South African Landscape Research Articles

Timescapes when everything happens all at once

This paper focuses on aspects of time and educators’ timescapes during the Covid-19 pandemic. It contributes to a larger discussion about changing discourses and practices of temporality both during and after a crisis, especially those enabled by technology and neoliberal contexts. Situated within the unequal and diverse South African landscape where the pandemic overturned traditional educational timescapes, the paper explores the experiences of educators from different education settings - rural, urban, school, higher education and provincial education departments and considers three interrelated questions: What did educators' timescapes look like during the crisis of the pandemic? What was the role of technology in changing educators’ timescapes? How were educational inequities manifest in the timescapes which emerged? To analyse the educators’ experiences of time, teaching with technology and networked learning during the pandemic, the paper draws on Adam’s (1998, 2004, 2021) theorisation of time. Adam argues that time is relational and composed of irreducible elements that are not always easily visible. Experiences of how time is represented or visualised include temporality, tempo and timing, as well as the past, present and future. None of the elements of time operate in isolation; they mutually implicate one another highlighting the ways in which we perceive and interpret time in our lives and the world around us. The paper discussion highlights the use of technology and networked learning linked to pedagogical changed routines and organisation that made educators readily available to their students when face-to-face interaction was not possible. While this was beneficial to students (and parents), this resulted in a blurring or conflation of educators’ work and personal lives. Educators describe experiencing time and space as scrambled, compressed and/or porous, having to negotiate new rhythms and patterns of work that require reorganising and managing their lives differently. In addition, educators reported experiencing an intensification of time and work during this period, as they struggled with the pace and tempo of teaching and learning in varied education contexts. In conclusion, the paper suggests that the unique historical circumstances of the pandemic created particular conditions for online learning with some of the technologies rapidly inserted into the education system during this period remaining uncritically in place, further highlighting the need for ongoing research in areas of time, technology and networked learning, especially in diverse and varied educational settings.

Review of soil form and wetness indicators for wetland delineation in South Africa

Wetland delineation in South Africa incorporates soil form and soil wetness indicators, requiring formal soil classification and description of soil redox morphology. The current wetland definition used administratively in South Africa focuses on saturated (hydric) soil signatures within plant root zones. Saturated soil horizons deeper than plant root zones fall outside the 50 cm criterion in the local approach as well as the accepted zone in USA literature. The field of hydropedology accommodates the classification of the various hydrologically active horizons and provides a tool for the handling of horizons with ephemeral wetness. This approach has been variably accepted by mandated authorities in South Africa. The South African soil classification system has evolved through three editions over the past 50 years while retaining the same redox morphology understanding. However, despite the concepts and context of redox morphology having been thoroughly technically adopted by soil scientists, this is not the case within the wetland research and management environment. This especially because the classification system is structured differently from other international systems, and the South African landscape is geologically ancient with mature soils, introducing challenges to resource assessment specialists who rely on international norms and approaches for wetland assessment. This paper reviews the various components of soil classification and redox morphology based on Fe and Mn minerals within the context of the South African soil classification system, the field of hydropedology and wetland delineation indicators. We provide a qualitative correlation between the various diagnostic horizons and materials in the system and their related redox morphology contexts that are relevant to wetland assessment, delineation, and protection in South Africa. This paper therefore aims to serve as a reference point for the description and correlation of various soil hydrological parameters used in formal assessments.

The Nature of Landscape Music

Many diverse notions are involved in what is loosely called “landscape music”. This short discussion article distinguishes five categories. They are music inspired by landscapes, music that depicts chosen aspects of a landscape, music associated by listeners with landscapes unintended by the composer, musical landscape and film, and music that has been influenced by built surroundings. The use of these descriptive categories enables a more detailed elucidation of how landscape and music interact, and leads into a discussion of Beethoven’s influence on the development of classical music in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The article concludes with an example of contemporary South African landscape music.

Latent potential? Searching for environmental justice in South African landscape architecture praxis

Landscape architecture is not formally affiliated with environmental justice in South Africa. This is concerning given that the country is the most socio-economically unequal worldwide and that local cities contain dire urban realities and climate-related risks with degraded and unsafe green open spaces. We explored the potential within local professional praxis for addressing inequities related to green open spaces in the urban environment. Narratives were collected via 25 in-depth interviews from a diverse sample. We found that though landscape architects have yet to be exposed to ‘environmental justice’ as a term and as a movement, practitioners have an implicit awareness of environmental inequity as a lived reality. We argue that these professionals have the potential to actively promote environmental justice, evidenced by how practitioners currently address justice concerns and challenges. We call for more active and authentic engagement around environmental justice within the profession here and internationally.

What’s In A Culture? A Critical Examination of Culture and Faith Through a Cinematic Lens of Son of Man (2006)

ABSTRACT In this paper, I explore the claim that the film Son of Man (2006) represents a story of “continuity between African culture and Christian faith”. While this statement implies a seamless connection between the two, I argue that the relationship is more complex and fluid. Rather than strict continuity, I propose that the film depicts a process of adaptation, where certain cultural elements are retained while others are discarded. Through analysis of cross-cultural audience responses to Son of Man, I investigate how faith meets with the South African landscape, considering historical and cultural contexts. This examination demonstrates that the film presents a complex relationship between culture and faith, challenging the notion of a straightforward continuity.

Speaking Back to the Landscape Canon: Cultural Translation in Phumulani Ntuli’s Cloud Migration and the Liewe Land! Exhibition

ABSTRACTIn this article I argue that contemporary artists in post-and decolonial contexts are adopting deliberate approaches to respond to and revise canonical art, in what I interpret as acts of cultural translation. Seeing representational practices through this linguistic lens, with concomitant grammars and vocabularies, sheds light on how established conventions may now be challenged through translation—filtering and transforming them. I am particularly interested in the historical South African landscape canon and in how Phumulani Ntuli and several other artists employ different strategies to contest and reimagine the erasures and biases enacted in the canon in their work for the exhibition Liewe Land!. The exhibition was held at the Voortrekker Monument in 2021, and included various artists who all responded to printed reproductions of landscape paintings by historical South African artists. The strategies used by artists that I investigate here include: the reinscribing of people into portrayals of empty colonial landscape scenes, the subversion of pictorial unity and the naturalistic style solidified in the canon through western conventions, and lastly, the use of pre-colonial iconography, grammar, vocabulary and registers of representation that evoke historical relationships between land and people.

Apples and Oranges: Refugees’ Right to Work versus Economic Migrants’ Privilege to Work

The nationalistic and xenophobic movement Operation Dudula has been leading demonstrations throughout South Africa claiming that foreigners are taking South African jobs and that there are ‘no wars in Africa’ to warrant African immigrants’ special treatment. This xenophobic movement blames immigrants (an umbrella term for immigrants, cross-border migrants, economic migrants, asylum seekers and refugees) for societal collapse and challenges the legality of their border crossings. The movement calls the immigrants ‘criminals’ and pressures domestic government officials to deny them the right to work. The conflation of economic migrants with asylum seekers continues in the South African landscape, confusing employers, the general public, and officials at the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). The notion that ‘no foreigner must be employed ahead of a South African’ is at the crux of the debates about immigrants’ right to employment. Yet, there is not a clear demarcation between asylum seekers’ right to work versus the economic migrants’ privilege to work. This confusion of legal categories has led to apples and oranges debates in immigration law domestically and internationally. Through interviews with non-governmental (non-profit) organisations (NGOs/NPOs), employers, industry associations, government officials, and immigration attorneys, and an examination of international and domestic laws and norms, this paper suggests a reframing of how the right to work is analysed and how the employers respond.

Alternative methods in contemporary South African landscape photography

This paper examines the work of three contemporary South African photographers whose adaptations of landscape photography support inquiry into themes such as agency, identity, and belonging. None of these artists self-identifies as a landscape photographer, but each has taken up the genre to address topics of social concern such as: colonialism, under-documented histories, and the geographical imagination. Jean Brundrit adapts high-resolution survey technology to chart waves; Cedric Nunn creates extended captions to reorient views of the modern Eastern Cape landscape in relation to Xhosa history; and Francki Burger layers negatives in the darkroom to construct ethereal environments that examine emotive connections to land. These artists draw upon photographic techniques that may be considered ‘alternative’ in relation to traditional modes of landscape photography. In doing so, they challenge, reinterpret, and expand the definition of what constitutes a landscape image and landscape photography. Further, their respective works offer insight into the evolution of the genre from its nineteenth and early twentieth century applications in South Africa, as well as its utility for socially-concerned artists in the post-apartheid era.

Father absence as a risk factor for child neglect and abuse: A biblical and multidisciplinary approach to transform broken families in the South African landscape

This paper aims to address father absence as a key contributory factor to child neglect and abuse and a cause of disrupted and unstable families by means of an explorative literature review. The study follows a biblical and multidisciplinary approach and collaboration between scholars from the fields of social work and theology in an effort to transform broken families. The Children’s Act, 38 of 2005, stipulates that children in need of care and protection refer to children who face social issues such as abuse, absent parents, and children who abuse alcohol and drugs, among other things. These children require adequate care, love, and security. A stable family or home environment can provide stability, security, and a caring environment where children can develop to become emotionally healthy and pro-social. God can transform families, especially the families of children who receive the ministry of his Word. The Scripture in Jeremiah 31 verse 29 proclaims: “The fathers have eaten a sour grape and the children’s teeth are set on edge”. This quote refers to the involvement of the father as the primary leading figure in the family. It illustrates that proper fathering has a much broader significance than just the biological production of children. South Africa has experienced rapid changes, including shifts in family composition. There are many broken relationships, and father absence is a salient issue. Countless numbers of children in the South African landscape are being raised without their biological fathers. Many experiences no fatherly presence at all as they lack an alternative figure. Children are often humiliated for being fatherless and many families are challenged by father absence, and this creates in children a sense of loss and confusion. Hence, the aim of this article to reciprocate to father absence as social ill from a biblical point of view and to suggest a transformative ecclesial praxis.

“Local guys wanted”: homoerotic photography, censorship, and national belonging in apartheid South Africa – the case of Alternative Books (1981-1991)

This article explores the singular case of Alternative Books (AB), a South African publisher of homoerotic photography active in the late apartheid period. While AB's titles broadly engaged established Western aesthetic traditions of the male nude (salient in gay print cultures of the twentieth century), their erotic scenes frequently played out against national landmarks and symbols, suggesting a distinct mode of vernacular homoerotic photography. Given the widespread disenfranchisement of gay men during apartheid, this study considers the affective and political potential of such images for reconciling same-sex desire with national identity, albeit for a limited (that is, predominantly white) historical audience. First, to plot the history of social homophobia and anti-gay legislation in apartheid South Africa, this study considers censorship discourse a compelling barometer of the state's attitude towards male homosexuality during this time. Second, via comparison with contemporaneous homoerotic commodities distributed in apartheid South Africa, accessed from the GALA Queer Archive, this article suggests that AB's visual language uniquely challenged heteronormative associations with the South African landscape to open the nation to queer possibilities.

Reconfigured securityscapes in Louis Trichardt: Possibilities, limitations, and contradictions

Insecurity, violence, and xenophobia manifest at different geographic scales of the South African landscape threatening to compromise, reverse, derail, and contradict the envisaged democratic processes and gains in the country. Since the dawn of the new democracy in 1994, the South African landscape has witnessed surges of different scales of violence, protests, riots, looting, criminality, and vigilantism in which question marks have been raised with respect to the right to the city or urban space and the right to national resources and opportunities, i.e., access, use, distribution and spread of social, economic, environmental, and political resources and benefits. Louis Trichardt is a small rural agricultural town located in the Makhado municipality of Vhembe District in Limpopo Province, South Africa. In the study, this town is used as a securityscapes lens of analysis to explore urban conflict and violence. The relative importance index (RII) was used to measure the barriers and solutions to advance safe neighborhoods' settlements and built environment areas in the study area. In this way, issues influencing the performance of reconfigured securityscapes in Louis Trichardt were explored by highlighting how new town neighborhood securityscape initiatives and activities are contributing to space, place, and culture change management transitions. The discussion pressure and pain points revolve around the widening societal inequalities, deepening poverty, influx of (ll)legal migrants and migrant labor, lingering xenophobia, and failure to embrace the otherness difficulties in the country. Findings highlight the options for urban (in)security, social (in)justice, and (re)design in post-colonies possibilities, limitations, and contradictions of securityscapes in (re)configured spaces of Louis Trichardt. Policy and planning proposals to improve safety and security spatial logic and innovation are explored. The critical role of community and local neighborhood watch groups in complementing state security and private registered security systems is one way of tackling this matter.

Water shortages in Beaufort West: Lessons learnt and applied during the 2009–2011 and 2017–2019 droughts

Increasing and prolonged droughts have become a feature of the South African environmental landscape. This article investigates the sustainability of water procurement to the town of Beaufort West and the reasons for the town’s water provision crises during the droughts of 2009–2011 and 2017–2019. Emergency measures were implemented to alleviate the serious water shortages during these droughts. Data to illustrate population increases and precipitation decreases, which impacted on the town’s water resources, were collected from census records of Statistics South Africa and the Department of Water and Sanitation, respectively. A number of risk factors contributed to the town’s water crises, for example, unsustainable water extraction at times of serious droughts, poor water monitoring, metering and attention to leakages, an expansion of informal settlements within the municipal boundaries of Beaufort West, as well as annual rainfall patterns that became increasingly unpredictable. The article concludes that water resource development had not kept pace with demand; therefore water infrastructure should be built with enough capacity to cope with regular dry periods. Equilibrium should be reached between the water expectations of the community and the water availability to avoid future social instability in water-stressed towns such as Beaufort West. Rainfall data indicate that precipitation patterns in the arid regions of South Africa are decreasing; therefore the water shortage experience of Beaufort West during the recent droughts serves as a clear and present warning that rural towns in these regions should seek and implement alternative water augmentation strategies timeously.

South African Landscapes: Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country in Translation and on the Screen

The present survey is part of a project on southern African literary landscapes and translation. In this context, Alan Paton’s novel Cry, the Beloved Country (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948) is emblematic of a new eco-critical consciousness, juxtaposed with the devastation of space by the dynamics of colonialism and the enforcement of the apartheid regime from 1948 to the early 1990s. Topophilia, common among other South African authors, is more than a simple literary theme for Paton; rather, it lies at the core of his spirituality and his resistance against apartheid. Likewise, the biblical symbolism and linguistic features inspiring descriptions in Paton’s work enhance textual cohesion and relevance, while also representing a challenge for translation in the context of different African languages. Following a diachronic perspective, this article examines intralingual, interlingual, and intersemiotic translations, focusing on landscape, language, and identity. One intralingual abridgement, multiple interlingual translations into European languages (Italian, French, Spanish), and two intersemiotic translations (in the form of screen adaptations of the novel) are comparatively analysed. The approach relies on studies of literary description, intersemiotic translation, and multimodality.

Clearing the CRISPR patent landscape: Towards a solution for South Africa

Patenting activity regarding new CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) genome editing technology has mushroomed to create a vast and complex patent landscape. However, because of South Africa’s current depository patent system, the South African CRISPR patent landscape contains foundational patents with overlapping claims, as highlighted by the ongoing litigation in the United States between the Broad Institute and the University of California. Both these parties were granted four patents in South Africa. Also, the South African landscape may contain multiple low-quality patents that have the potential to obstruct scientific research in South Africa. The solution in the South African context is threefold, but requires that the Intellectual Property Policy of South Africa: Phase I must first be operationalised to: (a) prioritise CRISPR patent applications for formal examination and substantive search and examination; (b) provide sufficient resources for extracurial patent opposition proceedings regarding all CRISPR patent applications and granted patents; and (c) create certainty by developing an obviousness standard with well-defined parameters. Although CRISPR is not yet advanced enough to fall within the class of life-saving technologies in the short-term, CRISPR may become critical in the treatment and eradication of priority diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Accordingly, prioritising CRISPR-related patent applications serves the public interest in access to healthcare. By using (a), (b) and (c) in tandem, a triple layer of mechanisms will counter the problems of overlapping claims and of lowquality patents, and hence remove these potential obstructions to CRISPR research in South Africa.

A Pilot Study of Brand Loyalty in Generation Y of Technical and Vocational Education Training Colleges

Objective - In an increasingly changing and dynamic South African higher education landscape, institutions must communicate their brand to stakeholders to perceive the institution as offering quality services,to have a loyal stakeholder. However, thereseemsto be little attention devoted to the influence of brand communication, brand satisfaction and service quality on brand loyalty in higher education, particularly in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector. Considering this view, and noting that prior research on brand loyalty in the service sector has shown a connection between brand communication, service quality, brand satisfaction and brand loyalty, it is unknown if a similar correlation is found in the South African TVET sector. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate Generation Y students' views of brand communication, brand satisfaction and service quality in the TVET sector throughout the Gauteng Province of South Africa.As a result, this paper summarises the findings of a pilot study to establish the validity and reliability of a questionnaire used to examine Generation Y students' perceptions of brand communication, brand satisfaction and service quality related to brand loyalty in Gauteng TVET colleges. Methodology/Technique - The variables for the paper were derived from previously established questionnaires. A section of the questionnaire asked students about their views of a TVET's brand communication. Additionally, there were questions concerning the quality of service, brand selection and brand loyalty. Finally, all scale items were modified to be more contextually relevant.The questionnaire used a six-point Likert scale, with 1 indicating strong disagreement and 6 indicating strong agreement. The questionnaire was piloted with a convenience sample of 50 students not included in the primary study's sampling frame. Finding - The overall number of respondents (46) was insufficient to undertake extensive statistical testing. As a result, only frequency and correlation coefficients were computed. Correlation analysis revealed a substantial association between brand loyalty and the variables that influence it. All had a strong association between brand loyalty and brand communication, service quality and brand loyalty and satisfaction. Additionally, there were substantial correlationsbetween service quality and brand satisfaction and between service quality and brand communication. Correlation coefficients between constructs ranged from 0.294 to 0.781. This demonstrates that these constructs do not correspond to the same concept. As a result, all construct items were kept for use in the main study. Novelty - The results from the pilot study provides preliminary support for the hypothesised relationship between brand loyalty and its predictors. Marketers and service organisations need to recognise that the future patronage of a service organisation depends on loyalty. Type of Paper - Empirical Keywords: Brand Communication; Service Quality; Brand Satisfaction; Brand Loyalty; Technical and Vocational Training JEL Classification: M31, I23, I29

The Role of Contexts in the Construction of Academic Identity in Selected South African Universities

Using qualitative interviews and document analysis, that is, national and institutional policies, the study is embedded on the assumption that the purpose of the academic career is knowledge creation, dissemination, and the acquisition and promotion of high-level skills that contribute to scholarship and the support of the economy of knowledge. This implies that academics create knowledge in pursuit of the academic career to develop scholarship. Given the identity-subjectivity-agency theory, the study set out to examine the global and local contexts or dynamics that affect the academic career in constructing academic identity and how they apply to the South African higher education landscape. We argue that the legacy of apartheid affected academic careers differently as higher education institutions were divided, separated, and segregated along racial lines with different purposes. They shaped the roles of academics in different ways, with some enjoying academic freedom and autonomy while some are operating as public servants. Moreover, university academic staff should be encouraged and enabled to advance knowledge. Thus, the study recognizes the need for high-level skills and knowledge creation, which require greater attention to the nature of academic careers.

Predictors Of Brand Loyalty With Technical And Vocational Education Training Colleges İn Gauteng: Results Of A Pilot Study

According to Akoojee and McGrath (2008:132), TVET colleges are required to build institutions that are attuned better to satisfy the needs of the stakeholders through their brand. Very few TVET colleges have attracted stakeholders without proper brand communication and service quality (Beneke & Human 2010: 437). In most TVET colleges, very little is done to communicate the brand to stakeholders, which may be a direct result of the lack of proper brand communication and service quality (Azoury, Daou & El Khoury 2013:5). In an increasingly changing and dynamic South African higher education landscape, it is imperative for institutions to communicate their brands to stakeholders in such a way that these stakeholders perceive the institution as offering quality service in order to have a satisfied stakeholder who is loyal to the institution. However, there appears to be little attention paid to effects of brand communication, service quality and brand satisfaction on brand loyalty in the tertiary education sector, especially in the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) sector. This study was conducted in Nigeria. In light of this view, and given previous research on brand loyalty in service industries identifying a relationship between brand communication, service quality, brand satisfaction and brand loyalty, it is unclear whether such relationships exist in the South African TVET sector. Therefore, there is a need to examine Generation Y students' perceptions of brand communication, service quality and brand satisfaction on brand loyalty in TVET colleges in Gauteng. Consequently, this research study reports on the findings from a pilot study conducted to determine the legitimacy and reliability of the measuring instrument being employed to examine Generation Y students' perceptions of brand communication, service quality and brand satisfaction on brand loyalty in TVET colleges in Gauteng. Keywords: Brand Loyalty, Brand Communication, Service Quality, Brand Satisfaction

Patterns and Drivers of Rodent Abundance across a South African Multi-Use Landscape.

Simple SummaryWildlife ecological patterns are driven not only by environmental and biological contexts, but also by landscape-management schemes that shape those contexts. The present study aims to determine the effect of different environmental factors (including management schemes) on the occurrence patterns of a southern African small mammal community. Based on a landscape where three land-use contexts that differ in their levels of human presence and/or where activities coexist (private ecotourism reserve, mixed farms and traditional communal areas), and by using a body-size-based approach (i.e., using two size-based rodent groups—medium and small—as models), we found that the mean relative abundance of medium-sized species did not differ across the management contexts, but small species’ mean relative abundance was higher in the game reserve. The overall variation in rodent abundance was negatively affected by ungulate presence (possibly linked to a decrease in food availability) and by human presence (increased disturbance). Rodent abundance seems to be influenced by environmental gradients that are directly linked to varying management priorities across land uses, meaning that these communities might not benefit uniformly by the increased amount of habitat promoted by the commercial wildlife industry.South Africa’s decentralized approach to conservation entails that wildlife outside formally protected areas inhabit complex multi-use landscapes, where private wildlife business (ecotourism and/or hunting) co-exist in a human-dominated landscape matrix. Under decentralized conservation, wildlife is perceived to benefit from increased amount of available habitat, however it is crucial to understand how distinct management priorities and associated landscape modifications impact noncharismatic taxa, such as small mammals. We conducted extensive ink-tracking-tunnel surveys to estimate heterogeneity in rodent distribution and investigate the effect of different environmental factors on abundance patterns of two size-based rodent groups (small- and medium-sized species), across three adjacent management contexts in NE KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a private ecotourism game reserve, mixed farms and traditional communal areas (consisting of small clusters of houses interspersed with grazing areas and seminatural vegetation). Our hypotheses were formulated regarding the (1) area typology, (2) vegetation structure, (3) ungulate pressure and (4) human disturbance. Using a boosted-regression-tree approach, we found considerable differences between rodent groups’ abundance and distribution, and the underlying environmental factors. The mean relative abundance of medium-sized species did not differ across the three management contexts, but small species mean relative abundance was higher in the game reserves, confirming an influence of the area typology on their abundance. Variation in rodent relative abundance was negatively correlated with human disturbance and ungulate presence. Rodent abundance seems to be influenced by environmental gradients that are directly linked to varying management priorities across land uses, meaning that these communities might not benefit uniformly by the increased amount of habitat promoted by the commercial wildlife industry.

Household debt and consumption dynamics A non-developed world view following the financial crisis

ABSTRACT According to recent macroeconomic evidence, the global financial crisis is still impacting the South African financial landscape more than 10 years later. In an effort to better understand the effect of the financial crisis, we examine household debt dynamics, with particular attention to deleveraging, following the financial cycle peak. Our analysis is predicated on the National Income Dynamics Study, the first wave of which was conducted adjacent to the beginning of the crisis. We apply standard regression analysis finding heterogeneity in debt and deleveraging at the household level, with both an uptick in short-term debt in the early stages of the crisis and a reduction in long-term debt, primarily mortgage debt, since. Overall, deleveraging was greatest amongst higher income households with relatively larger mortgage debt-to-income ratios, although that was partially offset in households with higher mortgage repayment costs relative to income. Long-term deleveraging was also more likely amongst households with higher vehicle debt-to-income ratios, but lower consumer debt-to-income ratios.

Olive Schreiner’s Oceanic Imaginary and the Question of Deep History

This article proposes a reading of the ocean in Olive Schreiner’s life, her letters and her works. Schreiner’s representation of the South African landscape has been much celebrated in literary scholarship, yet the oceanic settings in her novels have been ignored to date. This article explores the representation of the sea in three parts: I draw on Schreiner’s biographies to consider both her geographic movements and her reading practices as models for her scenes of the sea. Secondly, I turn to the letters she wrote after her crossing to England and read for mentions of the ocean and the sea and the language Schreiner uses to represent them. Lastly, using an oceanic lens, I read and compare The Story of an African Farm and From Man to Man.