William Beinart

Environment and history: the taming of nature in the USA and South Africa

1. Introduction: Comparative analysis, the historical background and the nature of environmental history 2. Hunting and animals: from game to wildlife 3. Timber and trees: from felling to forestry 4. Agriculture: exploitation unlimited and limited 5. Nature reserves and National Parks: revaluing and renaturing the wild 6. From conservation to environmentalism and beyond

Plant Transfers in Historical Perspective: A Review Article

This paper explores some routes into the history of plant transfers, especially during the period of European imperialism. It attempts to draw on different bodies of research, which are not usually juxtaposed, and weave together per spectives from contrasting disciplines. It does not pretend to offer a history, which is a much more complex task. We have deliberately tried to include cultivated crops, garden plants, weeds and plant invaders within the same frame of analysis, because it is so difficult to define some species within any one of these culturally constructed categories. The paper develops three main points. Firstly, it raises questions about the asymmetrical pattern of plant transfers dur ing imperialism, thus challenging some of the propositions offered in Crosbys Ecological Imperialism. Secondly, we evaluate recent literature on the history of botany and botanical institutions and suggest that a broader range of human agency needs to be considered, as well as accidental transfers, if the global trajectories of plant species are to be mapped and comprehended. And thirdly, we argue that in pursuit of generalisations about patterns of transfer, scientists have concentrated too much on plant properties, and historians on understanding political economy or institutions. A global history, as well as particular plant histories, requires a combination of insights and research from sciences, social sciences and humanities.

Transkeian Migrant Workers and Youth Labour on the Natal Sugar Estates 1918-1948

During the inter-war years, there were frequent reports of desertion, youth labour and atrocious conditions on the sugar estates of Natal, South Africa. Sugar production, assisted by heavy state protection, was expanding rapidly; planters recruited vigorously amongst rural Africans in Transkei to replace Indian indentured workers. They also used their political muscle in order to prevent the extension of labour regulations in the mining industry to the sugar fields and could thus employ workers rejected from the mines on health grounds as well as youths. The conflict between mines and agriculture over labour in South Africa was resolved by non-regulation of agriculture as well as by the immobilization of labour tenants on farms. Officials in the departments of Health and Native Affairs, anxious to control social disruption and minimize fatalities, tried to regulate the sugar estates. The issue divided the state and the Native Affairs Department.itself. Agrarian interests, including English-speaking planters, became particularly powerful in the inter-war years, and officials had little success in controlling them. But African youth labour was available not simply because there was a large demand, but also because there was a supply. Youths had to work in peasant communities. Although their work was embedded in a different social ethic, there is evidence to suggest that demands on them were increasing; some ‘ran away’ to the sugar fields. Chiefs and councillors wished to control youth and child migration both because of fears about their welfare and the need for herdboys. This pattern of migration became less common in the 1940s not only because production patterns on the estates changed, but also because of social changes in the rural areas. As in other contexts, the nature of the South African labour market was partly shaped through a process of struggle within and by rural communities.

An interdisciplinary review of current and future approaches to improving human-predator relations

In a world of shrinking habitats and increasing competition for natural resources, potentially dangerous predators bring the challenges of coexisting with wildlife sharply into focus. Through interdisciplinary collaboration among authors trained in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, we reviewed current approaches to mitigating adverse human-predator encounters and devised a vision for future approaches to understanding and mitigating such encounters. Limitations to current approaches to mitigation include too much focus on negative impacts; oversimplified equating of levels of damage with levels of conflict; and unsuccessful technical fixes resulting from failure to engage locals, address hidden costs, or understand cultural (nonscientific) explanations of the causality of attacks. An emerging interdisciplinary literature suggests that to better frame and successfully mitigate negative human-predator relations conservation professionals need to consider dispensing with conflict as the dominant framework for thinking about human-predator encounters; work out what conflicts are really about (they may be human-human conflicts); unravel the historical contexts of particular conflicts; and explore different cultural ways of thinking about animals. The idea of cosmopolitan natures may help conservation professionals think more clearly about human-predator relations in both local and global context. These new perspectives for future research practice include a recommendation for focused interdisciplinary research and the use of new approaches, including human-animal geography, multispecies ethnography, and approaches from the environmental humanities notably environmental history. Managers should think carefully about how they engage with local cultural beliefs about wildlife, work with all parties to agree on what constitutes good evidence, develop processes and methods to mitigate conflicts, and decide how to monitor and evaluate these. Demand for immediate solutions that benefit both conservation and development favors dispute resolution and technical fixes, which obscures important underlying drivers of conflicts. If these drivers are not considered, well-intentioned efforts focused on human-wildlife conflicts will fail.

Men, science, travel and nature in the eighteenth and nineteenth‐century Cape

Ecofeminist writing has re‐evaluated the Western scientific revolution as an essentially male enterprise which classified and exploited nature, as well as facilitating the domination of women and colonised peoples. Mary Louise Pratts Imperial Eyes extends this analysis by focusing on European scientific travellers in the extra‐European world in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. At a general level, over a long period of time, there is force in this argument. But this article argues for a more fluid approach to masculinity and science. In exploring the writings of some visiting scientists at the Cape, especially Anders Sparrman and William Burchell, it highlights their role in developing alternative visions of social interaction and the natural world. The article concludes with an assessment of the position of Mary Barber, one of the first women at the Cape to receive recognition as a natural scientist; while she was subordinated to men in colonial scientific work, her life illustrates th...

Prickly pear : the social history of a plant in the Eastern Cape

Prickly Pear, Brewing and Local Knowledge in the Eastern Cape, 2000-2006. The Spread of Prickly Pear, 1750-1900. Early Debates about the Control of Prickly Pear. Experiments with Cactus in the Cape, a Miracle Fodder? 1900-1930. Eradicating an Invader: Entomologists, Cactoblastis and Cochineal, 1930-1960. The Multi-Purpose Plant, 1950-2006. Scientists and the Re-evaluation of Cactus for Fodder and Fruit, 1960-2006. Afrikaners and the Cultural Revival of Prickly Pear. Conclusion: Back to the Brewers.

Transhumance, Animal Diseases and Environment in the Cape, South Africa

The focus of this article is on a paradox of kinds. I suggest that transhumance in South Africa was shaped not least by the imperatives of animal nutrition and health, including the avoidance of specific animal diseases. But the quest for improved disease control, especially by route of veterinary regulation, played a significant role in the gradual demise of transhumance in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A secondary theme concerns the changing causes and character of movement as the livestock economy became increasingly commercial in the nineteenth century. Thirdly, some social and environmental aspects of transhumance and its curtailment - which were of considerable importance in South African history - are addressed.

Why Have South African Smallholders Largely Abandoned Arable Production in Fields? A Case Study

Our article concerns the decline in arable production in the former homelands of South Africa – part of a longer-term trend that has probably accelerated since the mid 1990s. Our material is taken largely from interviews in Mbotyi village on the Eastern Cape coast, where rainfall is high. Even here, arable fields have largely been left fallow in recent years. Our interviews confirm that people in Mbotyi believe that there has been a marked and sharp decline in cultivation. While the general phenomenon that we are exploring is quite widely accepted in academic literature, explanations are less certain and it is difficult to rank the causes. Our aim is to contribute to this debate by considering especially people’s own perceptions. An investigation on a micro-scale allows for a multi-faceted analysis of the range of issues that confront cultivation in Mbotyi – a complex mix of disincentives that includes environmental problems, cost and risk, declining patriarchy and changing attitudes to work. We believe that it is important to engage with popular perspectives and understandings of these issues. Our analysis places at its centre a shortage of labour for agricultural purposes, despite high unemployment in the village. We conclude by suggesting some of the implications of this analysis for land reform and the priorities for agricultural policy in the former homelands.

The Historical Context and Legacy of the Natives Land Act of 1913

The Natives Land Act of 1913 was a key example of the segregationist and racist legislation that fixed discriminatory foundations in South African law. We argue in this article that the Act did not take land away from African people directly, and that in the short term its impact was limited. Its most immediate effect was to undermine black tenants on white-owned land, but even here the consequences were mixed and slow to materialise. In many ways the 1913 Land Act was a holding operation and statement of intent about segregation on the land. These are some of the most difficult issues in understanding the Act and its legacy, in part because the Act itself tends to become subsumed into, and ascribed responsibility for, other historical processes: dispossession during the nineteenth century, and apartheid in the second half of the twentieth century. This article sets the Act and its consequences in historical context and, drawing on a number of case studies, points to regional and even local variations in its impact. Our analysis contests some of the conclusions in key books by Plaatje (in the 1910s) and Keegan (in the 1980s). We review some of the major discussions about the social forces behind the Act, assess its significance in destroying the African peasantry and shaping the system of migrant labour, question ideas about a bifurcated world of urban citizens and rural subjects, and conclude by outlining our view of some of its most enduring and destructive legacies. These include outcomes that were not specified in the original legislation, such as the cementing of traditional authorities in the African rural areas.

European Traders and the Mpondo Paramountcy, 1878–1886

For a brief period between about 1878 and 1886, European traders in Eastern Pondoland played an important role in the politics of the chieftaincy. In these years the formerly amicable relationship between the Mpondo chiefs and the Cape Colony broke down. An expansionist colonial government confiscated the Mpondo port at St Johns, took control of an area claimed by the paramountcy, and threatened the political independence of the chiefs. The traders, especially a few larger wholesale firms, allied themselves with the paramount in his struggle to regain his land and port. Some traders feared that colonial encroachments would affect the concessions they had obtained from the paramount and that customs duties charged by the Cape at Port St Johns would undermine their competitiveness. Others, faced with an acute trading depression in 1882–3, sought to increase their share of the Pondoland market and hoped that conflict between the Cape and the Mpondo would stimulate a new boom. The chiefs, on their side, were receptive to the political overtures of the traders. As traders penetrated the area, they began to lose control over production and became increasingly dependent on taxing trade and granting concessions. They had lost confidence in missionary scribes and looked to the traders to provide secretarial skills. Various groups of traders could also give aid in the prosecution of Mpondo diplomacy by supplying firearms, opening negotiations with the imperial authorities, and establishing a new port. The alliance was formed at a specific moment in the penetration of merchant capital into an independent African polity. It serves to illustrate that some traders were prepared to act independently of the colonial powers in order to protect their interests.