Abstract
The issue of land in South Africa has always been problematic. This is to be expected in a country whose history has been one of colonisation, contested borders and, in the more recent apartheid past, of legalised removals of people from the land. In recent post-colonial theory too, the notion of spatiality has proved to be significant: to write a history of a country and its people is to write a spatial history through the processes of naming, mapping, classifying and painting. Our project in this article is to explore some of the ways in which early European travellers to South Africa traced their presence in this country, and in so doing began a chapter of “writing on the earth", the ideological marks of which linger on into this century.
Highlights
The issue o f land in South Africa has always been problematical - to whom does it belong, who may live where, by what name should it be known? In a history which has been one of colonisation, contested borders and, in the more recent past, of mass displacements o f people in the failed apartheid project of social engineering, the contested nature o f South A frica’s land is under standable
Our project in this article is to suggest some o f the ways in which early European travellers traced their presence in South Africa, a land foreign
As Noyes (1993:122) in a review o f Paul C arter’s influential book The road to Botany B ay comments á propos the imperial enterprise: “ ... from an initial apprehension o f the space o f the new land, various practices are developed which produce places. These places exist by virtue o f their ability to be integrated into the social structure and administrative apparatus o f Empire”
Summary
The issue o f land in South Africa has always been problematical - to whom does it belong, who may live where, by what name should it be known? In a history which has been one of colonisation, contested borders and, in the more recent past, of mass displacements o f people in the failed apartheid project of social engineering, the contested nature o f South A frica’s land is under standable. Our project in this article is to suggest some o f the ways in which early European travellers traced their presence in South Africa, a land foreign. “Writing on the earth Early European travellers to South Africa to them, and in so doing began a chapter o f “writing on the earth” (Van der Watt, 1993:23), the ideological marks o f which linger on in this century
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