Safari Nation: A Social History of the Kruger National Park

New African Histories

by Jacob S. T. Dlamini

Safari Nation opens new lines of inquiry in the study of national parks in Africa and the rest of the world. The Kruger National Park is South Africa’s most iconic nature reserve, renowned for its rich flora and fauna. According to author  Jacob Dlamini, there is another side to the park, a social history neglected by scholars and popular writers alike in which blacks (meaning Africans, Coloureds, and Indians) occupy center stage. Safari Nation details the ways  in which black people  devoted energies to conservation and to the park over the course of the twentieth century—engagement that transcends the stock (black) figure of the laborer and the poacher. By exploring the complex and dynamic ways in which blacks of varying class, racial, religious, and social backgrounds related to the Kruger National Park,  and with the help of previously unseen archival photographs, Dlamini’s narrative also sheds new light on how and why Africa’s national parks—often derided by scholars as colonial impositions—survived the end of white rule on the continent. Relying on oral histories, photographs, and archival research, Safari Nation engages both with African historiography and with ongoing debates about the “land question,” democracy, and citizenship in South Africa.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction, South Africa

350 pages, Hardcover

First published April 22, 2020

Reviews

[Hanneke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book meticulously undoes the troubling and persistent assumptions around the imbrications of nature conservation, nationalism, colonialism, race, gender and class. A very enjoyable read.

[Ed Stoddard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most conservation books set in Africa are written by white authors and often (unintentionally) for a white audience. As a black South African, Jacob Dlamini has brought an important perspective to conservation and natural history issues. Dlamini's focus is the social history of the Kruger National Park, a history riven by complexity and conflict. Dlamini examines a range of issues: the politicisation of nature, migrant labour, the "Bantustans," and the largely-neglected history of black tourism to the park under colonialism and apartheid. The Kruger is used here as a lens or a microcosm of South Africa's wider history in the 20th century. This reviewer would have liked to see more attention given to the park's history of fencing, the conservation model that remains in place in South Africa to contain dangerous megafauna - a model that I have argued helps to raise the rural poor above what I have dubbed the "faunal poverty line."( https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/artic... ) ( https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/artic... ) More attention could also have perhaps been given to the Mozambican economic migrants who risk megafauna attack by walking through the park. But these are very minor quibbles and Dlamini's thoughtful account - which does not seem to have generated the interest it deserves - provides paths of inquiry for others to follow, which is the mark of a fine historian. I will be writing a somewhat longer review for the Daily Maverick.

[Adam Welz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vital reading for anyone interested in wildlife conservation as well as race/racism in South Africa. Full of unexpected, important revelations.

[Tutankhamun18 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable and interesting overview of the racial politics surrounding Kruger National Park (KNP). KNP was established in May 1926 and had only one location which had accomodation for blacks, despite whites being allowed to bring their black staff with them at any location.

This book charts how KNP weaponized conservation as an excuse to fragment groups of people that travelled through Kruger, criminalize the small number of game that locals killed in defence or for subsistence and sold an African dream including simple native black people to the rest of the world as a holiday destination. This book also tells about how black South Africans in the middle and upper classes engaged in travel and visited the KNP despite best efforts to keep them away and how the creation of Bantustans by the Apartheid government was used by local leaders to enforce equal treatment of those blacks who visited the KNP as citizens of the Bantustans rather than Apartheid South Africa. This book also contains brilliant first hand evidence for everything it states and has a good balance between general history and specific experiences of individuals throughout the book.

It looks at how black and indian people interacted with the KNP and focuses on both how KNP was used as a weapon to further racism and a tool to fight against it.

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll share a quote from the last paragraph of the book, "As the book shows, the black actors who thought seriously about the KNP did not oppose conservation in principle. They opposed injustice." A book that does extremely well in complexifying some of the reductive narratives and categories we often resort to when we think about conservation in our country, whilst never minimising the terrible injustices that have been/and still are perpetrated in the name of conservation on our soil. Highly recommended for those who care about our country, land, conservation and history.

[Barrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful and thought provoking. Worth a read for anyone interested in African environmental history and how it impacts society today.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I like most about this book is that it is easy to follow along. You don’t need to have a lot of past knowledge of South Africa or wildlife conservation to understand what is being discussed.

[Addie Dobry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean it was pretty good but it was also literally homework so I couldn’t enjoy it too much

[Bog Dogged]

been thinking a lot about movement

[Shannon Fogden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meticulously researched, fascinating, informative and a must read for any South African in my opinion.