Zen and the art of garden province maintenance: The soft intimacy of hard men in the wilderness of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, 1952-1997

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 24, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 801-828

  Draper, Malcolm ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU NATAL   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL HISTORY; GENDER IDENTITY; NATURE CONSERVATION; RACE; TWENTIETH CENTURY;

KWAZULU-NATAL PROVINCE; SOUTH AFRICA;

EID: 0032411017     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057079808708602     Document Type: Article

References (176)

1. I would like to thank Robert Morrell for, as Zygmunt Bauman said of modernism, 'desperately seeking structure', and William Beinart for many helpful comments.
2. Wonderful South Africa (Johannesburg, Associated Newspapers Ltd, 1937), pp. 29, 111.
3. T.V. Bulpin, Natal and the Zulu Country (Cape Town, Books of Africa, 1966) pp. 2, 3.
4. Alistair Graham, The Gardeners of Eden (London, Allen and Unwin, 1973), p. 16.
5. Quoted by Jack Shepherd-Smith, 'Wilderness Man', Style (May 1988).
6. Ian Player, Zululand Wilderness: Shadow and Soul (Cape Town, David Philip, 1997), p. 51.
7. Sue Derwent, 'At Home on the Range', Keeping Track (April/May 1997), p. 20.
8. Sunday Life, 20 October 1996.
9. Derwent, 'At Home on the Range'.
10. Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, Ecofeminism(London, Zed, 1993), p. 3. See also Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution (New York, Harper and Row, 1980).
11. Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, Ecofeminism(London, Zed, 1993), p. 3. See also Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution (New York, Harper and Row, 1980).
12. The term 'wild nature' demands qualification. The most visible icons of wild nature are large mammals, most notably the 'big five' (elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo and leopard) which occur largely in game reserves. Their 'wildness' is contestable. As William Beinart and Peter Coates conclude, 'the taste of renatured wild has more than a hint of tameness'. Environment and History: the Taming of Nature in the USA and South Africa (London, Routledge, 1995), p. 111.
13. See Beinart in this issue.
14. Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (London, Vintage, 1974). Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics: an Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (Boston, Shambhala, 1974).
15. Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (London, Vintage, 1974). Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics: an Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (Boston, Shambhala, 1974).
16. Andrew Ross, Strange Weather: Culture, Science and Technology in the Age of Limits (New York, Verso, 1991), pp. 40-47.
17. Most significantly Andrew Ross, The Chicago Gangster Theory of Life: Nature's Debt to Society (New York, Verso, 1994), ch. 4: 'Wet Dark and Low, Ecoman Evolves from Ecowoman'.
18. Ross, Strange Weather.
19. Donna Haraway, Primate Visions: Gender, Race and Nature in the World of Modern Science (New York, Routledge, 1989), p. 15.
20. Mike Donaldson, 'What is Hegemonic Masculinity?', Theory and Society, 22 (1993), p. 7.
21. Robert Connell, 'A Whole New World: Remaking Masculinity in the Context of the Environmental Movement', Gender and Society, 4, 4 (1990), pp. 452-478.
22. Donaldson, 'What is Hegemonic Masculinity?', p. 655. See Robert Morrell's introductory essay to this issue for a fuller discussion of these concepts.
23. Ian Player interviewed by the author at his farm Phuza Moya, Karkloof, 25 November 1995.
24. Author's interview with Player.
25. Ian Player, The White Rhino Saga (London, Collins, 1972).
26. Elizabeth Braun, Portraits in Conservation: Eastern and Southern Africa (North American Press in co-operation with the International Wilderness Leadership Foundation, 1995), pp. 144, 145.
27. Ibid.
28. Ian Player, Zululand Wilderness, p. 20.
29. Jack Shepherd Smith, 'Wilderness Man'. Shepherd Smith actually completed the first Dusi with Player after his partner was called back to the office half way through. For a full account of the canoeing story, see Ian Player, Men, Rivers and Canoes (Cape Town, Simondium, 1964).
30. Jack Shepherd Smith, 'Wilderness Man'. Shepherd Smith actually completed the first Dusi with Player after his partner was called back to the office half way through. For a full account of the canoeing story, see Ian Player, Men, Rivers and Canoes (Cape Town, Simondium, 1964).
31. Ian Player, Zululand Wilderness, pp. 56, 57.
32. Author's interview with Player.
33. Ibid.
34. See for example, John M. Mackenzie, The Empire of Nature: Hunting, Conservation and British Imperialism (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1988).
35. David Bunn, 'Comparative Barbarism: Game Reserves, Sugar Plantations, and the Modernization of the South African Landscape', in Kate Darian-Smith et al. (eds), Text, Theory, Space: Land, Literature and History in South Africa and Australia (London, Routledge, 1996), p. 43.
36. Beinart and Coates, Environment and History, p. 77.
37. Paul Theroux, 'The Zen of Kayaking', Men's Health (July/August, 1997).
38. David Cumes, Inner Passages, Outer Journeys: Wilderness, Healing and the Discovery of Self (St Paul, MN, Llewellyn, 1998). Although very much a product of the history discussed here, Cumes does not mention Player at all. Cumes has a company called Inward Bound which leads journeys of discovery and healing.
39. Usiko Rites of Passage Development Project was formed in Durban in May 1997 by Nicro, Institute of Criminology, Wilderness Leadership School, Outward Bound, Departments of Justice, Welfare and Prisons, National Parks Board, Lawyers for Human Rights, Ann Skelton, Credo Mutwa and Donald Pinnock.
40. Author's interview with Player.
41. Player, Zululand Wilderness, p. 12.
42. Ian Player interviewed about Zululand Wilderness on SAFM radio station by John Richards in January 1998. With thanks to Shirley Brookcs for the transcribed interview. See Keith Breckenridge in this issue for an understanding of the significance and violence of interracial contact underground.
43. Player, Zululand Wilderness, p. 236.
44. Wilderness Leadership School Annual Review, 1993.
45. Graham Saayman (ed), Modern South Africa in Search of a Soul: Jungian Perspectives on the Wilderness Within (Boston, MA, Sigo, 1990[1986]).
46. Laurens van der Post, The Dark Eye in Africa (London, Hogarth Press, 1955), pp. 54, 55.
47. Van der Post in Saayman, Modern South Africa in Search of a Soul, p. xiii.
48. Ibid.
49. Mail and Guardian, 7-13 November 1997.
50. Player in Saayman, Modern South Africa in Search of a Soul, p. 112.
51. Author's interview with Player.
52. Player, Zululand Wilderness, pp. 209, 210. Jean Lieldloff, The Continuum Concept (London, Futura, 1975), p. 103, argues that western child rearing practices make for a persona that 'clings for decades to the petticoats' of the bureaucracy. 'It rewards good and bad behaviour quite predictably. It protects from the cold hard world outside which is too risky for the inadequate emotional equipment of a deprived infant grown up . . . . The compulsive academic . . . who clings to his infant position vis-à-vis the school, has made of the alma mater a fairly adaptable mother surrogate'.
53. Player, Zululand Wilderness, pp. 209, 210. Jean Lieldloff, The Continuum Concept (London, Futura, 1975), p. 103, argues that western child rearing practices make for a persona that 'clings for decades to the petticoats' of the bureaucracy. 'It rewards good and bad behaviour quite predictably. It protects from the cold hard world outside which is too risky for the inadequate emotional equipment of a deprived infant grown up . . . . The compulsive academic . . . who clings to his infant position vis-à-vis the school, has made of the alma mater a fairly adaptable mother surrogate'.
54. Player, Zululand Wilderness, p. 209.
55. Jeff Guy, The Heretic: a Study of the Life of John William Colenso, 1814-1883 (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1983); 'Class, Imperialism and Literary Criticism: William Ngidi, John Colenso and Matthew Arnold', Journal of Southern African Studies, 23, 2 (1997), pp. 219-242.
56. Jeff Guy, The Heretic: a Study of the Life of John William Colenso, 1814-1883 (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1983); 'Class, Imperialism and Literary Criticism: William Ngidi, John Colenso and Matthew Arnold', Journal of Southern African Studies, 23, 2 (1997), pp. 219-242.
57. Saayman, Modern South Africa in Search of a Soul, p. 118.
58. Ibid., p. 120. Player's speech at the launch of Zululand Wilderness, Durban, November 1997. Zululand Wilderness, p. xi.
59. Ibid., p. 120. Player's speech at the launch of Zululand Wilderness, Durban, November 1997. Zululand Wilderness, p. xi.
60. PlayerZululand Wilderness, p. 13.
61. Saayman, Modern South Africa in Search of a Soul, p. 162. The Zulu God Nkulunkulu or Lord-of-the-Sky is, in Zulu symbolism, a masculine God, but is seen by some Zulu people as the male first-bom of twins. Apart from referring to a people and a language, 'Zulu' can be used to refer to either or both earth and sky, the earth being identified as the feminine twin force. Others see the earth and sky as husband and wife, with the husband being physically above the wife upon whom he depends upon for food. But, as a Zulu woman put it: 'we call them twins because we do not know which one is the more important. If we say twins, then we do not say that one is greater than the other.' Axel-Ivor Berglund, Zulu Thought Patterns and Symbolism (London, C. Hurst, 1976), p. 34.
62. Saayman, Modern South Africa in Search of a Soul, p. 162. The Zulu God Nkulunkulu or Lord-of-the-Sky is, in Zulu symbolism, a masculine God, but is seen by some Zulu people as the male first-bom of twins. Apart from referring to a people and a language, 'Zulu' can be used to refer to either or both earth and sky, the earth being identified as the feminine twin force. Others see the earth and sky as husband and wife, with the husband being physically above the wife upon whom he depends upon for food. But, as a Zulu woman put it: 'we call them twins because we do not know which one is the more important. If we say twins, then we do not say that one is greater than the other.' Axel-Ivor Berglund, Zulu Thought Patterns and Symbolism (London, C. Hurst, 1976), p. 34.
63. Player, Zululand Wilderness, p. 202.
64. Ross, The Chicago Gangster Theory of Life, p. 220.
65. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves: Contacting the Power of the Wild Woman (London, Rider, 1992).
66. Player, Zululand Wilderness, p. 25.
67. According to Carolyn Merchant, 'French Feminist Françoise d'Eaubonne set up Ecologie-Féminisme in 1972 as part of the project of "launching a new action: ecofeminism" and in 1974 published a chapter entitled "The Time for Ecofeminism" in her book Feminism or Death.' Carolyn Merchant (ed), Ecology (New Jersey, Humanities Press, 1994), p. 9.
68. Ross, The Chicago Gangster Theory of Life, p. 220.
69. Player, Zululand Wilderness, p. 13.
70. Ibid., p. 14.
71. Mies and Shiva, Ecofeminism, p. 152.
72. Mies and Shiva, Ecofeminism, p. 163.
73. Robert Connell, 'Men in the World: Masculinities and Globalisation' (unpublished paper presented to the Colloquium on Masculinities in Southern Africa, University of Natal, Durban, 1997), p. 3.
74. Player, Zululand Wilderness, p 91.
75. A challenge about Zulu patriarchy to a Zulu lecturer at the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg) giving a public course on ubuntu (customs and folkways) in 1992 met with this response.
76. Author's interview with Player.
77. 'The Natal Parks Board, 1947-1997', Supplement to The Natal Witness, 1 December 1997.
78. Author's interview with Player.
79. Network of Independent Monitors, Nature Conservation and the Military (Durban, NIM, 1997); Personal communication with author (anon.).
80. Michael Kimmel (ed), The Politics of Manhood: Profeminist Men Respond to the Mythopoetic Men's Movement (and the Mythopoetic Leaders Answer) (Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1995).
81. Author's interview with Player.
82. Michael Redclift and Graham Woodgate, Sociology and the Environment: Disordant discourse? in Michael Redclift and Ted Benton (eds) Social Theory and The Global Environment (London, Routledge, 1994), p. 58.
83. Player, Zululand Wilderness, p. 85. Interestingly enough, 'Bushmen' have returned to KwaZulu-Natal. A group of 33 has relocated to Phumula Game Reserve after an offer was made by the owners in response to a documentary focusing on their plight in Namibia which was screened on the environmental television programme 50/50 (Natal Witness, 21 November 1997).
84. Player, Zululand Wilderness, p. 85. Interestingly enough, 'Bushmen' have returned to KwaZulu-Natal. A group of 33 has relocated to Phumula Game Reserve after an offer was made by the owners in response to a documentary focusing on their plight in Namibia which was screened on the environmental television programme 50/50 (Natal Witness, 21 November 1997).
85. Player, Zululand Wilderness, p. 85.
86. Edwin Wilmsen, 'Primitive Politics in Sanctified Landscapes: the Ethnographic Fictions of Laurens van der Post', Journal of Southern African Studies, 21, 2 (1995).
87. Player, 'Magqubu the Hunter', ch. 9, Zululand Wilderness, pp. 119-227.
88. Ken Clatterbaugh, 'Mythopoetic Foundations and New Age Patriarchy', in Kimmel (ed), The Politics of Manhood, p. 49.
89. Some of this acrimony might have something to do with Player's general failure to acknowledge the role of urban, non-governmental activists in securing the future of the Zululand reserves.
90. Terry A. Kupers, 'Soft Males and Mama's Boys: a Critique of Bly', in Kimmel, The Politics of Manhood, p. 222.
91. Robert Bly, 'Thoughts on Reading this Book', in Kimmel, The Politics of Manhood, pp. 272, 273.
92. Braun, Conservation Portraits, p. 141.
93. Mail and Guardian, 24 December 1997-8 January 1998.
94. Player, Daily News, 27 June 1984.
95. Player, Zululand Wilderness, p. vi.
96. Elizabeth Braun, Conservation Portraits, p. 126.
97. Ian Player, Daily News, 6 July 1983.
98. Ibid.
99. Ibid.
100. Steve Kotzé, 'Conservancies in Natal, 1978-1993' (BA (Hons) dissertation, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1993).
101. 'The Natal Parks Board, 1947-1997'.The word 'conservancy' can be traced back to state interventions in natural resource utilisation in sixteenth century Europe. The Natal Parks Board's historic claim (which like any others I quote can be challenged by historians) must be limited to Africa and conservation schemes involving cooperation between a state or para-statal bureaucracy and private landowners. Steele's idea was in fact a 'Farm Patrol Plan' which he published in 1975. It was a group of farm owners from Balgowan in the Natal Midlands who claim credit for approaching the Natal Parks Board with the conservancy concept which in turn put Steele onto the idea.
102. Braun, Conservation Portraits, p. 128.
103. Ibid.
104. Player, Daily News, 6 July 1983.
105. Braun, Conservation Portraits, p. 126.
106. Ilanga, October 8 1979. Translated by Joel Ndlovu.
107. Natal Mercury, November 26 1981.
108. Braun, Conservation Portraits, p. 124.
109. Gerhard Maré and Georgina Hamilton, '"Human Relations and Not Labour Relations": Restructuring Agriculture and the Ngotshe Cooperation Agreement', Africa Perspective, 1, 5 and 6 (1987), p. 28.
110. Nick Steele, Take a Horse to the Wilderness (Cape Town, T.V. Bulpin and Books of Africa, 1971), pp. 15,25.
111. Jane Carruthers, 'Creating a National Park, 1910-1926', Journal of Southern African Studies, 15, 2 (1989); Jane Carruthers, The Kruger National Park: a Social and Political History (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1995); Jane Carruthers, 'Nationhood and National Parks: Comparative Examples from the Post-imperial Experience', in Ecology and Empire: Environmental History of Settler Societies (University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg, 1997).
112. Jane Carruthers, 'Creating a National Park, 1910-1926', Journal of Southern African Studies, 15, 2 (1989); Jane Carruthers, The Kruger National Park: a Social and Political History (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1995); Jane Carruthers, 'Nationhood and National Parks: Comparative Examples from the Post-imperial Experience', in Ecology and Empire: Environmental History of Settler Societies (University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg, 1997).
113. Jane Carruthers, 'Creating a National Park, 1910-1926', Journal of Southern African Studies, 15, 2 (1989); Jane Carruthers, The Kruger National Park: a Social and Political History (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1995); Jane Carruthers, 'Nationhood and National Parks: Comparative Examples from the Post-imperial Experience', in Ecology and Empire: Environmental History of Settler Societies (University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg, 1997).
114. Association for Rural Advancement, Maputaland: Conservation and Removals (Pietermaritzburg, AFRA, 1990).
115. Sunday Times, June 8 1997.
116. Braun, Conservation Portraits, pp. 124-132.
117. Nick Steele, Poachers in the Hills (Melmoth, Nick Steele, 1992).
118. Graham, The Gardeners of Eden, p. 34.
119. Steele, Poachers in the Hills, p. 74.
120. Steele, Take a Horse to the Wilderness, p. 17. (Msinga is an area of the province which is a notorious battleground of faction fighting.)
121. John O'Malley, Foreword to Steele, Poachers in the Hills, p. 12.
122. Steele, Take a Horse to the Wilderness, p. 17.
123. Nigel Edley and Margaret Wetherell, 'Jockeying for Position: the Construction of Masculine Identities', Discourse and Society, 8, 2 (1997), p. 212. A point not noted by the authors is that in most violent sports, restraint and 'psyching out' the adversary is the mark of accomplishment.
124. Weekly Mail, 8-14 November, 1991.
125. A headman one rank below an Inkosi (Chief) in the Tribal Authority system. In another case an Induna himself was apprehended for selling four snares and 'due to the age and position of the accused in the community' he was taken to the tribal court where he was warned and charged R20 (KwaZulu Bureau of Natural Resources, 'Situation Report: Tembe-Ndumo Complex', May 1992).
126. KwaZulu Bureau of Natural Resources, 'Situation Report: Tembe-Ndumo Complex', November 1991.
127. Braun, Conservation Portraits, pp. 124-132.
128. Mail and Guardian, 7-13 November 1997.
129. Steele, Poachers in the Hills, p. 16.
130. Chris Merrett, 'South Africa: Conservation Capers', Index on Censorship, 6, (1992), p. 31. Steele's lawyers took R20,000 from Merrett in an out of court defamation settlement. Merrett said he could not afford to fight, let alone lose, a Supreme Court case.
131. Braun, Conservation Portraits, pp. 124-131.
132. Ibid., p. 129.
133. Steele, Take a Horse to the Wilderness, p. 18.
134. Braun, Conservation Portraits, p. 127.
135. Ibid., p. 130.
136. Nature Conservation and the Military (Durban, Network of Independent Monitors, 1997).
137. Personal communication with development worker.
138. Nick Steele, Bushlife of a Game Warden (Cape Town, T.V. Bulpin, 1979), pp. 6, 7.
139. Sunday Times, 19 October 1997.
140. Nick Steele, Game Ranger on Horseback (Cape Town, Books of Africa, 1968), p. 136.
141. Natal Witness, 7 June 1997.
142. Ross, The Chicago Gangster Theory of Life, ch. 4.
143. Jock Phillips, A Man's Country? The Image of the Pakeha Male: a History (Auckland Penguin Books 1987), p. 47.
144. Shirley Brooks, 'Blood, Power and the Negotiations of Masculinities in the Zululand Game Reserves' (unpublished paper presented to the Colloquium on Masculinities in Southern Africa, University of Natal, Durban, 1997). Although this point is not made in the written paper, she reported it in her presentation. With her kind permission I repeat it here.
145. Personal observation.
146. Steele, Bushlife of a Game Warden, p. 184.
147. Derwent, 'At Home on the Range'.
148. Michael Kimmel, '"Born to Run": Nineteenth-Century Fantasies of Masculine Retreat and Re-creation (or The Historical Rust on Iron John)', in Kimmel, The Politics of Manhood, pp. 133, 139.
149. Player, Zululand Wilderness, pp. 48, 49. Beinart and Coates confirm this global link, Environment and History, p. 27, 29, 61.
150. Player, Zululand Wilderness, pp. 48, 49. Beinart and Coates confirm this global link, Environment and History, p. 27, 29, 61.
151. Steele, Bushlife of a Game Warden, p. 26
152. Natal Witness, 17 April 1998. John Conyngham's novels, set in 'Zululand' are: The Arrowing of the Cane (Craighall, Donker, 1986) and The Desecration of the Graves (London, Bloomsbury 1992).
153. Natal Witness, 17 April 1998. John Conyngham's novels, set in 'Zululand' are: The Arrowing of the Cane (Craighall, Donker, 1986) and The Desecration of the Graves (London, Bloomsbury 1992).
154. Natal Witness, 17 April 1998. John Conyngham's novels, set in 'Zululand' are: The Arrowing of the Cane (Craighall, Donker, 1986) and The Desecration of the Graves (London, Bloomsbury 1992).
155. Braun, Conservation Portraits, p. 129.
156. Steele, Bushlife of a Game Warden, p. 25.
157. Although seeking to escape from domesticity is associated with men, where women have access to horses they do the same. This point is well made by Diane Ackerman in A Natural History of Love (New York, Vintage Books, 1996), 'Women and Horses', pp. 196-217.
158. Steele, Take a Horse to the Wilderness, p. 24.
159. Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves: Contacting the Power of the Wild Woman.
160. David Webster, 'Abafazi Bathonga Bafihlakala: Ethnicity and Gender in a KwaZulu Border Community', African Studies, 50, 4 (1991).
161. Braun, Conservation Portraits, p. 132.
162. Ibid., p. 131.
163. Grey Owl, Country Life, 2 March 1929, p. 302. See also E.E. Reynolds (ed), A Book of Grey Owl (London, Peter Davies, 1938).
164. Grey Owl, Country Life, 2 March 1929, p. 302. See also E.E. Reynolds (ed), A Book of Grey Owl (London, Peter Davies, 1938).
165. Donald B. Smith, From the Land of the Shadows (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Western Producer Prairie Books, 1990), p. 216.
166. Many thanks to Jamie Linton for the information on the American Society of Environmental History debate which took place in January 1998.
167. He cites Seven Pillars of Wisdom in particular and at great length.
168. Braun, Conservation Portraits, p. 142.
169. Steele, Bushlife of a Game Warden, p. 127.
170. Ibid., p. 128.
171. Carruthers, The Kruger National Park, p. 116.
172. Sunday Tribune, 5 January 1992.
173. Michael Kimmel and Michael Kaufman, 'The Week End Warriors: the New Men's Movement', in Kimmel, The Politics of Manhood, p. 17.
174. Robert Bly, 'Thoughts on Reading this Book', in Kimmel, The Politics of Manhood, pp. 271, 274.
175. Mies, 'White Man's Dilemma: His Search for What He has Destroyed', in Mies and Shiva, Ecofeminism, p. 160.
176. Ian Player, Daily News, 27 June 1984.