Transfrontier talk, cordon politics: The early history of the great limpopo transfrontier park in southern africa, 1925-1940

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 35, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 715-735

  Mavhunga, Clapperton ^a   Spierenburg, Marja ^b  

^a MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY   (United States)

^b VU UNIVERSITY AMSTERDAM   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CONSERVATION PLANNING; DOCUMENTARY SOURCE; ECOTOURISM; ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; NATIONAL PARK; NATURE CONSERVATION; PLANNING HISTORY;

GREAT LIMPOPO TRANSFRONTIER PARK; ZIMBABWE;

BOS;

EID: 75649103992     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070903101920     Document Type: Article

References (149)

1. Arquivos Historicos do Mozambique (AHM), Governo Geral/Cota 178/C3 Caçca - Reservas e Parques de Caça, 09/08/1927.
2. See, for example, AHM, Governo Geral/Cota 178/C3/02/11/1933.
3. J. Carruthers, 'Nationhood and National Parks: Comparative Examples from the Post-Imperial Experience', in T. Griffiths and L. Robbin (eds), Ecology and Empire - Environmental History of Settler Societies (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1997), p. 126.
4. R. Duffy, 'The Environmental Challenge to the Nation-State: Superparks and National Parks Policy in Zimbabwe', Journal of Southern African Studies (hereafter JSAS), 23, 3 (1997), p. 441.
5. W. Wolmer, 'Transboundary Conservation: The Politics of Ecological Integrity in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park', JSAS, 29, 1 (March 2003), pp. 261-78.
6. D. Anderson and R. Grove, Conservation in Africa: People, Policies, and Practice (New York, Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 265.
7. See for dispossessions and transfrontier conservation: Wolmer, 'Transboundary Conservation', M. Spierenburg, C. Steenkamp and H. Wels, 'Resistance against the Marginalization of Communities in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area', Focaal, European Journal of Anthropology, 47 (2006), pp. 18-31.
8. See: J. Carruthers, The Kruger National Park, A Social and Political History (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press 1995).
9. J. Carruthers, 'Creating a National Park, 1910 to 1926', JSAS, 15, 2 (1989), p.190.
10. 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, Longman, 1980).
11. C. Mavhunga, 'Firearms Diffusion, Exotic and Indigenous Knowledge Systems in the Lowveld Frontier, South Eastern Zimbabwe, 1870-1920', Comparative Technology Transfer and Society, 1, 2 (2003).
12. National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ) N9/1/1, Annual reports of Chief Native Commissioner and all Native Commissioners in Mashonaland for the Year Ended 31st December 1908, Ndanga.
13. J. Stevenson-Hamilton, 'Transvaal Government Game Reserves and Regulations', Journal of the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire, v (1909), pp. 63-5.
14. M. Chitura, 'International Tourism and Changes in the South African Tourism Product in the 1990s: Accommodation and Tourist Amenities in the Kruger National Park' (MA Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2005), pp. 1, 15.
15. 'Minutes of Meeting Held in Railway Offices Cape Town', South African Publicity Advisory Committee (3 March 1921), p. 8.
16. Carruthers, 'Creating a National Park', p. 190.
17. Carruthers, The Kruger National Park.
18. Carruthers, 'Creating a National Park'.
19. See also Wolmer, 'Transboundary Conservation', pp. 268-9.
20. T. V. Bulpin, The Ivory Trail (Cape Town, T.V. Bulpin, 1954), p. 97.
21. For the social consequences of this 'blackbirding', see Mavhunga, 'Firearms Diffusion', pp. 217-28.
22. M. Murray, '"Blackbirding" at "Crooks" Corner': Illicit Labour Recruiting in the Northern Transvaal, 1910-1940', JSAS, 21, 3 (1995).
23. For the corporate dimensions driving it, see A.H. Jeeves, Migrant Labour in South Africa's Mining Economy: The Struggle for the Gold Mines' Labour Supply 1890-1920 (Kingston and Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1985).
24. Mavhunga, 'Firearms Diffusion', pp. 224-26.
25. NAZ, S917/A312/481/A, Public Works Nuanetsi, Assistant Native Commissioner, 1923-8: Staff Officer, BSA Police, to Superintendent Victoria 28/2/1923; S917/13/481, Herbert Taylor, CNC, to Secretary Native Affairs, 29/11/23; Lt-Col. J.W. Foulinsons, Assistant Commissioner BSA Police to Staff Officer Salisbury, 6/7/24.
26. See W. Wolmer, 'Wilderness Gained, Wilderness Lost: Wildlife Management and Land Occupation in Zimbabwe's Southeast Lowveld', Journal of Historical Geography, 31 (2005), p. 264.
27. This Gonarezhou Game Reserve would be bounded in the north by a line from Machindu Pool to the Portuguese border, on the south by the Pafuri-Limpopo and Bubi-Limpopo junctions coterminous with Kruger National Park (provided the Union government moved Makuleke and his people out of the park), and Nuanetsi Ranch and Matibi II Native Reserve (west) and the Portuguese border (to the east).
28. NAZ, 'The New Ministry', African World (AW), 16 September 1933.
29. 'Rearrangement of Portfolios', AW, Oct 14, 1933, 432; S1194/1645/3/1, Kelly Edwards to Acting Secretary Agriculture, 8 April 1933: 'Game Reserves'.
30. NAZ, S914/12/1B, Controlled Shooting Area Boundaries of: Secretary Commerce to Secretary Agriculture, 4 April 1934: 'Controlled Shooting'.
31. NAZ, S914/12/1B, Secretary Commerce to Secretary Commerce, 6/2/34; Reply, 7/2/34; Secretary Commerce to Secretary to the Prime Minister: 'Game Reserve: Chibi District - Gonarezhou', 22/2/34.
32. NAZ, S914/12/1B, Acting Secretary Commerce and Transport to Col. Deneys Reitz, Minister of Lands, Pretoria, 28 September 1934:
33. 'Gonarezhou Game Reserve'; 'National Park and Game Reserve Scheme, Government Proclamation Gazetted', AW, 9 June 1934, p. 299.
34. NAZ, S1194/3/1, Manager Nuanetsi Ranch to Magistrate Gwanda, 31 Oct 1932.
35. Secretary Agriculture to CNC, 3 Nov 1932.
36. 'Stock Restrictions Withdrawn', AW, 22 April 1933, p. 22.
37. NAZ, S914/12, Game Reserves in Southern Rhodesia 1933-5: The Assistant NC Nuanetsi, J. Bawden, to Supt. of Natives, Fort Victoria.
38. See Spierenburg et al., 'Resistance Against the Marginalization'.
39. Although in hindsight it is probably unhelpful to regard the state as hell-bent on disenfranchising blacks. Underlying this seemingly racist process were intricate sciences and technologies of governance, of managing resources. This particular view by the colonial administrator echoes D. Anderson's, 'Depression, Dust Bowl, Demography and Drought: The Colonial State and Soil Conservation in East Africa during the 1930s', African Affairs, 83 (1984), p. 332.
40. NAZ, S1194/1645/3/1, Bullock, CNC to Secretary to Premier, 7 November 1932, 'Suggested Proclamation of Game Reserve: Chipinda Pools Area'; S914/12/1B, D. Townley to Gilchrist, 5 October 1934.
41. S. Rogers Divisional Road Engineer to Chief Road Engineer, 12 June 1934.
42. NAZ, S914/12, CNC to Minister Commerce; Assistant NC Bawden to Supt. of Natives, Fort Victoria.
43. Wolmer, 'Wilderness Gained, Wilderness Lost', p. 265.
44. 'Emerging Mass Tourism in the South: Reflections on the Social Opportunities and Costs of National and Regional Tourism in Developing Countries', http://www.unrisd.org/engindex/publ/list/dp/dp85/dp85-03.htm
45. NAZ, S914/12/1B, Supt. Southern Rhodesia Publicity Bureau, Bulawayo to Secretary Agriculture, 9 May 1934.
46. Secretary Commerce to Minister Agriculture, 29 March 1934.
47. NAZ, S914/12/1D, Chipinda Pools - Proposed Reserve 1933-4, F. Hackney, Midlands Hotel, Gwelo, to The Secretary Commerce, 19 February 1934. Submitting his résumé, Hackney said he was conversant with the district and its difficulties. An ex-BSA Policeman who had served from 1913 to 1925 as a sergeant, he was sufficiently familiar with the often lawless nature of this border area. In 1925, as a recent retiree, Hackney had formed Hackneys (Gwelo) which he had recently sold to his partner, Mr Ludgate; he had 11 years experience as an entrepreneur.
48. NAZ, S914/12/1D, Secretary Commerce to Hackney, 20 February 1934; Secretary Commerce to Chief Clerk Lands; The Minister 9/4/34; Under Secretary Lands to Hackney, 1 May 1934; also S914/12/1B, Secretary Agriculture to Secretary Commerce, 13 April 1934: 'Controlled Shooting'.
49. NAZ, S914/12/1D, Hackney to Undersecretary Lands, 19 May 1934; Secretary Mines and Works to Undersecretary Lands, 2 June 1934; S914/12/1B, Townley to Gilchrist, 5 October 1934 Undersecretary Lands to Secretary Commerce, 28 May 1934.
50. NAZ, S1194/1645/3/1, Proposed Game Reserves - Chipinda Pools and Gwanda 1932-5: C. Ashley-Belbin to Minister Agriculture, 7 May 1935.
51. NAZ, H.G. Mundy, Secretary Agriculture and Lands to Ashley-Belbin, 29 May 1935.
52. CNC to Secretary to Prime Minister, 25 November 1933; Chief Forest Officer to Secretary Agriculture, 16 May 1935.
53. NAZ, N9/1/1, Annual Reports of CNC and All NCs in Mashonaland for Year Ended 31 December 1908: Ndanga. 44 AHM, Governo Geral/Cota 178/C3 Caçca - Reservas e Parques de Caça, 09/08/1927.
54. AHM, Governo Geral/Cota 178/C3 Caça - Reservas e Parques de Caça, 16/11/1927.
55. Coutada 16 was declared a National Park in 2001, and named Limpopo National Park; it is part of present-day Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.
56. AHM, Governo Geral/Cota 178/C3 Caça - Reservas e Parques de Caça, 21/10/1927.
57. AHM, GovernoGeral/Cota 178/C3 Caça - Reservas e Parques de Caça, 29/10/1927. The Director based his advice on a letter from the Game Commission (Comissa o de Caça) of the District of Lourenço Marquez, Governo Geral/Cota 178/C3 Caça - Reservas e Parques de Caça, 08/09/1927, as well as a letter from the Directorate of the Veterinary Service, Governo Geral/Cota 178/C3 Caça - Reservas e Parques de Caça, 06/10/1927.
58. AHM, Governo Geral/Cota 178/C3 Caça - Reservas e Parques de Caça, 28/09/1927. In fact, the irrigation programme did not start until the late 1960s.
59. A. Isaacman, Cotton is the Mother of Poverty: Peasants, Work, and Rural Struggle in Colonial Mozambique, 1938-1961 (Portsmouth, NH/London, Heinemann/James Currey, 1996), p. 27.
60. Isaacman, Cotton is the Mother of Poverty, p. 27.
61. Ibid., p. 27.
62. M. Newitt, A History of Mozambique (London, Hurst, 1995), pp. 356-61.
63. L. Vail, 'Mozambique's Chartered Companies: The Rule of the Feeble', Journal of African History, XVII, 3 (1976), pp. 389-416.
64. Newitt, A History of Mozambique, pp. 326-33.
65. I. Adamo, R. Davies and J. Head, 'Mão-de-obra Moçambicana na Rodésia do Sul', Estudos Moçambicanos, 2 (1981), pp. 59-72.
66. II Murray, '"Blackbirding" at "Crooks" Corner'.
67. 'Kruger National Park (KNP)', AW, 19 August 1933, p. 146.
68. Subsequently, members of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange contributed £350, sufficient for sinking the first borehole, which would be known as 'the Stock Exchange water-hole'. 'Kruger Reserve Drought', AW, 23 September 1933, p. 311.
69. AHM, Governo Geral/Cota 178/C3/02/11/1933.
70. AHM, Administração Civil/Secção A/17/04/1934. The letters decreeing the reserves can be found in Administração Civil/Secção A /Cota 83 Armas e Caça.
71. AHM, Governo Geral/Cota 166/B10.
72. AHM, Governo Geral/Cota 166/B10/04/08/1932.
73. AHM, Governo Geral/ Cota 178/ C3, Caça-Regulamentos, licenças, fornecimentos de animais, 22/06/1939.
74. AHM, Governo Geral/ Cota 178/ C3/ Caça-transgresso es, autos e multas, 20/09/1933.
75. All filed under AHM, Governo Geral/Cota 163/B4.
76. KNP, '"Tourist Zone" for Lourenço Marques: Seeking New Means of Attracting Visitors', AW, 2 December 1933, p. 266.
77. H. Keyser, Tourism Development (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 24.
78. KNP, 'Governor to Visit Rhodesia: Party to Stay at Government House', AW, 21 April 1934, p. 27.
79. 'Mozambique Governor at Salisbury: Guests of Sir Cecil and Lady Rodwell', AW, 12 May 1934, p. 147.
80. AHM, Governo Geral/Cota 163/B4, 19/01/1934; 16/02/1934.
81. KNP, 'Agreement with Mozambique: Facilities for Tourist Traffic and Cattle Export', AW, 23 June 1934, p. 377.
82. KNP, 'Cattle and Tourists: Activities of the Rhodesian Minister of Transport', AW, 6 January 1934, p. 453.
83. AHM, Governo Geral/Cota 163/B4, 07-02-34, Repartição Direcção Geral das Colónias do Oriente.
84. NAZ, S914/12/1B, Earl of Onslow to Commerce, 1 December 1933.
85. KNP, 'National Game Reserve: The Government's Proposals', AW, 3 March 1934, p. 264.
86. KNP, 'Rhodesia Not Anxious to Enter Union', AW, 17 December 1932.
87. KNP, 'No Union with South Africa: Premier's Emphatic Statement United Party's Programme: Statement of Policy', AW, 27 October 1934, p. 60.
88. See Carruthers, The Kruger National Park, pp. 98-9.
89. KNP, 'New Game Reserve Area', AW, 7 January 1933, p. 386.
90. 'New Game Reserve', AW, 26 August 1933, p. 174.
91. However, as Carruthers demonstrates, in The Kruger National Park, pp. 98 & 99, an impasse continued until 1952 when the Parks Board gave up the area. Even the Board's secretary Van Graan was sure that acquiring Pafuri was 'the future germ' that would destroy the whole of Kruger National Park. In 1969, however, the Pafuri part was added to Kruger, and the Makuleke community was evicted.
92. NAZ, S914/12/1B: Acting Secretary Commerce to Reitz, 28 September 1934; S914/12, Game Reserves (Newspaper cutting), about September/October 1934.
93. The Sunday News, 26 November 1933; S914/12/1B: The Earl of Onslow, President of the Society for the Protection of the Wild Fauna of the Empire, London, to Secretary Commerce, 1 December 1933.
94. KNP, 'Huge Game Park Planned: In Union, Portuguese and Rhodesian Territory',AW, 22 September 1934, p. 361.
95. NAZ, C.W. Hobley to R.B. Wright, Office of the High Commissioner for Rhodesia, 28 March 1935.
96. 'Publicity Collaboration in Southern Africa Urged at National Conference in Salisbury - "Obstacles to Rhodesian Extension of Kruger Park"', The Rhodesia Herald, 13 August 1937.
97. KNP, 'The New Zambesi Bridge Completed', AW, 3 November 1934, p. 103.
98. KNP, 'National Game Reserve: The Government's Proposals', AW, 3 March 1934, p. 264.
99. NAZ, S1194/1645/3/1: Chief Entomologist to Senior Forest Officer, 28 October 1932; Secretary Department of Agriculture and Lands to the Minister, 1645/155.
100. KNP, 'Outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease: Standstill Order Issues', AW, 21 July 1934, p. 22.
101. 'Outbreak of Cattle Disease: Union Quarantine Restriction', AW, 11 August 1934, p. 147.
102. 'Combating Foot and Mouth Disease: Drastic Slaughter Policy Adopted', AW, 18 August 1934, p. 181.
103. KNP, 'Foot and Mouth Position', AW, 27 October 1934, p. 60.
104. 'Outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease: Standstill Order Issues', AW, 21 July 1934, p. 22.
105. 'Outbreak of Cattle Disease: Union Quarantine Restriction', AW, 11 August 1934, p. 147.
106. 'Combating Foot and Mouth Disease: Drastic Slaughter Policy Adopted', AW, 18 August 1934, p. 181.
107. KNP, 'Fighting Sleeping Sickness', AW, 29 July 1933, p. 64.
108. NAZ, S1193/T4/9 Tsetse Fly Melsetter Border Area 1925-9.
109. NAZ, S1193/D4/21 Foot and Mouth Disease: Weekly and Monthly Reports on Outbreak from the Chief Veterinary Surgeon - Outbreak at Nuanetsi Ranch 1931-2; S1193/D4/24 Foot and Mouth Disease: Alleged Outbreak in Northern Transvaal 1932.
110. S1194/SC42/181/35 Foot and Mouth Disease - Prohibition on Hunting Game: Limpopo Border 1931-5.
111. NAZ, S2376/S58779/49 African Coast Fever: Fencing of Portuguese Border on Sabi River 1935-42: Chief Veterinary Officer to Secretary Agriculture, 7 October 1935.
112. NAZ, S2376/S58779/49 Chief Veterinary Surgeon to Accountant Agriculture, 4 December 1936.
113. W.J. Nixon, Acting District Veterinary Surgeon to Chief Veterinary Surgeon, 30 January 1937.
114. Accountant Agriculture to Chief Engineer Roads, 30 January 1936.
115. NAZ, S2376/S58779/49 Chief Veterinary Officer to Secretary Agriculture, 7 October 1935.
116. NAZ, S1215/1880/1 Nuanetsi Ranch - Boundary Fencing 1935-43; S3106/11/1/3 Sabi Valley 1940-4.
117. S2136/58779/66 Fencing Prohibited Area, South Eastern Districts 1937.
118. Development of Game Reserves in the Colony: Official Statement to Publicity Conference: 'Tsetse Fly Obstacle to Extension of the Kruger National Park', The Rhodesia Herald, 13 August 1937.
119. KNP, 'Kruger Park Declared Foot and Mouth Area', AW, 25 February 1939, p. 230.
120. KNP, 'Foot and Mouth Disease', AW, 4 March 1939, p. 259.
121. AHM, Governo Geral/ Cota 291/ Missões/ 21/07/1938.
122. KNP, 'A 300-Mile Cattle Cordon: Control of Foot and Mouth Disease', AW, 8 April 1939, p. 19.
123. NAZ, S1215/1880/1 Nuanetsi Ranch - Boundary Fencing 1935-43.
124. S3106/11/1/3 Sabi Valley 1940-4.
125. S2136/58779/66 Fencing Prohibited Area, South Eastern Districts 1937.
126. NAZ, S1215/1089/2 Wild Animals and Vermin Destruction of, 1942-6.
127. S2391/3625 Chief Native Commissioner: Tsetse Fly Nuanetsi 1944.
128. S3106/11/1/4 Sabi Valley 1944-6.
129. S3106/11/1/5 Sabi Valley 1947-8.
130. S3106/11/1/6 Sabi Valley 1949-52.
131. S3106/11/1/8 Sabi Valley 1953-5.
132. S3099/28 Tsetse Fly -Research Stations 1956.
133. According to Wolmer, (in 'Transfrontier Conservation', p. 269), the idea was also briefly revived in the 1970s by an expatriate conservation biologist in Mozambique.
134. Duffy, 'The Environmental Challenge to the Nation State'.
135. Duffy, 'The Environmental Challenge to the Nation State'.
136. Wolmer, 'Transfrontier Conservation', p. 274.
137. See, for example, Spierenburg et al., 'Resistance against the Marginalization of Local Communities'.
138. Wolmer, 'Transfrontier Conservation', p. 274.
139. Duffy, 'The Environmental Challenge to the Nation-State', pp. 446, 448.
140. See Wolmer, 'Wilderness Lost, Wilderness Gained', p. 264.
141. see also S. Brooks, Making Nature: Contested Geographies and the Invention of Conservation in Zululand (Leiden, Brill Publishers, forthcoming).
142. See J. Schafer 'Think Locally, Act Globally? Exploring the Influence of the Global Conservation Movement on National Policy, Ideology and Activity in Portuguese Colonial Africa', paper presented at the Canadian Council of Area Studies Learned Societies Conference, 'Furthering the Globalization Debate: Cross-Regional Comparisons', Montreal, 27 April- 1 May 2005.
143. Evidence of conflicts between hunters and farmers in Mozambique is found, however, in files pertaining to the 1940s.
144. See, for example, K. Brown and D. Gilfoyle, 'Introduction: Livestock Diseases and Veterinary Science in Southern Africa', South African Historical Journal, 58 (2007), pp. 2-16.
145. H. Tilley, 'African Environments and Environmental Sciences: The African Research Survey, Ecological Paradigms and British Colonial Development, 1920-1940', in William Beinart and JoAnn McGregor (eds), Social History and African Environments (Oxford, James Currey, 2003).
146. See, for example, Wolmer 'Transfrontier Conservation', p. 275.
147. See Wolmer, 'Wilderness Lost, Wilderness Gained'.
148. See, for example, Wolmer, 'Transfrontier Conservation', p. 275.
149. Spierenburg et al., 'Resistance Against the Marginalisation'.