation thinking in Southern Africa 1820-1900".
57 Journal of African History 37(2), 1996, pp. 237-260.
58 See also N.J. Jacobs, "Environment, production and social difference in
the Kalahari Thornveld,
c1750-1830" in Journal of Southern African Studies 25(3), 1999, pp. 347-373
for a discussion on the food production activities of the Tlhaping and
Tlharo chiefdoms (Tswana-speaking) in the Northern Cape.
59 E.S. van Eeden, "Waterkwessies, met spesifieke verwysing na die
uitwerking van wateronttrekking op die landboubedryf in die
Oberholzerdistrik (Carletonville-gebied), 1959-1972" [Water issues with
specific reference to the influence of water extraction on the agricultural
industry of the Oberholzer distric (Carletonville area)] in New Contree 39,
August 1996, pp. 78-91.
60 J. Tempelhoff, "Die ontginning van Noord-Transvaal se houtbronne in die
negentiende eeu en vroeë bewaringsmaatreëls" [The exploitation of the
Northern Transvaal wood resources in the nineteenth century and early
conservation measures] in South African Forestry Journal 142, September
1987, pp. 67-76.
61 D.P. McCracken, "The indigenous forests of colonial Natal and Zululand"
in Natalia 16, 1986,
pp. 19-38; D.P. McCracken, "Qudeni: the early commercial exploitation of an
indigenous Zululand forest" in South African Forestry Journal 142,
September 1987, pp. 71-80.
62 See for example also C. Sargent and S. Bass (eds), Plantation politics:
forest plantations in development (London, 1992); C.D. Storrar, The four
faces of Fourcade: the biography of a remarkable scientist (Cape Town,
1990); H. Witt, "The development of the timber industry in Natal,
1910-1960: a socio-environmental study", paper read at the biennial
conference of the Economic History Society of Southern Africa,
Pietermaritzburg, 14-17.7.1992; L. Woodward, "Some aspects of the
destruction of indigenous forests for economic development: South
Africa/Brazil", paper read at the biennial conference of the Economic
History Society of Southern Africa, Pietermaritzburg, 14-17.7.1992; Beinart
and Coates, Environment and history, Chapter 3.
63 Tempelhoff, "Die ontginning van Noord-Transvaal se houtbronne".
64 McCracken, "Qudeni".
65 P. Phoofolo, "Epidemics and revolutions: the rinderpest epidemic in late
nineteenth-century southern Africa" in Past and Present 138, February 1993,
pp. 112-143.
66 See for example also Van Onselen, "Reactions to the rinderpest in
southern Africa, 1896-97";
C. Ballard, "The repercussions of the rinderpest: cattle plague and peasant
decline in colonial Natal" in The International Journal of African
Historical Studies 19(3), 1986, pp. 421-450.
67 See for example Brooks, "Playing the game"; Brooks, " 'Ropes of sand' ";
A de V. Minnaar, "Nagana, big-game drives and the Zululand game reserves
(1890s-1950s)" in Contree 25, 1989,
pp. 12-21.
68 Phylloxera is an almost microscopic insect of the Phylloxeridae plant
aphid family, that attacks both the vine roots and leaves, thereby
destroying the whole plant. The only way to combat this disease at the end
of the nineteenth century was the removal and burning of all affected vines
and the replanting of vineyards with Phylloxera-resistant American vines.
69 D.J. van Zyl, "Phylloxera vastatrix in die Kaapkolonie, 1886-1900:
voorkoms, verspreiding en ekonomiese gevolge" [Phylloxera vastatrix in the
Cape Colony, 1886-1900: occurrence, distribution and economic consequences]
in South African Historical Journal 16, November 1984, pp. 26-48.
70 See for example P.F. Cranefield, Science and empire: east coast fever in
Rhodesia and the Transvaal (Cape Town, 1991).
71 See for example S. Blendulf, "Rabies in Natal" in Natalia 20, December
1990, pp. 43-49.
72 W. Beinart, "Vets, viruses and environmentalism at the Cape" in Griffths
and Robin (eds), Ecology and empire, pp. 87-101.
73 South African Historical Journal 15, November 1983, pp. 34-52.
74 A. de V. Minnaar, "The locust invasion of Zululand 1933-1937" in Natalia
20, December 1990,
pp. 30-42.
75 In Marks and Atmore (eds), Economy and society in pre-industrial South
Africa, pp. 102-119.
76 For environmental histories on the impact of white settlement in South
Africa, see for example B. Ellis, "The impact of white settlers on the
environment of the Durban area, 1845-1870", paper read at the biennial
conference of the Economic History Society of Southern Africa,
Pietermaritzburg, 14-17.7.1992; J. Pridmore, "The impact of the European
traders on Port Natal 1824-1834: a look at environment and society", paper
read at the biennial conference of the Economic History Society of Southern
Africa, Pietermaritzburg, 14-17.7.1992; M.C. Snell, "The impact of human
settlement on the ecology of East Griqualand, 1862-1962", paper read at the
University of Natal History Workshop on Natal and Zululand since the 1890s,
Pietermaritzburg, October 1993.
77 T.M. Goetze, "Thomas Bain, road building and the Zwartberg Pass,
c.1843-1862 (with special emphasis on socio-economic and civil engineering
aspects)", unpublished M.A. dissertation, University of Stellenbosch, 1994.
78 T. Goetze, "Towards an assessment of roadbuilding, environmental impact
and South African historical writing", paper read at the biennial
conference of the South African Historical Society, Grahamstown, 1995. See
also T. Goetze, "Re-creation, tourism and historical presentation: the
cases of Georgetown, Colorado (USA), and Gamkaskloof, Western Cape (South
Africa) considered" in New Contree 42, November 1997, pp. 181-193.
79 M.S. Steyn, "Environmentalism in South Africa, 1972-1992: an historical
perspective", unpublished M.A. dissertation, University of the Orange Free
State, 1998.
80 See for example B.J. Liebenberg, K.W. Smith and S.B. Spies (eds), A
bibliography of South African history 1978-1989 (Pretoria, 1992).
81 Crosby, "The past and the present of environmental history", p. 1189.
82 Coetzee, "Towards and assessment of road building", pp. 18-19.
83 The Star, 10.3.1971, p. 22.

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Dr. Stefanie S. Rixecker, Senior Lecturer
Environmental Management & Design Division
Lincoln University, Canterbury
PO Box 84
Aotearoa New Zealand
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fax: 64-03-325-3841
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