An Empire of Rivers: The Scheme to Flood the Kalahari, 1919–1945

Abstract

In 1919, a geology professor named Ernest Schwarz argued that the diversion of the Chobe and Kunene Rivers into the Kalahari was necessary to avoid catastrophic desertification, which threatened to force South African whites from the land. Despite being deemed impractical by government scientists, his proposed ‘Kalahari Redemption Scheme’ was supported by a broad spectrum of white farmers, academics, parliamentarians, and even industrialists into the 1940s. The professor's contentions about meteorology, climate change, and geological history were subject to heated debate. But what was never at issue was the notion that white South Africans had the right to divert rivers and flood land that they did not formally possess, for the benefit of white South Africa itself. The discussions around Schwarz's scheme challenge the conventional notion that there was little popular support within South Africa for South African expansion. This paper explores the origins of popular support for ‘Greater South Africa’, contrasting the hopes and fears of white farmers with the better-known territorial ambitions of Smuts and other statesmen.