tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/namibia-17604/articlesNamibia – The Conversation2024-04-04T13:36:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2267502024-04-04T13:36:11Z2024-04-04T13:36:11ZSouth Africa’s conservation model: why expanding the use of biodiversity to generate money is a good idea<p>South Africa’s government is calling for <a href="https://www.dffe.gov.za/mediareleases/extension_comments_nbes">public comments</a> on an updated version of its existing biodiversity economy plan. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.dffe.gov.za/sites/default/files/reports/nationalbiodiversityeconomystrategy.pdf">National Biodiversity Economy Strategy</a> aims to conserve biodiversity while also contributing to job creation and economic growth. It proposes to do this by promoting sustainable use of the country’s natural resources.</p>
<p>The strategy is being revised so that the country’s national policy is better aligned with recent international policy developments in the biodiversity sphere. The most important of these is the Convention on Biological Diversity’s <a href="https://www.cbd.int/gbf">Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework</a>. </p>
<p>This requires countries to develop domestic policies and regulations to ensure that they conserve more of their land in ways that are fair to the people on that land.</p>
<p>Not everyone is happy with the strategy and its proposed revisions. It’s been criticised for <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-03-18-government-trying-to-slam-through-plan-that-will-result-in-massive-exploitation-of-wildlife/">monetising and exploiting biodiversity</a> – in other words, using biodiversity to generate money. For example, the strategy lists using wildlife for fair-chase trophy hunting, meat hunting and wild meat sales. It also lists fishing and harvesting indigenous plants (for example, for medicine and tea) and insects (for food). </p>
<p>But we think the strategy is a step in the right direction. We are conservation scientists who have conducted extensive research into the outcomes of different conservation strategies in southern Africa. Our <a href="https://www.wildeconomy.org/">work</a> shows <a href="https://www.afd.fr/en/carte-des-projets/studying-wildlife-economy-mainstream-biodiversity-agricultural-policies-south-africa-and-kenya">sustainable use</a> of wildlife is an important strategy for expanding the area under wildlife conservation in ways that also benefit local people.</p>
<p>Like <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-03-24-sa-biodiversity-strategy-a-key-step-away-from-fortress-conservation/">other southern African conservation scientists</a>, we support the revisions to the strategy. They show that the government is planning to meet global biodiversity commitments in a way that benefits local people, wildlife and ecosystems.</p>
<p>The strategy addresses gaps in South Africa’s conservation model, such as the fact that it still largely excludes previously disadvantaged groups of people. It also aligns ambitious global goals for expanding protected areas with the country’s pressing development needs. </p>
<p>In our view the revised strategy is an important step towards addressing these needs. </p>
<h2>Expanded remit</h2>
<p>South Africa is a signatory to the <a href="https://www.cbd.int/intro">Convention on Biological Diversity</a>. As such it’s required to report against 23 <a href="https://www.cbd.int/gbf">targets</a>. For example, Target 3 is to conserve 30% of all lands and seas by 2030. Target 9 is to manage wild species sustainably to benefit people. </p>
<p>More than its predecessors, the convention’s latest framework recognises the need to conserve biodiversity as well as how biodiversity benefits people. Southern African countries such as South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe have long acknowledged the link between wildlife and nature’s value to people through sustainable use conservation models.</p>
<p>Here are some examples.</p>
<p>South Africa’s current model allows landholders to derive economic benefits from sustainably using wildlife on their lands. This is commonly done through ecotourism, recreational hunting and sales of live game and game meat. </p>
<p>This model results in many landholders opting for wildlife-based enterprises on their land, instead of other land uses like agriculture. The outcome is often <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989420300342">biodiversity conservation</a> beyond protected areas, because it benefits people. </p>
<p>This model has resulted in wildlife-based enterprises occurring across <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354763739_South_Africa's_private_wildlife_ranches_protect_globally_significant_populations_of_wild_ungulates">14%-17% of the country’s land</a>. Wild herbivore numbers have increased tenfold <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354763739_South_Africa's_private_wildlife_ranches_protect_globally_significant_populations_of_wild_ungulates">since the 1960s</a>. </p>
<p>The country’s revised strategy aims to expand this model. It sets out ways in which people can derive livelihoods that ensure biodiversity’s benefits – both monetary and non-monetary – reach previously disadvantaged groups. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nacso.org.na/conservation-and-conservancies">Namibia</a> and <a href="https://www.zimparks.org.zw/community-conservancies.html">Zimbabwe</a> have also allowed private landholders and communities to become custodians of the wildlife on their land by establishing conservancies. These offer ecotourism, trophy hunting or both. The result has been the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-24880-1_8">recovery of wildlife populations and improved livelihoods for people</a>.</p>
<p>But there’s some push back on the concept of sustainable use, mostly from the global north. In particular, <a href="https://theconversation.com/recreational-hunting-conservation-and-livelihoods-no-clear-evidence-trail-155587">trophy hunting</a> is opposed on moral grounds and perceptions that it threatens wildlife populations.</p>
<p>Our view, however, is that the market expansion potential of key wildlife economy activities shouldn’t be diminished.</p>
<h2>Trophy hunting</h2>
<p>South Africa’s trophy hunting industry is one of the pillars of its wildlife economy. The revised Biodiversity Economy Strategy aims to expand this activity to unlock conservation enterprises on community land.</p>
<p>Trophy hunting is estimated to contribute US$250 million per year to the economy and support 17,000 jobs, mostly in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989418302336">rural areas</a>. Currently, it largely takes place on extensive private game ranches. </p>
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<p>We think trophy hunting and other sustainable use activities like meat hunting and meat sales are important tools for including communities in conservation. </p>
<p>Firstly, hunting has lower <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-africas-conservation-and-trophy-hunting-dilemma-140029">barriers to entry</a> than ecotourism. It can also take place in less accessible and less scenic places, meaning it can help support conservation and livelihoods where ecotourism cannot. </p>
<p>Secondly, undertaking several activities on a piece of land, including trophy and meat hunting, increases <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-wildlife-ranches-can-offer-solutions-to-africas-growing-conservation-challenges-191196">the resilience</a> of the enterprise. Such resilience will be critical for including communities in conservation efforts. </p>
<p>But relying too heavily on trophy hunting to sustain conservation would be a mistake. It should be used as just one tool in a diversified biodiversity economy toolkit.</p>
<p>This is what the government’s revised Biodiversity Economy Strategy seeks to do. It includes trophy hunting as one of many biodiversity-based economic activities the country can invest in, particularly in multi-use conservation landscapes which include protected areas and working landscapes. These working lands include both private and community land. </p>
<p>The revision also includes a renewed focus on ecotourism and game meat. Additionally, it lists activities like live sales of game, bioprospecting (searching for and commercialising nature products) and fishing. </p>
<p>A common concern of sustainable use on communal land is that it can become a “free for all”. This assumption is a <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth">dangerous oversimplification</a>. However, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1091015?casa_token=Ru_5X0_QSo0AAAAA%3As1rH__OXxvyPKHFMhg0gO6EHt-o61KhWEQRQDahaFACDdN6bwvAxogrxpEWKvZPCCrvgO_YFf-DK064">good governance</a> is needed. Investment into wildlife-based enterprises on community land should require a governing body, business and management plans, benefit-sharing agreements and monitoring protocols.</p>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe are some examples of African countries that have committed to policies aimed at unlocking well-governed, multi-use landscapes that support diverse livelihood strategies and link people to nature’s values. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06406-9.">evidence shows</a> that such landscapes can support the <a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2008.00529.x">recovery of wildlife populations</a>, <a href="https://er.uwpress.org/content/38/2/105.short">the restoration of ecosystems</a>, the improvement of <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cobi.12643">rural livelihoods</a> and <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.302">rural innovation</a> and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cjres/article/15/2/305/6554430">resilience</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226750/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hayley Clements receives funding from Kone Foundation, The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alta De Vos receives funding fromThe Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the James S. McDonnell Foundation, the Global Resilience Partnership and Future Earth. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Child is currently employed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute. </span></em></p>The strategy aims to conserve biodiversity while also contributing to the creation of jobs and economic growth.Hayley Clements, Senior Researcher, African Wildlife Economy Institute and Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch UniversityAlta De Vos, Associate Professor, Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch UniversityMatthew Child, PhD candidate, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2217672024-02-12T14:14:08Z2024-02-12T14:14:08ZThe San people of southern Africa: where ethics codes for researching indigenous people could fail them<p>There is a long and often complicated history of researchers studying Indigenous people. In 1999, the education scholar Linda Tuhiwai-Smith, in her book <a href="https://www.google.nl/books/edition/Decolonizing_Methodologies/Nad7afStdr8C?hl=en&gbpv=0">Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples</a>, emphasised the colonial character of much research. She warned that it</p>
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<p>brings with it a new wave of exploration, discovery, exploitation and appropriation.</p>
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<p>Well into the <a href="https://www.google.nl/books/edition/Anthropology_and_the_Bushman/bUUHEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0;%20https://www.google.nl/books/edition/The_Bushman_Myth/BPZKDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0;%20https://www.google.nl/books/edition/Ethnologists_in_Camouflage/qGhezwEACAAJ?hl=nl">20th century</a>, researchers depicted groups like the Indigenous San of southern Africa in a racist fashion, fixating on their physical characteristics and writing of their “savage” or “primitive” state. </p>
<p>Historically, many researchers did not care about their study participants’ consent or agency, or how they could benefit from the research, for instance through improving their position in society. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-im-righting-the-wrongs-of-my-early-research-and-sharing-my-scientific-data-with-local-communities-191713">Why I'm righting the wrongs of my early research and sharing my scientific data with local communities </a>
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<p>This has gradually shifted over the past 50 years. Global organisations such as the Ethical Research Partnership <a href="https://trust-project.eu/">TRUST</a>, the <a href="https://americananthro.org/about/policies/statement-on-ethics/">American Anthropological Association</a> and most, if not all, credible academic institutions, have created ethical rules and guidelines to protect vulnerable populations from exploitation and promote their role in research.</p>
<p>But, as I and a group of fellow ethnographers, together with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/San">San people</a> from all over southern Africa, show in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02101-0">a recent paper</a>, such ethical guidelines have flaws. </p>
<p>Today there are <a href="https://peabody.harvard.edu/video-traces-and-tracks-journeys-san#:%7E:text=But%20just%20to%20give%20you,%2C%20Botswana%2C%20and%20South%20Africa.">about 130,000 San people</a> in Angola, Botswana, <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6096/">Namibia</a>, South Africa and Zimbabwe. They were historically nomadic hunter gatherers; in the past century or so their lives have become more settled, based on agriculture and wage labour.</p>
<p>The pitfalls we identified in the guidelines manifest mainly in three ways: by oppressing vulnerable groups; by being ambiguous about potential benefits to the participants; and by being difficult to follow in practice.</p>
<h2>Three issues</h2>
<p>There are several reasons why ethical conduct in scientific research is so important. Ethical rules are there to prevent what’s known as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01423-6">“ethics dumping”</a>, in which unethical research practices are used in lower-income countries that would not normally be allowed elsewhere. They also guard against <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01423-6">“helicopter research”</a>, when scientists from high-income countries conduct their research without involving local scientists or communities.</p>
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<p>In 2017 a <a href="https://trust-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/San-Code-of-RESEARCH-Ethics-Booklet-final.pdf">code of conduct</a> was created by academics and San leaders working with and for the South African San Institute, the South African San Council and TRUST. The <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02101-0">paper</a> discussed in this article, as well as <a href="https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/hgr.2023.4">one other</a>, analysed problems with this code and similar instruments, and individual contracts unique to a particular piece of research.</p>
<p>These were:</p>
<p><strong>1. Oppression of opinions:</strong> Authorities (often NGOs) sometimes want to push their agenda by keeping unwelcome ideas out of the research. In South Africa, a colleague of mine encountered dubious gatekeepers who claimed to represent the community she hoped to study and who wanted to dictate whom she could interview.</p>
<p>An instrument intended to promote ethical research was used to exclude particular people, or their ideas. </p>
<p><strong>2. An over-emphasis on immediate benefits:</strong> Most codes of conduct and contracts include a clause that research must be “beneficial”. This ignores the essence of what most scientific research is: fundamental and not applied. Fundamental knowledge is not immediately practical but it is crucial to make research potentially beneficial. </p>
<p>I have worked on <a href="https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3197/np.2019.230104">research</a> about a land claim by the San in northern Namibia. Knowledge similar to the sort reflected in my research <a href="https://doi.org/10.3366/ajicl.2020.0339">has helped San groups</a> in other parts of southern Africa <a href="https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/BieseleJu/1000">regain or retain land</a>. Will my research do the same? I have no idea, because that takes time – the research doesn’t instantly benefit the participants.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-steps-every-researcher-should-take-to-ensure-participants-are-not-harmed-and-are-fully-heard-191430">Five steps every researcher should take to ensure participants are not harmed and are fully heard</a>
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<p>A focus on benefits also ignores different interests and perceptions within communities. A benefit for some may be detrimental to others. For instance, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280233612_Local_impacts_of_community-based_tourism_in_southern_Africa">research</a> can support wildlife management and the creation of tourism jobs for some. But these activities may constrain other livelihoods in the same community. In a <a href="https://journals.lww.com/coas/fulltext/2017/15020/ju__hoansi_lodging_in_a_namibian_conservancy_.2.aspx">Namibian case study</a>, some San complained about restrictions on hunting, small-scale farming, or keeping livestock. </p>
<p><strong>3. Practical limitations:</strong> In southern Africa it is often unclear in advance whom you need to contact to discuss and sign something, and what the legal status of codes and contracts is. In our experiences, e-mails often go unanswered. Many local San do not even know – or, in some cases, care – that these instruments exist. For most, researchers’ needs and aims are not a priority in their ordinary lives. </p>
<p>In such cases research codes and contracts mainly legitimise the researchers’ and gatekeepers’ role in research, but not necessarily that of the people being studied. </p>
<p>This is not an exhaustive list of potential issues. Others include the imposition of a red tape culture, illiteracy among participants and a lack of clear consequences if researchers behave unethically even after signing a contract.</p>
<h2>Paper is no panacea</h2>
<p>We are not opposed to instruments that can empower research participants, but they are not a panacea. Researchers need to scrutinise such codes’ inherent and complex challenges. They also need to put collaboration at the heart of their work.</p>
<p>Examples of such scrutiny and collaboration already exist. Some San groups, such as the <a href="https://anadjeh.wordpress.com/">||Ana-Djeh San Trust</a>, have created initiatives to increase their participation in research, including community training to raise awareness about research. In such cases they like to collaborate with researchers they trust, normally because they have been in contact with them for many years already. Such trust is at the heart of good collaborations and is, we would argue, much more important than paper agreements.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221767/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stasja Koot does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are several reasons why ethical conduct in scientific research is so important.Stasja Koot, Assistant Professor, Wageningen UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2227302024-02-04T16:23:16Z2024-02-04T16:23:16ZHage Geingob: Namibian president who played a modernising role<p>Hage Gottfried Geingob <a href="https://www.namibian-studies.com/index.php/JNS/article/view/113/113">served as the third president of Namibia</a> from 2015 until his death on February 4 2024. He was Namibia’s first prime minister from 1990 to 2002, and served as prime minister again from 2012 to 2015.</p>
<p>Geingob was born on <a href="https://www.parliament.na/dt_team/geingob-hage/">3 August 1941</a>. He joined the ranks of the national liberation movement South West African People’s Organisation (<a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-west-africa-peoples-organisation-swapo">Swapo</a> during its formation in 1960.</p>
<p>As the official statement <a href="https://twitter.com/NamPresidency/status/1753963884828823682">declared</a>:</p>
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<p>The Namibian nation has lost a distinguished servant of the people, a
liberation struggle icon, the chief architect of our constitution and the pillar of the Namibian house.</p>
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<p>As Swapo’s candidate he was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hage-Geingob">elected</a> as Namibia’s president for 2015 to 2020 in November 2014. In 2017 he replaced Hifikepunye Pohamba as party president. As head of state with <a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-badly-needs-refurbishment-after-32-years-under-the-ruling-party-179205">far reaching executive powers</a>, he remained in control over party and government since then. </p>
<p>Geingob’s political career differed from that of his predecessors Sam Nujoma and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hifikepunye-Pohamba">Hifikepunye Pohamba</a>. <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/200904240652.html">Nujoma</a>, the founding president of Swapo, served as president for three terms (1990-2005). Pohamba (2005-2015) was his designated successor. </p>
<p>Geingob personified a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44508019">“changing of the guard”</a>. His advanced formal education left an imprint on the way of governance during his terms in office. A younger generation moved gradually into higher party and state ranks. He successfully modified the heroic struggle narrative and turned it into a more inclusive, patriotic history. </p>
<h2>Geingob’s career</h2>
<p>Geingob had his cultural roots in the Damara community. This made him different from the mainstream Swapo leadership, which is mainly from the Oshiwambo-speaking population. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-badly-needs-refurbishment-after-32-years-under-the-ruling-party-179205">Namibia badly needs refurbishment after 32 years under the ruling party</a>
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<p>Geingob’s different background counted in his favour among many Namibians when campaigning for presidency. People welcomed a leader with origins in an ethnically defined minority group as a sign of multi-cultural plurality.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.parliament.na/dt_team/geingob-hage/">Studying</a> at the US American Temple University in Philadelphia, the Fordham University (BA) and The New School (MA), both in New York, Geingob was representing Swapo since the mid-1960s at the United Nations. In 1975 he became the head of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/160803">United Nations Institute for Namibia</a> in Lusaka. </p>
<p>He returned to Namibia in mid-1989, leading the Swapo election campaign in the transition to independence under <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40175168">supervision of the United Nations</a>. He played a <a href="https://www.kas.de/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=a5fa370c-004f-c92d-0ba3-7b3ca48aab38&groupId=252038">decisive role as chairman of the elected Constituent Assembly</a>. </p>
<p>He was appointed Prime Minister in 1990. </p>
<p>In 2002 he fell into disgrace for not supporting <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/legacies-of-power">Sam Nujoma’s presidency-for-life ambitions</a>. Instead of accepting his demotion to Minister of Regional and Local Government and Housing, he became executive secretary of the <a href="https://gcacma.org/AboutGCA.htm">Washington-based Global Coalition for Africa</a>. </p>
<p>In 2004 he obtained a PhD at the University of Leeds for a <a href="https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/21090/">thesis</a> on state formation in Namibia.</p>
<p>He returned the same year to Namibia. Thanks to Pohamba’s reconciliatory approach, he made a remarkable comeback. Minister of Trade and industry from 2008 to 2012, he again became Prime Minister (2012-2015). </p>
<p>His clever politically strategic mind paved the way to be elected as president of the party and state. </p>
<h1>Geingob’s presidency</h1>
<p>In the Presidential and National Assembly elections of <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2014-12-02-namibias-swapo-win-elections-geingob-voted-as-president/">November 2014</a> Geingob and Swapo scored the best results in the country’s history. While Nujoma was termed the president for stability and Pohamba the president for continuity, Geingob campaigned as <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/EJC-5ae9d1ff3">president for prosperity</a>. </p>
<p>But this made him the president of unfulfilled promises. </p>
<p>Geingob’s rhetoric disclosed a stronger contrast between what was said and what was done than that of his predecessors. He used more <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056244.2018.1500360">populist</a> rhetoric as his style of governance and leadership, coining the metaphor of the “Namibian House. </p>
<p>As he <a href="https://www.namibiaembassyusa.org/sites/default/files/statements/Inaugural%20Speech%20by%20HE%20Hage%20%20Geingob%201.pdf">declared in his inaugural address</a>:</p>
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<p>All of us must play our part in the success of this beautiful house we call Namibia. We need to renew it from time to time by undergoing renovations and extensions. … Let us stand together in building this new Namibian house in which no Namibian will feel left out.</p>
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<p>But over the years many felt left out. The November 2019 parliamentary and presidential election <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00358533.2020.1717090">results</a> were the worst for Swapo since independence. A 2020 Afrobarometer survey confirmed <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/articles/trust-political-institutions-decline-namibia-afrobarometer-survey-shows/">a decline of trust</a>.</p>
<p>In all fairness, Geingob entered office at a difficult time. The country faced fiscal constraints and a period of serious droughts, followed by the traumatic impact of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00358533.2020.1790776">Covid</a>. Consequently, the socio-economic track record under him was at best mixed. On balance, his governance was characterised by a considerable gap between <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/namibia-2024-promises-or-delivery/">promises and delivery </a>. </p>
<p>Under Geingob a decline of ethics became visible, manifested spectacularly in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FJ1TB0nwHs">corruption scandal</a> in the <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/timely-and-engaging-fishrot/">fishing industry</a>. It became the synonym of state capture. Fighting <a href="https://africa.cgtn.com/namibias-president-geingob-pledges-stronger-fight-against-corruption/">corruption</a> became Geingob’s mantra. But it had little credibility in the eyes of the wider public. </p>
<h1>The moderniser</h1>
<p>Geingob was first married (1967-1992) to a strong-minded African-American woman. Fondly called "Auntie Patty”, Priscilla Geingos was <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/auntie-patty-laid-to-rest-in-windhoek">laid to rest in Windhoek in 2014</a>. </p>
<p>Before entering office, Geingob (divorced for a second time from Loini Kandume in 2008) married the businesswoman Monica Kalondo in 2015. Strong, loyal, and independent-minded, Monica Geingos became an <a href="https://www.unaids.org/en/aboutunaids/unaidsambassadors/MonicaGeingos">active and internationally recognised First Lady</a>.</p>
<p>Among Geingob’s most laudable achievements <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2022/06/experts-committee-elimination-discrimination-against-women-congratulate-namibia">is a gender-aware policy</a>. It elevated Namibia into the league of countries with the highest proportion of women in leading political offices.</p>
<p>He <a href="https://namibia.unfpa.org/en/topics/gender-based-violence-3">took a stand against</a> gender-based violence and the country progressed in closing the gender inequality gap.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-pulls-down-german-colonial-statue-after-protests-who-was-curt-von-francois-195334">Namibia pulls down German colonial statue after protests – who was Curt von François?</a>
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<p>He was also reluctant to give in to <a href="https://www.washingtonblade.com/2023/06/14/landmark-namibia-supreme-court-ruling-sparks-anti-gay-backlash/">homophobia</a> prevalent among parliamentarians. In May 2023 the Supreme Court ruled in favour of <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/on-same-sex-relationships/">equal treatment</a> of two foreign same sex spouses married to Namibian citizens. While the vast majority of members of the National Assembly pushed through a law amendment seeking <a href="https://www.southernafricalitigationcentre.org/2023/07/20/namibias-proposed-amendment-of-the-marriage-act-an-attack-on-the-rule-of-law-and-the-judiciary/">to invalidate the verdict</a>, Geingob did not sign the bill into law. </p>
<h1>Geingob’s legacy</h1>
<p>One of the last official statements by Geingob, on 13 January 2024, testified to his strong views. Upset over Germany’s taking side with Israel at the International Court of Justice, he <a href="https://twitter.com/NamPresidency/status/1746259880871149956">fumed</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The German Government is yet to fully atone for the genocide it committed on Namibian soil. Germany cannot morally express commitment to the United Nations Convention against genocide, including atonement for the genocide in Namibia, whilst supporting the equivalent of a holocaust and genocide in Gaza.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Geingob was ambitious to enter Namibian history as the president who did more to promote the welfare and advancement of citizens. But he struggled to turn that vision into reality in office. Namibia remains among the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/namibia/overview#:%7E:text=Namibia%20ranks%20as%20one%20of,services%20are%20large%20and%20widening">most unequal countries</a> in the world. </p>
<p>As he reiterated in his <a href="https://twitter.com/NamPresidency/status/1741615241614508304">New Year Address 2024</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In order to seize the opportunities that are in line with our ambitions and expectations, we should redouble our efforts to make Namibia a better country. I call on each one of you to work harder for our collective welfare. I call on all of you to hold hands and to ensure that no one feels left out of the Namibian House.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>His legacy as a moderniser will live on despite all the contradictions and unfulfilled promises. </p>
<p>Hamba kahle (Rest in peace).</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of Swapo since 1974. </span></em></p>Hage Geingob’s legacy as a moderniser will live on despite contradictions and unfulfilled promises.Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2211242024-01-24T13:29:05Z2024-01-24T13:29:05ZLearning to read in another language is tough: how Namibian teachers can help kids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569258/original/file-20240115-27-so2q98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wolfgang Kaehler/Avalon/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a classroom in Namibia’s northern Oshikoto region, a teacher has written English vocabulary words on the chalkboard. She asks her learners to read them aloud. When they stumble with pronunciation, she corrects them. She also helps the youngsters to sound out words. At another school nearby, an English teacher is showing her class cartoon strips on her cellphone to help them create mental images while reading – an approach that’s proven to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0033688220943250">enhance comprehension</a>.</p>
<p>These teachers were part of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09500782.2023.2292597">a study</a> we conducted to understand the unique knowledge and skills that Namibian teachers have developed to teach English reading comprehension to grade 7s (who are on average 12 years old) in a diverse linguistic context. The learners’ home languages were primarily Oshiwambo, Oshindonga, Afrikaans and Otjiherero. </p>
<p>We aimed to shed light on what approaches the teachers used in their classrooms. We also wanted to explore the broader implications for Namibia’s education landscape.</p>
<p>We found that Namibian teachers had the skills to equip learners with the tools to become literate and fluent in English. In some situations the teachers tried to adapt their instruction to better reflect learners’ daily experiences and cultures. But this adaptation happened on the spur of the moment rather than being central to planned lessons.</p>
<p>We argue that using culturally appropriate, relevant examples should be a deliberate daily practice. For example, teachers could select a text or passage or story that incorporates traditions, folklore, or contemporary situations relevant to the students. </p>
<p>This would increase engagement. It would also allow students to connect more deeply with the material, fostering better comprehension by being familiar and relatable. It’s an approach has been <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19404476.2021.1959832">repeatedly proven</a> to <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1034914.pdf">boost</a> reading comprehension.</p>
<p>Recent studies <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/16073614.2023.2226175">show</a> that Namibian children have <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-26250-0_21">low proficiency</a> in English. Literacy is <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/literacy/need-know">a fundamental skill</a> for personal development and societal progress.</p>
<h2>Different cultural contexts</h2>
<p>The mismatch between imported educational approaches and the realities faced by English language learners in the global south has been <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-26250-0_19">identified</a> as contributing to the struggles encountered in reading comprehension. </p>
<p>In Namibia, English (although it is the country’s official language) is spoken by <a href="https://biodiversity.org.na/NamLanguages.php">only 3.4% of the population</a> as a first language or mother tongue. There are 13 <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/weng.12493">recognised languages in Namibia</a>; <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/weng.12493">Oshiwambo</a> is the most prevalent first language, including in the Oshikoto region. </p>
<p>Since 2009 the Namibian Ministry of Education has administered the National Standardised Achievement Test for grades 5 and 7. This covers English, mathematics, natural science and health education. It gauges learners’ English comprehension competency and overall performance in these subjects. The results are worrying. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1411036">In 2015 the results</a> showed that 87% of grade 7 learners scored below basic proficiency in English. The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality also found that the country <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1411036">did not exhibit significant improvements</a> in reading and mathematical literacy between 2005 and 2010. Its reading proficiency score in 2010 was 496.9 compared to a mean score of 511.8 for all <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1411036">15 participating countries</a>. </p>
<h2>Our study</h2>
<p>The study involved five experienced grade 7 English teachers. All had taught the subject for five years or longer. The teachers were each affiliated with one of four combined schools in the northern Oshikoto region of Namibia, and one primary school in Windhoek, the capital city. </p>
<p>All are state schools and learners are not required to pay fees. </p>
<p>Through stimulated recall interviews and classroom observations, we gained an understanding of the teaching practices used. Stimulated recall interviews are a way of talking with people about their past experiences or actions. It’s like watching a replay of something you did, and then being asked questions about what you were thinking or feeling during that time. It helps to better understand why people make certain choices or decisions. </p>
<p>We also conducted classroom observations, quietly sitting in to watch what teachers and learners were doing. We examined the learners’ comprehension by observing how actively they participated in question and answer sessions, collaborative activities, and retelling and summary tasks.</p>
<p>The findings reveal that teachers continue to use teaching and learning practices acquired during their initial teacher education. These included previewing, reading aloud, fluency training and vocabulary development. </p>
<p>Previewing happens when teachers ask learners to take a quick look over the title, headings and pictures to get an idea of what the reading is about. It helps the learners understand what to expect and makes reading a lot easier because they already have some clues about what is coming up. </p>
<p>Reading aloud helps learners hear the words and understand them better. It is a fun way to enjoy a test or share something interesting with others. Fluency training involves practising reading smoothly and easily. And vocabulary development is learning to read words smoothly without stumbling or pausing too much. </p>
<p>The teachers’ practices were pedagogically sound. But that doesn’t guarantee improved reading comprehension for learners without sensitivity to the lived experiences and the imagined future of the learners. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/learning-to-read-is-a-journey-a-study-identifies-where-south-african-kids-go-off-track-206242">Learning to read is a journey: a study identifies where South African kids go off track</a>
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<p>The teachers did not often adapt their practices to suit their specific cultural and linguistic contexts. Most of the reading material used didn’t contain examples learners could relate to from their own daily lives. In the few instances where there was link to a learner’s background, it was made on the spur of the moment, in response to the way a lesson was progressing or stalling. </p>
<h2>Teacher training</h2>
<p>We concluded that much more intentional use of relevant material is needed to integrate learners’ prior knowledge of the world into their reading comprehension.</p>
<p>For this to happen initial teacher education programmes need to be enhanced to ensure that teachers are equipped with skills to adapt pedagogical practices to diverse cultural and linguistic contexts. Many teacher education institutions prepare educators as if they will be teaching in well-resourced urban schools, assuming learners are eager to learn, and the school community supports enhanced reading. The reality is quite different: teachers deal with crowded classrooms and don’t get much support from schools to meet learning goals.</p>
<p>To enhance reading comprehension in primary schools within diverse cultural and linguistic contexts, teachers can begin by selecting reading material and resources that reflects the cultural diversity of their students, making the content more relatable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221124/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The teachers did not often adapt their practices to suit their specific cultural and linguistic contexts.Marta Ndakalako Alumbungu, PhD student, Stellenbosch UniversityNhlanhla Mpofu, Chair- Curriculum Studies, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2204222024-01-21T19:03:14Z2024-01-21T19:03:14ZIt is time to draw down carbon dioxide but shut down moves to play God with the climate<p>The global effort to keep climate change to safe levels – ideally within 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures – is moving far too slowly. And even if we stopped emitting CO² today, <a href="https://stao.ca/what-would-happen-to-the-climate-if-we-stopped-emitting-greenhouse-gases-today/#:%7E:text=If%20we%20stop%20emitting%20today,was%20normal%20for%20previous%20generations.">the long-term impacts</a> of the gas already in the air would continue for decades. For these reasons, we will soon have to focus not only on halting but on reversing global warming.</p>
<p>We can do that in two ways. The first is by “<a href="https://drawdown.org/drawdown-foundations">drawdown</a>” – strengthening natural processes on Earth that withdraw CO² from the atmosphere. The second is through vast experiments with the climate known as <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/what-climate-engineering#:%7E:text=Also%20known%20as%20%22geoengineering%2C%22,prepare%20for%20now%20unavoidable%20impacts.">geo-engineering</a>, some of which sound like science fiction, and could be extremely dangerous if ever tried.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-973" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/973/534c98def812dd41ac56cc750916e2922539729b/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>The dangers of some forms of geo-engineering</h2>
<p>Geo-engineering proposals to arrest climate change range from the seemingly sensible – <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/urban-heat-can-white-roofs-help-cool-the-worlds-warming-cities">painting our roofs and roads white</a> – to the highly speculative: <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/41903/one_atmosphere.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">solar radiation modification</a>, or putting mirrors in space to reflect some of the Sun’s heat away from Earth. Probably the most <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/13/what-is-solar-geoengineering-sunlight-reflection-risks-and-benefits.html">commonly proposed form of geo-engineering</a> involves putting sulfur into the stratosphere to dim the power of the sun. </p>
<p>The natural <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1997/fs113-97/">1991 eruption</a> of the Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines showed the effects of sulfur in action. The eruption <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/1510/global-effects-of-mount-pinatubo">measurably</a> cooled the Earth’s surface for almost two years.</p>
<p>But we don’t have to wait for an erupting volcano: all we need do is <a href="https://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/RobockStratAerosolGeo.pdf">add some sulphur</a> to the emissions of the world’s airline fleet, and release it once planes are in the stratosphere. The sulphur layer, which would also reflect some of the Sun’s heat back to space, would be a relatively inexpensive global cooling mechanism, instantaneous in its effect and implementable right now.</p>
<p>Yet this approach does nothing to remove CO² from the atmosphere, or to reduce
the <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/ocean-coasts/ocean-acidification#:%7E:text=Because%20of%20human%2Ddriven%20increased,the%20ocean%20becomes%20more%20acidic.">rising acidity</a> of the oceans. It’s like a Band-Aid over a festering sore. And, beyond its cooling effect, its impact on the climate system as a whole is unknown: no one to my knowledge has modelled the effects of using the jet fleet in this way.</p>
<p>No international treaty exists to regulate such experiments. In April 2022, the US
start-up company, Make Sunsets, <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/24/1066041/a-startup-says-its-begun-releasing-particles-%20into-the-atmosphere-in-an-effort-to-tweak-the-climate">released weather balloons</a> designed to reach the stratosphere, carrying a few grams of sulphur particles. There was no public scrutiny or scientific monitoring of the work. The company is already trying to sell “cooling credits” for future flights that could carry larger volumes of sulphur.</p>
<p>And what if climate change brings <a href="https://www.economist.com/china/2023/07/13/china-is-obsessed-with-food-security-climate-change-will-challenge-it">mass famine</a> and civil disobedience to China? It is already <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/06/china-modified-the-weather-to-create-clear-skies-for-political-celebration-study">seeding clouds</a> to make rain on a massive scale. China might think it is doing the right thing by putting sulfur into the stratosphere. But that decision might lead to war with other countries. What if this form of geoengineering <a href="https://www.csis.org/blogs/new-perspectives-asia/india-and-atmospheric-sulfate-injection-double-edged-sword">affected the monsoon</a> in India and caused famine? We just don’t know what the climatic and political impacts would be.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-laggard-to-leader-why-australia-must-phase-out-fossil-fuel-exports-starting-now-219912">From laggard to leader? Why Australia must phase out fossil fuel exports, starting now</a>
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<h2>Drawdown’s potential to store carbon</h2>
<p>Drawdown, by contrast, involves <a href="https://drawdown.org/drawdown-foundations">withdrawing CO²</a> from the atmosphere and storing it in other planetary organs, such as rocks, oceans or plants. Drawdown is much longer term than geoengineering, and most initiatives are only in the research and development stage. The most advanced and practical, by far, is forest <a href="https://www.oneearth.org/protection-of-primary-forests-is-priority-but-reforestation-is-also-crucial/">protection and reafforestation</a>.</p>
<p>Today humans emit about <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/14/bill-gates-concepts-to-understand-the-climate-crisis.html">51 billion tonnes of CO²</a> a year. Protecting and regenerating forests draws down <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2020.00058/full">2 billion tonnes a year</a>. Other approaches, such as <a href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage/direct-air-capture">direct air capture</a> of CO², draw down much smaller volumes. </p>
<p>So forest protection and reafforestation is our best bet for getting us closer to limiting warming to 1.5°C. A <a href="https://www.wur.nl/en/newsarticle/diverse-forests-hold-very-large-carbon-potential.htm#:%7E:text=New%20study%20estimates%20that%20natural,better%20manage%20and%20restore%20biodiversity.">recent paper</a> in the Nature journal argues we could draw down as much as 226 gigatonnes by allowing existing forests in areas where few humans live to recover to maturity, and by regrowing forests in areas where they have been removed or fragmented.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-homes-can-be-made-climate-ready-reducing-bills-and-emissions-a-new-report-shows-how-219113">Australian homes can be made climate-ready, reducing bills and emissions – a new report shows how</a>
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<p>We should not ignore other drawdown pathways, however. Seaweed is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723023203">a promising option</a> for drawing down a billion tonnes or so of CO² by 2050. But we need a lot more scientific research to understand how to do that, and what its wider impacts might
be. Today only one commercial kelp farm exists – <a href="https://kelp.blue/namibia/">Kelp Blue</a>, off the coast of Namibia, where four hectares of kelp are not only storing carbon but are used to make biodegradable food packaging and crop stimulants.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2448-9">Silicate rocks</a>, which are common in many places, including Victoria’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/olcanic-centre-distribution-Macedon-Trentham-and-Western-District-Volcanic-Provinces_fig1_261958672">Western
District</a>, also offer great hope. Once the rocks are crushed, a kilogram of a mineral they contain, <a href="https://eos.org/articles/can-these-rocks-help-rein-in-climate-change">olivine</a>, will sequester 1.5 kilograms of CO² from the atmosphere within a few weeks of being spread on a farm field or put onto a beach.</p>
<p>The crushing speeds up a natural sequestering process of thousands of years. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972106054X">Field trials conducted in Brazil</a> and <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0715">other countries</a> show using crushed rocks on crops can bring another benefit – significant increases in the yields of corn, cocoa and many other crops.</p>
<p>The problem is that the way we quarry and transport rocks today creates a lot of fossil fuel emissions. Once a farm is more than a few hundred kilometres from the quarry most of the benefit is gone. So until we can decarbonise transport and industrial energy, the benefit of silicate rocks will be minimal.</p>
<p>A process known as “direct air capture” sucks CO² out of the air and either puts it deep into rock strata or uses it for greenhouses or as the basis of concrete, plastic and other products that can sequester carbon long term. <a href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage/direct-air-capture">Nineteen plants</a> using this technology are already operating around the world, including in Switzerland, the US and Iceland. But again, a lot of industrial capacity and a clean energy to run the plants are needed to get the value.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/green-growth-or-degrowth-what-is-the-right-way-to-tackle-climate-change-218239">Green growth or degrowth: what is the right way to tackle climate change?</a>
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<h2>What the Albanese government should do</h2>
<p>For these reasons, the Albanese government should focus its drawdown efforts on forest protection and regrowth. This could be a theme of the UN climate conference Australia is <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/sprawling-and-costly-can-australia-host-cop31-in-just-two-years-20231212-p5eqqm">bidding to co-host</a> with Pacific nations in 2026. Our temperate forests contain <a href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/news/article/2022/march/in-20-years-of-studying-how-ecosystems-absorb-carbon-heres-why-were-worried-about-a-tipping-point-of-collapse#:%7E:text=For%20example%2C%20every%20hectare%20of,of%20Mediterranean%20woodland%20or%20shrubland.">more carbon per hectare</a> than almost anywhere on Earth. Stopping old-growth logging would be a magnificent contribution to arresting climate change.</p>
<p>The government should also back research and development on seaweed and silicate rocks so that the country’s huge resources can be responsibly deployed in future. Finally, Australia must push urgently for a global treaty to restrain sulphur geoengineering.</p>
<p>Today governments are busy just trying to reduce emissions and haven’t looked closely at drawdown and geoengineering. But things are moving fast, and it’s time to start.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-new-dawn-becoming-a-green-superpower-with-a-big-role-in-cutting-global-emissions-216373">Australia's new dawn: becoming a green superpower with a big role in cutting global emissions</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220422/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Flannery is Ambassador for RegenAqua, which uses seaweed and river grass to clean up wastewater before it flows out to sea and on to the Great Barrier Reef. He consults for the not-for-profit environmental charity, Odonata. He is Chief Councillor and Founding Member of the Climate Council, Governor at WWF-Australia, and sits on the board of the Kelp Forest Foundation, a philanthropic entity associated with Kelp Blue.
</span></em></p>To fight global warming we will soon have to try to remove carbon dioxide from the skies or find ways to reflect the Sun’s heat. Such radical paths must be examined, but risky experiments avoided.Tim Flannery, Honorary fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2193422023-12-07T14:13:10Z2023-12-07T14:13:10ZApartheid in Namibia: why human rights and women are celebrated on the same day<p>10 December is worldwide commemorated as <a href="https://www.un.org/en/observances/human-rights-day">Human Rights Day</a>. It marks the anniversary of the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a> adopted on that day in 1948. Many countries and organisations acknowledge this as a significant marker.</p>
<p>It created a lasting, normative framework defining fundamental human rights. UN Member States, while in constant violation, have all ratified the principles. They remain a moral and ethical compass demanding recognition and respect. </p>
<p>In Namibia, the day is marked as both International Human Rights Day <a href="https://namibia.unfpa.org/en/news/commemoration-international-human-rights-day-namibian-womens-day">as well as Namibian Women’s Day</a>. The reason for this is that it marks an event that stands out in Namibian history as a reminder of human rights abuses in the past, as well as the significant role played by women in the struggle for the restoration of these rights. </p>
<p>An indiscriminate shooting by police took place on this date in <a href="https://www.namibiadigitalrepository.com/files/original/f1626d4c5966b3ae6527015e129afa71.pdf">1959</a>. Thirteen unarmed demonstrators were killed, among them one woman. More than 40 were wounded as they resisted their forced removal from an area known as the Old Location. </p>
<p>The events became a reference point for the national liberation movement, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/SWAPO-Party-of-Namibia">South West African Peoples Organisation</a>, which was formed in 1960 in response to the event. The actions of the demonstrators acted as a midwife to the organised anti-colonial liberation struggle that went on to gain new momentum, culminating in <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/namibian-struggle-independence-1966-1990-historical-background">independence in 1990</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-pulls-down-german-colonial-statue-after-protests-who-was-curt-von-francois-195334">Namibia pulls down German colonial statue after protests – who was Curt von François?</a>
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<p>As diagnosed by the late South African historian <a href="https://www.baslerafrika.ch/projects/emmett-tony/">Tony Emmett</a> in his pioneering work on the formation of national resistance in Namibia:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The authorities’ attempts to move residents of the old location to a new township and the resistance they met represent a significant point in the political history of Namibia. … it transcended parochial issues and united a broad cross-section of groups and classes in a confrontation with the colonial state.</p>
</blockquote>
<h1>The Old Location</h1>
<p>My research has included life in the <a href="https://www.baslerafrika.ch/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2016_3_Melber.pdf">Old Location</a>, its <a href="https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/jch/article/view/5037/4005">history</a> and the <a href="https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/historia/article/view/3827/3915">forced removal</a>. </p>
<p>Since the early 20th century, the Location was the biggest Black urban settlement in Namibia. A former German colony since 1884, the territory then called South West Africa was in 1918 transferred as a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mandate-League-of-Nations">League of Nation mandate</a> to South Africa. Administered like a fifth province, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apartheid">apartheid policies</a> institutionalised as “separate development” since the late 1940s, was also transferred to the adjacent country.</p>
<p>The Location was in walking distance to Windhoek’s town centre. Only a riverbed separated it from the suburb set aside for white people. Residents in the Location paid a fee for the area they occupied even though the constructions built for accommodation were their private ownership.</p>
<p>In line with apartheid policy, a decision was taken to move the people from the Location. Residents there were from a variety of indigenous communities in the country. Despite different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, they lived in peaceful cohabitation. </p>
<p>To remove them from the direct vicinity to the “White” city, a new township <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Katutura-place-where-not-stay/dp/B0006W2U1Y">Katutura</a> was created. It was separated by a buffer zone several kilometres apart from the city. It also divided the residents through ethnically (“tribally”) classified, strictly policed separate living quarters. </p>
<p>The houses there remained property of the administration, for which higher rents had to be paid. People of mixed descent, classified as so-called <a href="https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/c0a95c41-a983-49fc-ac1f-7720d607340d/628130.pdf">“Coloureds”</a> were until then living in the Location. They were now forced to relocate to another separate suburb <a href="https://memim.com/khomasdal.html">Khomasdal</a>. </p>
<p>Hardly anyone living in the Main Location volunteered to move. Instead, as of late 1959, women initiated a boycott of services.</p>
<p>Following weeks of campaigns, a meeting with White officials took place in the Location on 10 December. Stones were thrown, and the police opened fire. The sheer brute force executed to break resistance marked the end of the Location.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-and-south-africas-ruling-parties-share-a-heroic-history-but-their-2024-electoral-prospects-look-weak-204818">Namibia and South Africa's ruling parties share a heroic history - but their 2024 electoral prospects look weak</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As from 1960, people were moved to Katutura and Khomasdal. Their homes in the Location were bulldozed to the ground. It was officially closed in 1968, with no traces of its existence left.</p>
<p>Extensions to Katutura since then turned it into the biggest settlement in Namibia. The area of the former Location has been turned into <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02589001.2022.2081671">middle class suburbia</a>.</p>
<h1>Remembering</h1>
<p>Anna “Kakurukaze” Mungunda became <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nbcContenthub/videos/in-this-short-history-video-you-will-learn-about-anna-mungunda-also-known-as-kak/2019517574914081/">the most widely acknowledged face of the resistance</a>. </p>
<p>Narratives differ as regards her role. She was not a prominent resident before and had no involvement in the organised resistance. But police killed her when she was supposedly setting the car of one of the White officials on fire.</p>
<p>As the only woman killed, Mungunda is paid recognition and respect by a <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150256637/anna-mungunda">tombstone</a> erected at the Windhoek Heroes Acre, inaugurated in 2002.</p>
<p>There is also an ongoing fight in Germany to get a street in Berlin named after her. The idea is to rename some of the colonial street names in the <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/october/in-the-afrikanisches-viertel">“African Quarter” (Afrikanisches Viertel)</a>. In particular, efforts are under way to change the Petersallee into <a href="https://taz.de/Dekolonisierung-von-Strassennamen/!5899594/">Anna-Mungunda-Allee</a>. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/454592">Peters</a> was a notorious colonial perpetrator in imperial Germany.</p>
<p>Implementation is on hold due to a legal intervention by some of the residents.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-and-angolas-remote-ovahimba-mountains-reveal-a-haven-for-unique-plants-new-survey-213884">Namibia and Angola’s remote Ovahimba mountains reveal a haven for unique plants – new survey</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In Windhoek, parts of the neglected and dilapidated Location cemetery have been <a href="https://pickingupthetabb.wordpress.com/2019/12/01/windhoek-remembering-the-old-location-massacre/">restored and upgraded</a> to a memorial site and turned into an Old Location Cemetery Museum. It is a venue for commemoration and on the <a href="https://www.windhoekcc.org.na/tour_attractions.php">list of local tourist attractions</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/he-dr-zedekia-j-ngavirue-dphil-politics-1967">Zedekia Ngavirue</a> was employed as social worker in the Location in 1959/60. Politically active in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/South-West-Africa-National-Union">South West Africa National Union</a> he founded and co-edited the first African newspaper “South West News”. Its nine issues have been reproduced <a href="https://www.baslerafrika.ch/a-glance-at-our-africa/">in a compilation</a> and are a treasure trove documenting discussion of the time.</p>
<p>In his introduction to the collection, “Dr Zed” (as he was later fondly called) might have captured the spirit of these days best:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was, indeed, when we owned little that we were prepared to make the greatest sacrifices.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of Swapo since 1974. </span></em></p>Anna “Kakurukaze” Mungunda became the most widely acknowledged face of the resistance to the apartheid policy of forced removal.Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2146262023-12-01T13:38:17Z2023-12-01T13:38:17ZColonized countries rarely ask for redress over past wrongs − the reasons can be complex<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562470/original/file-20231129-20-sljkib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C17%2C3901%2C2404&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indian visitors look at a painting depicting the Amritsar Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/indian-visitors-look-at-a-painting-depicting-the-amritsar-news-photo/120271580?adppopup=true">Narinder Nanu/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The king of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/01/1185647423/dutch-king-apologizes-for-the-monarchys-role-in-global-slave-trade">apologized in July 2023</a> for his ancestors’ role in the colonial slave trade. </p>
<p>He is not alone in expressing remorse for past wrongs. In 2021, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/benin-art-returned-scli-intl/index.html#:%7E:text=Twenty%2Dsix%20works%20of%20art,countries%20to%20recover%20looted%20artifacts.">France returned 26 works of art seized by French colonial soldiers</a> in Africa – the largest restitution France has ever made to a former colony. In the same year, Germany officially apologized for its 1904-08 genocide of the Herero and Nama people of Namibia <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/germany-officially-calls-colonial-era-killings-namibia-genocide-2021-05-28/">and agreed to fund reconstruction and development projects in Namibia.</a>.</p>
<p>This is, some political scientists have observed, the “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=pPXpiXQ45osC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">age of apology</a>” for past wrongs. Reams of articles, particularly in Western media, are devoted to former colonizer countries and whether they have enacted redress – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/learning/should-museums-return-looted-artifacts-to-their-countries-of-origin.html">returned museum artifacts</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/27/world/americas/colonial-reparations.html">paid reparations</a> or <a href="https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/12/20/some-european-countries-have-apologised-for-their-colonial-past-is-it-enough">apologized for past wrongs</a>. </p>
<p>Yet this is rarely the result of official requests. In fact, very few former colonies have officially – that is, government to government – pressed perpetrators to redress past injustices. </p>
<p>My analysis found that governments <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiad118">in 78% of such cases</a> have not asked to be compensated for historical acts of injustice against them. As a <a href="https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/profile/manjari-chatterjee-miller/">scholar of international relations</a> who has studied the effect of <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=22642">colonialism on the present-day foreign policy of countries affected</a>, I found this puzzling. Why don’t more victim states press for intercountry redress? </p>
<p>The answer lies in the fact that colonial pasts and atoning for injustices are controversial – not just in what were perpetrator countries, but also in their victims. What to ask redress for, from whom and for whom are complicated questions with no easy answers. And there are often divergent narratives within victim countries about how to view past colonial history, further hampering redress. </p>
<h2>Focus on perpetrator country</h2>
<p>There is a disproportionate amount of attention paid to whether perpetrator countries – that is, former colonizers who established extractive and exploitative governments in colony states – offer redress. They are <a href="https://hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2015/summer/germany-japan-reconciliation/">lauded when they enact redress</a> and <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/japans-apologies-on-comfort-women-not-enough/">shamed when they do not</a>.</p>
<p>The processes pertaining to redress within victim countries – the former colonies – gets less attention. This, I believe, has the effect of making these countries peripheral to a conversation in which they should be central.</p>
<p>This matters – success or failure of redress can <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ia/article-abstract/99/4/1693/7198184">depend on whether victim countries officially push for it</a>.</p>
<p>Take the experiences of two formerly colonized countries that I studied in depth in relation to the question of redress: India and Namibia. </p>
<h2>The Indian experience: Different narratives</h2>
<p>It’s <a href="https://globalchallenges.ch/issue/10/decolonisation-and-international-law/">difficult for a country</a>, particularly a poor developing nation, to take a former colonizer, usually a much richer country, to the International Court of Justice to ask for redress for the entire experience of colonialism. </p>
<p>But most former colonies have never officially asked for some form of redress – be it apology, reparations or restitution, even for specific acts of injustice. </p>
<p>India is an example of the difficulty in building consensus for official redress. Take the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/opinion/1919-amrtisar-british-empire-india.html">Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919</a>, in which British troops killed hundreds of peaceful protesters, including women and children.</p>
<p>The Indian government has never officially <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/india-should-not-ask-britain-to-apologise-for-the-amritsar-massacre/">asked for an apology</a> from the United Kingdom over the incident. </p>
<p>Part of the problem is different groups within India have different narratives about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/29/british-empire-india-amartya-sen">the 200 years of British colonial rule</a>. No one disputes that the Raj was exploitative and violent. But which acts of violence to emphasize? How much responsibility should be assigned to the British? And should any positive attributes of the Raj be highlighted? These are all debated.</p>
<p>Such points of divergence are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiad118">reflected in India’s federal and state-issued history textbooks</a>, according to my analysis.</p>
<p>The bloody <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/india-pakistan-75-125381">Partition of India in 1947</a> and the subsequent creation of Pakistan, for example, are blamed on the British in federal and many state textbooks. But it merits just a small paragraph in Gujarati textbooks, where it is blamed entirely on the Muslim League, the founding party of Pakistan. In the state of Tamil Nadu, Partition is mentioned without any description of either the horrors that followed or where responsibility lay.</p>
<p>Different narratives also appear in the Indian Parliament. When the issue of redress came up in 1997 – the 50th year of Indian independence and just before <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/interactive/immersive/queen_elizabeth_70_years_on_throne/">Queen Elizabeth II visited India</a> – politicians agreed that India’s emergence from what politician Somnath Chatterjee described as “<a href="https://eparlib.nic.in/handle/123456789/430">a strangulating and dehumanizing slavery under a colonial imperialist power</a>” was worth celebrating. But on the issue of whether Elizabeth should apologize for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, there was little agreement. Calls from some politicians for an apology were drowned out by others who jabbed at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, pointing out its allies had <a href="https://eparlib.nic.in/handle/123456789/479">never apologized for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi</a>.</p>
<p>As of this writing, the U.K. has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/10/theresa-may-expresses-regret-for-1919-amritsar-massacre">expressed regret for the massacre</a> but never apologized, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/world/asia/jallianwala-bagh-massacre-india-britain.html">infuriating many Indians</a>.</p>
<h2>The long journey for Namibian redress</h2>
<p>Namibia is an uncommon case of redress where the government has officially pushed for an apology and reparations from its former colonizer, Germany. But even then it was a painful, complex and <a href="https://theconversation.com/genocide-negotiations-between-germany-and-namibia-hit-stumbling-blocks-89697">time-consuming process</a> dogged by many of the themes that have prevented India and others from seeking formal redress.</p>
<p>Between 1884 and 1919, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/namibia-a-timeline-of-germanys-brutal-colonial-history/a-57729985">Namibia was a German colony</a>, with some communities systematically dispossessed of their traditional lands. In 1904, one of these communities, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/herero-revolt-1904-1907">the Herero</a>, rebelled, followed in 1905 by the Nama. In response, German troops slaughtered thousands in a bloodbath that is today <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2022/11/6/reckoning-with-genocide-in-namibia">widely acknowledged to be a genocide</a>. Survivors, including women and children, were herded into horrific concentration camps and subjected to forced labor and medical experiments. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of men stand with chains around their necks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562474/original/file-20231129-17-m04tz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562474/original/file-20231129-17-m04tz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562474/original/file-20231129-17-m04tz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562474/original/file-20231129-17-m04tz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562474/original/file-20231129-17-m04tz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562474/original/file-20231129-17-m04tz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562474/original/file-20231129-17-m04tz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Captured Herero fighters in 1904.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/gefangene-hereros-1904-05identisch-mit-nr-in-lz-8-news-photo/545965213?adppopup=true">Ullstein Bild via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The struggle to hold Germany accountable began decades ago, with individuals from the Herero and Nama communities calling for accountability and reparations. Germany rebuffed them repeatedly, precisely because the Namibian government did not take up their call. Only in 2015, after the Namibian government officially requested redress, did Germany acquiesce.</p>
<p>In May 2021, Germany <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/germany-officially-calls-colonial-era-killings-namibia-genocide-2021-05-28/">finally agreed to recognize the genocide</a>, apologize and establish a fund of US$1.35 billion toward reconstruction and development projects in Herero- and Nama-dominated areas. </p>
<p>Why did it take so long? For the Herero and Nama, the genocide and loss of traditional lands were always forefront. But for others in Namibia – notably, the dominant political party, the South West Africa People’s Organization, or SWAPO, which consists largely of members of the Ovambo ethnic community – uniting Namibians to come together in a national, anti-colonial struggle for independence was <a href="https://academic.oup.com/hgs/article-abstract/26/3/394/575370?redirectedFrom=fulltext">deemed more important</a> than focusing on the wrongs suffered by any one community.</p>
<p>After independence, the ruling SWAPO <a href="https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/762/1/05029.pdf">prioritized nation-building and unity</a> and cultivated ties with the German government, hoping for foreign aid and economic development. Complicating matters, the Ovambo had not lost their own traditional lands to colonialism in the same way as the Herero and Nama.</p>
<p>For years, government-approved school history textbooks used in Namibian schools reflected the SWAPO narrative. One Ovambo former school history teacher told me that Namibian children learned about the “war of national resistance” and how exploitative colonialism had necessitated that war. But the word “genocide” was never used, and there were no mentions of the suffering of affected communities.</p>
<p>Around 2010, Namibian activists, NGO workers and government officials from all communities began to search for common ground to reconcile the different narratives. Some attempts failed. A 2014 museum exhibition on the genocide collapsed after its financier, the Finnish embassy, withdrew funding – allegedly under pressure, one Namibian expert told me, from the German government. But others succeeded. The <a href="https://nan.gov.na/home">National Archives of Namibia</a> launched a project to collect academic papers on divergent narratives of the liberation struggle and colonial history. </p>
<p>As reconciling narratives progressed, history textbooks were revised to honor not just SWAPO’s version of history, but also highlight the brutalities suffered by the Herero and Nama. They included frank discussions of genocide and colonial atrocities. Against this backdrop, the Namibian government officially initiated a request for redress from Germany. Both governments appointed teams to find a resolution, resulting in the 2021 reparation fund.</p>
<p>Redress between countries is rare. Successful redress even more so. But the example of Namibia shows that it can be done when the governments of victim countries initiate redress. By focusing only on perpetrator states, we miss an opportunity to examine their victims as agents of change, and thereby perpetuate redress as an unusual phenomenon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214626/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Manjari Chatterjee Miller is affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations.</span></em></p>Fewer than a quarter of once-colonized countries make official government-to-government requests for an apology or reparations.Manjari Chatterjee Miller, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations/Associate Professor of International Relations, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2170672023-11-26T08:40:39Z2023-11-26T08:40:39ZClimate adaptation funds are not reaching frontline communities: what needs to be done about it<p>Communities around the world face <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/our-mandate/climate/wmo-statement-state-of-global-climate/Africa-2022">increasingly severe</a> and <a href="https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/facts-about-climate-change-in-africa/">frequent impacts</a> from climate change. They are on the “frontlines” of droughts, flooding, desertification and sea level rise. </p>
<p>International climate finance is supposed to help. In the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world’s wealthiest countries pledged <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-glasgow-climate-pact/cop26-outcomes-finance-for-climate-adaptation#Developed-countries-have-pledged-USD-100-billion-a">US$50 billion annually</a> to support climate adaptation among those “particularly vulnerable” to climate change. Climate adaptation is the adjustments humans make to reduce exposure to climate risk. </p>
<p>Eight years later, it is clear that this money is failing to reach vulnerable “frontline communities”, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Recently, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Sudan and Niger have been among the <a href="https://www.germanwatch.org/sites/germanwatch.org/files/2021-01/cri-2021_table_10_most_affected_countries_in_2019.jpg">top ten most affected countries</a>.</p>
<p>The host country of the upcoming annual United Nations climate negotiations (COP28), the United Arab Emirates, has announced it is focused on “<a href="https://www.cop28.com/en/news/2023/10/cop28-presidency-co-hosts-global-dialogue-in-abu-dhabi-to-focus-on-accelerating-the-energy">fixing climate finance</a>”. </p>
<p>I am a researcher who has studied international climate finance for seven years, both at the annual COPs and through research in <a href="https://www.sei.org/about-sei/press-room/finance-for-climate-adaptation-fails-reach-most-vulnerable/">Madagascar</a>, Mauritius and <a href="https://www.sei.org/projects/equity-in-adaptation-finance/">Namibia</a>. My work explores how to make climate finance more equitable and accessible for vulnerable communities.</p>
<p>It’s my view that the countries that contribute the bulk of the funding for climate adaptation can ensure more money reaches those who need it most. To do that they must first understand why financing isn’t reaching frontline communities. Otherwise money will continue to fall well short of need.</p>
<h2>Why funding isn’t reaching vulnerable communities</h2>
<p>The clearest reason why adaptation finance does not reach these communities is that there is simply not enough of it. Wealthy countries have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/20/rich-countries-not-providing-poor-with-pledged-climate-finance-analysis-says">consistently failed</a> to deliver on the US$50 billion commitment. Every year the gap between needs and support grows. The latest <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/adaptation-gap-report-2023">Adaptation Gap Report</a> estimates that international adaptation finance is 10-18 times below need.</p>
<p>Beyond this shortfall, the current structure of climate finance prevents frontline communities from accessing support. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378022000139">Studies show</a> that the poorest and most vulnerable countries receive less than their fair share of adaptation finance. Support for sub-Saharan African countries is <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-in-which-finance-for-climate-adaptation-in-africa-falls-short-169280">as little as US$5 per person</a> per year. </p>
<p>Two key barriers explain this disconnect. The first is the overlap of climate vulnerability with conflict and political instability. <a href="https://www.icrc.org/sites/default/files/topic/file_plus_list/rain_turns_to_dust_climate_change_conflict.pdf#page=12">Twelve of the 20 countries</a> most vulnerable to climate change are also affected by conflict. Vulnerable countries are also prone to political turmoil, frequent changes in government, and high levels of government corruption.</p>
<p>UN climate funds and other major funders like the World Bank see these countries as less “ready” for adaptation projects. <a href="https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/169654">My research</a> has also found that wealthy countries worry their taxpayers’ money will be lost to corruption.</p>
<p>The second barrier is the finance application process. Proposals for UN climate funds, such as the <a href="https://www.wri.org/research/improving-access-green-climate-fund-how-fund-can-better-support-developing-country">Green Climate Fund</a>, can number hundreds of pages. Application requirements differ from fund to fund. It can take years to develop a proposal and to receive the money.</p>
<h2>Reaching frontline communities</h2>
<p>Even when vulnerable countries receive international support, further barriers can prevent it from reaching frontline communities. Currently, only <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-three-major-gaps-in-climate-adaptation-finance-for-developing-countries/">17% of adaptation finance has reached local levels</a>. My research in <a href="https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/169654">Madagascar and Mauritius</a> found both administrative and political barriers.</p>
<p>National governments consume resources administering grants, often hiring expensive foreign consultants to plan, implement and monitor projects. These costs eat into the money intended for local communities. The focus on large, individual projects tends to concentrate funding in one area, limiting how far benefits can reach.</p>
<p>Funds also require clear evidence of success. Governments might invest in projects they know will succeed rather than take innovative approaches or choose riskier areas. </p>
<p>National governments also make decisions for political reasons. They tend to distribute resources – including money for adaptation – based on what will help them stay in power. They are more likely to fund political supporters than opponents. Communities are often vulnerable precisely because they are politically marginalised.</p>
<p>Finally, studies show that adaptation finance, like development funding, can be lost to corruption and mismanagement. Wealthy and powerful elites can <a href="https://theecologist.org/2021/jan/22/adaptation-funds-increase-climate-vulnerability">“capture” the benefits</a> of internationally financed projects, such as a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000050">disproportionate share of rice seeds</a> for a project to build the resilience of agriculture in Madagascar.</p>
<h2>How to fix it</h2>
<p>It is not too late to change how adaptation finance flows to ensure more of it reaches vulnerable communities. The first step is to increase funding for adaptation. Support for adaptation <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/adaptation-gap-report-2023">actually declined in 2021</a>, the most recent year for which we have data. Wealthy countries must meet the commitments they made in the Paris Agreement.</p>
<p>The second step is for UN funds, the World Bank and wealthy countries to dedicate a greater proportion of funding to the most vulnerable countries. They must do so regardless of whether these countries are affected by conflict, instability and corruption.</p>
<p>For UN funds this can be accomplished by simplifying and standardising application procedures. Funds can also dedicate more resources to help countries prepare proposals. They should focus less on demanding clear results and more on supporting adaptation that aligns with national and local priorities.</p>
<p>Wealthy countries that contribute to climate funds need to give up some power over the money. They will have to accept imperfect governance and that some funding will be lost to mismanagement and corruption. They have tolerated such trade-offs before, such as during the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/corruption-covid-19-how-to-fight-back/">COVID pandemic</a>, when urgency outweighed concerns over waste and fraud.</p>
<p>But funders should also push for increased transparency around projects. They can encourage scrutiny by local civil society groups, for example, by publishing project information in local languages.</p>
<p>The third step is to experiment. For example, the Green Climate Fund is currently experimenting with <a href="https://www.greenclimate.fund/project/fp024">“decentralised” adaptation finance</a> in Namibia. Rather than a single large project, the Namibian government broke the funds into 31 small grants for community-based organisations. Together with the University of Namibia, we are <a href="https://www.sei.org/projects/equity-in-adaptation-finance/">examining whether and how</a> this approach helps more funding reach frontline communities. Early results are encouraging.</p>
<p>Fixing climate finance is not simple, but it is urgent. Failing to do so means leaving the most vulnerable alone to face the increasing threats of climate change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Browne has received funding from the US Department of Education (Fulbright-Hayes Doctoral Dissertation Abroad fellowship), US State Department (Fulbright Fellowship), the University of Michigan, and Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS).</span></em></p>Getting climate funds to frontline communities may require rich countries and the UN easing control over how the money is spent.Katherine Browne, Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2160182023-10-19T15:06:20Z2023-10-19T15:06:20ZMartti Ahtisaari: the Finnish peacemaker who played midwife to Namibian independence<p>Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president, died on 16 October at the <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2023-10-16/statement-attributable-the-spokesperson-for-the-secretary-general-the-death-of-martti-ahtisaari">age of 86</a>. Born in eastern Finland, he was two years old when his family fled from the Russian invasion at the outbreak of the second world war. </p>
<p>A trained school teacher, he moved in 1960 to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/18/martti-ahtisaari-obituary">Swedish Pakistani Institute in Karachi</a>. In 1965 he joined the Finnish foreign service. His posting as a diplomat in Tanzania <a href="https://finlandabroad.fi/web/tza/current-affairs/-/asset_publisher/h5w4iTUJhNne/content/suurl-c3-a4hetyst-c3-b6-50-vuotta-martti-ja-eeva-ahtisaaren-tervehdys/384951">in 1973</a> was the beginning of lasting bonds to the African continent. Only two years later, he started his commitment to the struggle for self-determination of the Namibian people. </p>
<p>Namibia, then called South West Africa, was under the illegal control of apartheid South Africa. According to the United Nations, it was <a href="https://www.unmultimedia.org/avlibrary/asset/2040/2040311/">“a trust betrayed”</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/understanding-namibia/">Namibia</a> and its <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5079769_Conflict_mediation_in_decolonisation_Namibia's_transition_to_independence">decolonisation process</a> have been among my interests as a scholar. Martti Ahtisaari played a crucial role in the United Nations supervised transition to independence, as documented in his biography, aptly titled <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-mediator/">The Mediator</a>.</p>
<p>The government of Namibia awarded him honorary Namibian citizenship after independence. Upon the news of his death he was locally <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/a-light-during-namibias-dark-days/">praised as</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a light during Namibia’s dark days.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Namibia’s President Hage Geingob described him as a friend of the Namibian liberation struggle and a leading peacemaker. Through the United Nations, he “<a href="https://neweralive.na/posts/namibia-mourns-ahtisaari-fondly-remembered-for-impact-on-namibias-journey-to-independence">played a pivotal role in midwifing the birth of a new Namibia</a>”.</p>
<p>Ahtisaari’s work in Namibia was the beginning of a long and successful engagement in international conflict mediation. Many more <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/18/martti-ahtisaari-obituary">diplomatic achievements</a> in various parts of the world followed. </p>
<h2>Ahtisaari and Namibia</h2>
<p>Ahtisaari’s involvement in Africa began in 1973 when he was appointed <a href="https://finlandabroad.fi/web/tza/current-affairs/-/asset_publisher/h5w4iTUJhNne/content/suurl-c3-a4hetyst-c3-b6-50-vuotta-martti-ja-eeva-ahtisaaren-tervehdys/384951">Finland’s ambassador to Tanzania</a>. At the time, the anticolonial movements of southern Africa had offices in Dar es Salaam, home to the headquarters of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41394216">African Liberation Committee</a> of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/organisation-african-unity-oau">Organisation of African Unity</a>. </p>
<p>In 1975 he was <a href="https://archives.unam.edu.na/index.php/unin-united-nations-institute-for-namibia">appointed</a> as a <a href="https://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/about/people/martti-ahtisaari/">senator to the council</a> of the United Nations Institute for Namibia. The <a href="https://archives.unam.edu.na/index.php/unin-united-nations-institute-for-namibia">institute</a> was established in Lusaka by the <a href="https://africanactivist.msu.edu/organization/210-813-508/#:%7E:text=In%201966%20the%20United%20Nations,United%20Nations%20Council%20for%20Namibia">United Nations Council for Namibia</a>, officially inaugurated in 1976. Its mandate was to prepare for Namibia’s independence by drafting blueprints and training staff. Geingob, at the time representing the South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo) liberation movement at the United Nations, was appointed <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/160803">as its director</a>.</p>
<p>At the <a href="https://nai.uu.se/library/resources/liberation-africa/interviews/ben-amathila.html">behest of Swapo</a>, Ahtisaari was appointed as UN commissioner for Namibia in March 1977 and relocated from Dar es Salaam to New York.</p>
<p>In July 1978 the UN Security Council asked the UN secretary general to appoint a special representative for Namibia to ensure independence of the country through free elections under the supervision of the UN. With support of the US-American diplomat <a href="https://www.academyofdiplomacy.org/member/donald-f-mchenry/">Don McHenry</a>, Ahtisaari was again the choice. As McHenry was quoted in Ahtisaari’s <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-mediator/">biography</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I thought why don’t we kill two birds with one stone. Ahtisaari was clearly sensible to the views of the Africans but he was at the same time very practical and got results. He was, then, the very man for the job.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ahtisaari henceforth wore two hats related to Namibian affairs. His term as commissioner ended in April 1982. In 1987 he was appointed as the UN under-secretary general for administration and management on the condition that he retained his role as special representative for Namibian affairs.</p>
<p>In 1978 UN Security Council <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/namibia-resolution435">Resolution 435</a> was adopted as the blueprint for Namibia’s transition to independence. But it was shelved after being blocked by US under President Ronald Reagan and the UK under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The resolution was finally implemented more than a decade later, after the global realignments following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-30-years-ago-resonated-across-africa-126521">end of the Cold War</a>.</p>
<p>The United Nations Transitional Assistance Group (<a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/past/untag.htm">Untag</a>) was tasked with implementing Resolution 435 from April 1989 to March 1990. Under Ahtisaari, with Botswana’s UN ambassador <a href="https://www.un.org/osaa/content/former-special-adviser-he-m-legwaila-joseph-legwaila-2006-2007">Joseph Legwaila</a> as his deputy, Untag accomplished the mission.</p>
<p>This was due in large part to the skills and credibility of Ahtisaari. As special representative for Namibia more than a decade before the implementation of Resolution 435, he had gained the trust of a variety of stakeholders. This gave him personal leverage, which he was able to apply in critical situations.</p>
<p>Under Untag supervision, a <a href="https://www.parliament.na/constituent-assembly-1989-1990/">constituent assembly</a> was elected in Namibia in November 1989, <a href="https://www.kas.de/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=a5fa370c-004f-c92d-0ba3-7b3ca48aab38&groupId=252038">chaired</a> by Geingob. In early 1990 its members adopted the country’s constitution as the <a href="https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=9565">normative framework</a>. Independence was declared on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/45316527">21 March 1990</a>.</p>
<p>Ahtisaari remains publicly remembered locally by a school and streets bearing his name.</p>
<h2>Mediation beyond Namibia</h2>
<p>Ahtisaari’s merits during his international career translated into a successful campaign in domestic politics. Serving his country in government first as foreign minister, he became in 1994 Finland’s president for a six-year term until 2000.</p>
<p>But his heart remained in international conflict mediation. Upon leaving office, he founded the <a href="https://cmi.fi/about-us/">Crisis Management Initiative</a>, an independent non-governmental organisation.</p>
<p>Ahtisaari played an active role in Serbia’s withdrawal from Kosovo in the late 1990s. During the Northern Ireland peace process at the same time, he monitored the Irish Republican Army’s <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41249341.html">disarmament process</a>. In 2005 he was brokering the autonomy for <a href="https://www.c-r.org/accord/aceh-indonesia/delivering-peace-aceh-interview-president-martti-ahtisaari">Aceh province in Indonesia</a>. The same year he was appointed by the UN secretary general Kofi Annan as <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/serbia/secretary-general-appoints-former-president-martti-ahtisaari-finland-special-envoy">special envoy for the future status process for Kosovo</a>.</p>
<p>Among the numerous honorary recognitions of his role in mediating conflicts, South Africa <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/order-companions-o.r.-tambo-0">awarded him in 2004</a> the Order of the Companions of Oliver Tambo (Supreme Companion) for</p>
<blockquote>
<p>his outstanding achievement as a diplomat and commitment to the cause of freedom in Africa and peace in the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In October 2008 he was <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2008/press-release/">awarded the Nobel Peace Prize</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Explicit reference was made to his role in Namibia’s transition towards independence. Between 2009 and 2018 he was a member of <a href="https://theelders.org/who-we-are">The Elders</a>. Founded in 2007 by Nelson Mandela, this group of independent global leaders works for peace, justice, human rights and a sustainable planet. </p>
<p>As Geingob <a href="https://www.observer24.com.na/geingob-pays-tribute-to-ahtisaari-as-a-friend-and-a-peacemaker/">declared</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>today, we are not only mourning the loss of Ahtisaari, a friend and one of us, but we are also reaffirming the rich legacy of peace and the outstanding international public service of a Nobel peace laureate with an indelible association with Namibia.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of SWAPO since 1974.</span></em></p>Ahtisaari’s role in Namibia was crucial. But he left a major legacy in pursuing peace in various places of conflict in his later life too.Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2138842023-10-19T13:18:57Z2023-10-19T13:18:57ZNamibia and Angola’s remote Ovahimba mountains reveal a haven for unique plants – new survey<p>The Kaokoveld region, covering north-western Namibia and south-western Angola, is one of the remotest areas in southern Africa. Although it’s extremely dry, it is a centre of species endemism: many species occur only there and nowhere else on earth. </p>
<p>New species continue to be found, especially in the Ovahimba mountain range, which runs parallel to the cold Atlantic ocean and is separated from it by the gravel plains and dunes of the northern Namib Desert.</p>
<p>The highest mountain peaks of this range are so inhospitable and difficult to access, because of the lack of roads and water, that few have ever scaled them. The exceptions are local herders of the semi-nomadic <a href="https://www.lcfn.info/ovahimba/information/ethnology">Himba</a>, who drive their cattle and goats to richer pastures in the mountains during dry periods. </p>
<p>In 2021, I was part of a team of researchers from Namibia and Angola who aimed to investigate the biodiversity and endemism on some of the most remote peaks. We hypothesised that the mountain peaks harboured a large number of species, especially plants, insects and reptiles. That’s because there’s a rapid change in climate and topography (land features) from the hyper-arid, cool desert near the coast and the arid and seasonally warmer plains further inland to the cooler mountainous escarpment. </p>
<p>Through an EU-funded transfrontier conservation <a href="http://sciona.nust.na/">project, SCIONA</a>, we had the opportunity to use the only safe option to get to the Ovahimba mountain peaks: a helicopter.</p>
<p>It is incredibly exciting to plan a trip to such a remote and beautiful wilderness area where few people have intervened in the ecosystem. </p>
<p>Because of the high cost and complicated logistics, we had to limit <a href="https://conservationnamibia.com/pdfs/cn2021-helicopter-science.pdf">the visit</a> to a few days on each of three mountain tops. Two were in Angola – Serra Cafema and Serra Tchamalindi in <a href="https://www.africanparks.org/the-parks/iona">Iona National Park</a> – and one was in the Otjihipa range of Namibia. The mountain tops were selected based on their altitude and remoteness. They also have many ecological niches based on exposure to wind and sun. </p>
<p>At each campsite, we left excitedly in different directions, to return and exchange findings and stories after sunset.</p>
<p>Even in this short visit, we <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0035919X.2023.2211040">found</a> plenty of interest and some surprises. Of the 285 plant species we encountered, 34 species are endemic to the Kaokoveld. One is new to science and at least six endemics fall in the endangered <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">IUCN red list</a> category. Sixteen plant species that were previously known only from Namibia were found in Angola. We also <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374413378_First_records_for_Angola_of_Cape_Eagle_Owl_and_Layard's_Warbler">recorded</a> two bird species, the Cape Eagle Owl and Layard’s Warbler, in Angola for the first time. </p>
<p>These mountain flora deserve priority conservation efforts to protect endemic and other plants that have survived in these refuge sites, providing a habitat for some unique fauna.</p>
<h2>Helicopter adventure</h2>
<p>Our helicopter hops between the mountains gave us unforgettable, magnificent views of the mountains, through which the glittering Kunene River meanders. The first campsite was in the Otjihipa range, at a mountain that we named Middelberg (1,941 metres above sea level).</p>
<p>The ridge boasts a diverse shrub and woodland vegetation, unlike the barren plains surrounding it, because of the cooler temperatures, the water bearing capacities of rocks, less grazing and browsing, and what we assume is higher rainfall (there are no records). It was adorned by beautiful Kaoko tree-euphorbias (<em>Euphorbia eduardoi</em>).</p>
<p>We also found a large underground cave with intact stalactite and stalagmite formations. This is unusual in the area and may indicate that there was much more water there in the past. </p>
<p>The second campsite was near a mountain top in the eastern part of the large Tchamalinde range, at an elevation of 1,420 metres above sea level. The helicopter could not land higher up the mountain where it was covered with a continuous tree layer. The Kaokoveld endemic flower <em>Turnera oculata var. paucipilosa</em> thrives in this area, as well as the resurrection bush (<em>Myrothamnus flabellifolius</em>) and the black stick lily (<em>Xerophyta retinervis</em>). Resurrection plants appear to be dead during the dry season but suddenly turn green with the rains.</p>
<p>Our last campsite was 100 metres from the top of the highest mountain of Iona National Park, Serra Cafema (2,050 metres above sea level). Of the three mountain tops we visited, it was the closest to the coast (85km) and therefore also the coldest and windiest.</p>
<p>Despite the harsh climate, there was a surprising amount of vegetation, mainly a mosaic of hardy <a href="https://pza.sanbi.org/vegetation/fynbos-biome">Cape fynbos</a>-like shrubs and dry savanna vegetation with large-stemmed Namib resin trees (<em>Ozoroa crassinervia</em>). It was a surprise to find the tall <em>Euphorbia monteiroi subsp. brandbergensis</em> as it was previously only known further south in Namibia. Another beautiful <em>Turnera</em> flower (<em>Turnera oculata var. oculata</em>) was common at Serra Cafema, as well as large specimens of mother-in-law’s-tongue (<em>Sansevieria pearsonii</em>).</p>
<p>Even on the mountain top of Serra Cafema, the highest and remotest of all, there were signs of human impact via grazing. </p>
<p>The findings show the highest plant biodiversity on Serra Cafema, with 56 species per 1,000m² compared to 47 species per 1,000m² for the other mountains. Of the three mountains, Serra Cafema is the most influenced by fog caused by the cold Benguela current. Species composition is very different from the surrounding lowlands.</p>
<h2>Protecting biodiversity</h2>
<p>We unlocked only a fraction of the mystery held by these biodiversity hotspots. There is no doubt that yet more unusual and interesting plants and animals are waiting to be discovered on these inaccessible peaks, especially because our visit took place after 10 years of drought. Huge swarms of <a href="https://theconversation.com/brown-locusts-have-survived-a-long-drought-in-south-africa-heres-how-158488">locusts</a> were in the barren plains at that time.</p>
<p>However, our reconnaissance survey did show that the plants here need protection. They are threatened by <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/factsheets/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Regional_Fact_Sheet_Africa.pdf">climate change</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374413480_An_Integrated_Ecosystem_Management_Framework_for_the_Skeleton_Coast-Iona_Transfrontier_Park">overgrazing by livestock</a>. Management of the Ovahimba highlands is in the hands of Namibian communal conservancies, the NGO <a href="https://www.africanparks.org/">African Parks</a> and the Namibian and Angolan governments. African Parks recently took over management of <a href="https://www.africanparks.org/the-parks/iona">Iona National Park</a>, which may offer opportunities to protect the mountain habitats.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213884/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vera De Cauwer was Principal Investigator of the SCIONA project that received funding from
the European Union under grant agreement FED/2017/394-802.</span></em></p>Mountain flora in the Kaokoveld deserve priority conservation efforts.Vera De Cauwer, Associate Professor Natural Resource Management, Namibia University of Science and TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2152702023-10-12T13:31:06Z2023-10-12T13:31:06ZMauritius is the latest nation to decriminalise same-sex relations in a divided continent<p>The Mauritius Supreme Court has <a href="https://www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Judgment-AH-SEEK-.pdf">declared</a> unconstitutional a law that criminalises consensual same-sex acts between adult men. The decision boosts the trend in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region towards decriminalisation. Now, a slight majority – nine out of 16 member states – do not prohibit gay and lesbian sexual relations. </p>
<p>I have researched and taught human rights law in Africa, including the rights of sexual minorities, for over three decades, and closely follow the work of the <a href="https://achpr.au.int/">African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights</a>. </p>
<p>The African Commission, as the continent’s human rights custodian, should lend its unequivocal support to the decriminalisation trend. This is particularly significant as attempts are made to further criminalise and stigmatise sexual minorities in parts of Africa.</p>
<p>The commission has not yet expressed its view on the decision. Its <a href="https://achpr.au.int/en/events/2023-10-20/77os-public">77th ordinary session</a>, starting on 20 October 2023 in Arusha, Tanzania, is an opportunity to do so. It should build on its 2014 <a href="https://achpr.au.int/en/adopted-resolutions/275-resolution-protection-against-violence-and-other-human-rights-violations">guidance</a> to African states on eradicating violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity. </p>
<h2>Mauritius court ruling</h2>
<p>The Mauritian Supreme Court <a href="https://www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Judgment-AH-SEEK-.pdf">found</a> that section 250 of the <a href="https://sherloc.unodc.org/cld/uploads/res/document/mus/criminal-code_html/Mauritius_Criminal_Code.pdf">1838 Mauritius Criminal Code</a>, which criminalises anal sex between two consenting adult men, violates the <a href="https://cdn.accf-francophonie.org/2019/03/maurice-constitution2016.pdf">1968 Mauritius constitution</a>. </p>
<p>The litigant, Ah Seek, a gay Mauritian man and board member of the Mauritian NGO <a href="https://www.actogether.mu/fr/trouver-une-ong/collectif-arc-en-ciel">Collectif-Arc-en-Ciel</a>, invoked a number of constitutional grounds. However, the court based its decision on the most directly relevant ground: the right not to be discriminated against.</p>
<p>In addressing two issues that could militate against a finding in Ah Seek’s favour, the court relied on the approach of other courts in the SADC region. The 2021 <a href="https://www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/resources/2021.11.29-AG-Botswana-v-Motshidiemang.pdf">judgment</a> by Botswana’s Court of Appeal was particularly relevant. This judgment held that the constitutionally protected ground of “sex” in the Botswana constitution encompassed “sexual orientation”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/botswana-court-ruling-is-a-ray-of-hope-for-lgbt-people-across-africa-118713">Botswana court ruling is a ray of hope for LGBT people across Africa</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The first issue was the contention that Mauritius’ constitution does not explicitly prohibit discrimination based on “sexual orientation”. The relevant provision (<a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Mauritius_2016">section 16</a>) forbids discrimination on the basis of seven specified grounds, including sex. </p>
<p>The Mauritian court concluded that the word “sex” in section 16 of the constitution includes “sexual orientation”. </p>
<p>The court also emphasised the country’s international human rights commitments. It said that, as a state party to the <a href="https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-4&chapter=4&clang=_en">International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights</a>, Mauritius was expected to interpret its constitution in line with this <a href="https://juris.ohchr.org/casedetails/702/en-US">treaty</a>. </p>
<p>The second issue was whether the rarity of prosecutions removed the need for the court to decide. Referring to a <a href="https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/1998/15.html">judgment</a> by the South African Constitutional Court, the Mauritius court held that the mere threat of arrest, prosecution and conviction</p>
<blockquote>
<p>hangs like the sword of Damocles over the heads of homosexual men.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The court therefore concluded that the constitution protected everyone from discrimination based on their sexual orientation, whatever it might be. </p>
<p>When it was given an opportunity to show any legitimate purpose for this form of discrimination, the state merely made reference to same-sex relations as a “highly sensitive issue” due to the “delicate socio-cultural and religious fabric of Mauritian society”. Rejecting these as justifications for discrimination, the court underlined that Mauritius was a secular state. </p>
<h2>Regional trend</h2>
<p>Greater societal acceptance of homosexuality can be both a catalyst for and a consequence of decriminalisation of same-sex relationships. </p>
<p>In a recent survey by the independent African surveys network <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/AD639-Uganda-a-continental-extreme-in-rejection-of-people-in-same-sex-relationships-Afrobarometer-9may23-.pdf">Afrobarometer</a>, Mauritius featured prominently as a country in which tolerance (towards an LGBT person as neighbour) had increased from 2014 to 2022. </p>
<p>Nine of the 11 African countries with an above-average tolerance percentage towards LGBT persons were from the SADC. All of these 11 states, except Eswatini, have decriminalised “sodomy laws”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbtiq-migrants-and-asylum-seekers-in-south-africa-major-new-study-identifies-a-diverse-wide-spread-community-199227">LGBTIQ+ migrants and asylum seekers in South Africa: major new study identifies a diverse, wide-spread community</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>The conditions for decriminalisation seem to be converging in Eswatini. Its population displays a relatively high level of acceptance (of 42%) in the survey. Also, its Supreme Court has <a href="https://eswatinilii.org/akn/sz/judgment/szsc/2023/23/eng@2023-06-16/source.pdf">signalled</a> some openness to uphold LGBT persons’ rights. </p>
<p>Besides Eswatini, other SADC member states that still retain “sodomy” laws are Comoros, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. With the exception of the Comoros, the laws of these states are relics from British colonial times, when “sodomy” laws were imposed as part of a colonial “civilising” mission. The Mauritius Supreme Court <a href="https://www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Judgment-AH-SEEK-.pdf">noted</a> that, as a colonial import, section 250 did not reflect Mauritian values and was not the “expression of domestic democratic will”. </p>
<p>Today, just over half of the SADC states do not criminalise same-sex relationships between consenting adults. The Democratic Republic of Congo never legislated on this matter. In <a href="https://media.lesotholii.org/files/legislation/akn-ls-act-2012-6-eng-2012-03-09.pdf">Lesotho</a> (2012), the <a href="http://www.seychellesnewsagency.com/articles/5198/Seychelles+parliament+passes+bill+to+decriminalize+sodomy">Seychelles</a> (2016), <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2015-06-29-mozambique-scraps-colonial-era-homosexuality-and-abortion-bans/">Mozambique</a> (2015) and <a href="https://africlaw.com/2021/03/05/decriminalisation-of-consensual-same-sex-acts-in-angola-and-the-progress-of-lgbti-human-rights-in-lusophone-africa/">Angola</a> (2019), the legislature in the last decade or so adopted a new version of the penal code. These offences, stemming from the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/12/17/alien-legacy/origins-sodomy-laws-british-colonialism">English common law</a> or the <a href="https://www.ahry.up.ac.za/garrido-r#pgfId-1119589">1886 Portuguese Penal Code</a>, were omitted. In Madagascar, the <a href="http://www.vertic.org/media/National%20Legislation/Madagascar/MG_Code_Penal.pdf">penal code</a> criminalises consensual same-sex acts only with a person under 21 years old. </p>
<p>Still, the situation remains in flux. In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jul/14/religious-groups-march-in-malawi-before-court-case-on-lgbtq-rights">Malawi</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonblade.com/2023/03/13/namibian-supreme-court-hears-three-lgbtq-rights-cases/">Namibia</a>, litigation on related penal code provisions is pending. In Malawi, then President Joyce Banda in 2012 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/18/malawi-president-vows-legalise-homosexuality">committed to repealing these laws</a>. There was also a moratorium on arrests and prosecutions between 2012 and 2016, and a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/10/26/let-posterity-judge/violence-and-discrimination-against-lgbt-people-malawi">court-ordered review</a> of the constitutionality of “sodomy laws”. </p>
<p>In Namibia, the Supreme Court <a href="https://namiblii.org/akn/na/judgment/nasc/2023/14/eng@2023-05-16">decided in 2023</a> that Namibia must recognise same-sex marriages validly concluded outside the country.</p>
<h2>Diverging trend</h2>
<p>In the rest of Africa, the position of sexual minorities is much more precarious. Thirty-one (almost 58%) of countries still <a href="https://76crimes.com/76-countries-where-homosexuality-is-illegal/">criminalise consensual same-sex acts between adults</a>. The trend is towards more restrictive laws and harsher punishment.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni has <a href="https://www.parliament.go.ug/news/6737/president-assents-anti-homosexuality-act">signed into law</a> the <a href="https://www.parliament.go.ug/sites/default/files/The%20Anti-Homosexuality%20Act%2C%202023.pdf">Anti-Homosexuality Act</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>In Ghana, the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill is <a href="https://www.parliament.gh/epanel/docs/bills/Promotion%20of%20Proper%20Human%20Sexual%20Rights%20and%20Ghanaian%20Family%20Values%20Bill,%202021.pdf#viewer.action=download">being considered</a>. </p></li>
<li><p>In Kenya, the anti-gay <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2023/09/20/kenyas-anti-gay-bill-proposes-50-year-jail-term//">Family Protection Bill</a> carries a 50-year jail term. But the Supreme Court decided in February 2023 to allow the NGO National Gay and Lesbian Rights Commission <a href="https://www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/SC-Application-No.-E011-of-2023-George-Kaluma-v.-NGO-Others.pdf?pdf=George-Kaluma">to be registered</a>. </p></li>
</ul>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/being-queer-in-africa-the-state-of-lgbtiq-rights-across-the-continent-205306">Being queer in Africa: the state of LGBTIQ+ rights across the continent</a>
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<p>These laws were initiated as private members bills. They are driven by individuals rather than any political party’s agenda, and bolstered by an anti-LGBT solidarity <a href="https://glaad.org/rachel-maddow-traces-anti-lgbtq-legislation-uganda-activists-arizona/">conference</a> of African parliamentarians. </p>
<h2>African Commission’s role</h2>
<p>Against this background of opposing forces and divergent trends, the role of the African Commission is all the more important. The commission itself has sent mixed signals. It <a href="https://achpr.au.int/en/adopted-resolutions/resolution-promotion-and-protection-rights-intersex-persons">affirmed</a> the right to dignity and bodily integrity of sexual and gender minorities. But it also <a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbtq-rights-african-union-watchdog-goes-back-on-its-own-word-197555">refused</a> to grant observer status to NGOs working to promote these rights.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215270/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frans Viljoen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The trend towards decriminalising same sex relations in the SADC region contrasts with moves towards harsher punishment in other parts of Africa.Frans Viljoen, Director and Professor of International Human Rights Law, Centre for Human Rights, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2146472023-10-08T08:12:14Z2023-10-08T08:12:14ZThe Atlantic Ocean’s major current system is slowing down – but a 21st century collapse is unlikely<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551519/original/file-20231002-17-spk2vj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C11%2C2394%2C1524&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scientists collect water and sediment samples to study how the oceans and climate are changing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eugene Bergh</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whether the water at your local beach is being roiled by nasty weather or is a perfectly calm expanse of blue, there’s always a great deal going on under the surface. The ocean is composed of various currents and water masses; those currents flow around the world through what is called <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/421699a">thermohaline circulation</a>. </p>
<p>This circulation drives the distribution of heat, salinity and nutrients throughout the world’s oceans, ensuring that our whole planet is habitable for life. </p>
<p>The Atlantic leg of this circulation is called the <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/amoc.html">Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation</a> (AMOC). The Atlantic Ocean is situated between the Americas, western Europe and the western margin of Africa. The AMOC distributes heat away from the tropics northward, ensuring that tropical regions are not overheated, which would cause an imbalance in climate. It, like other oceanographic systems, varies annually, over decades and centennially. Scientists study these oceanographic systems over a longer time period to understand how they work and to make predictions on how they will function in future and what their impact may be.</p>
<p>In July 2023 two Danish academics – physicist Peter Ditlevsen and his sister, the statistician Susanne Ditlevsen – published <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39810-w">a paper</a> in which they stated that the AMOC was in decline and would likely shut down mid-century. That would bring dramatic consequences: rising sea levels, global heating, shifts in marine ecosystems, and seriously compromised food security. It could also seriously affect the <a href="http://www.meteo.psu.edu/holocene/public_html/Mann/courses/METEO470SPR18/Readings/RahmstorfEtAl_NatureCC15.pdf">upwelling marine ecosystem</a> along the western margin of South Africa and Namibia, which is the most productive upwelling system in the Atlantic. </p>
<p>In the Ditlevsens’ scenario, Europe could see massive cooling of around 5°C to 10°C and the tropics could become overheated. Certain areas around the world would <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-a-mega-ocean-current-about-to-shut-down/">experience</a> severe droughts and flooding. And the oceans would become more acidic.</p>
<p>The paper has generated controversy in the scientific community. As a geologist whose <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.25131/sajg.124.0059">research interests</a> include oceanographic change, I don’t find the article surprising. Research has shown that the AMOC has not been a stable feature of the ocean over <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379115300354?casa_token=UZrU69CO5YkAAAAA:kDgw6mbRTPxsRo-1HHCd1J2neI4jnHNgtqeMpuiaUF_fDipx5YiSDWIge1ay70JTbcWLxMN-qCk">millions of years</a> and is sensitive to climate change. However, I agree with the general scientific consensus: the shutdown of the AMOC will not be as abrupt as the paper claims; it will instead be more gradual over the coming centuries. </p>
<h2>Constant shifts</h2>
<p>The Atlantic Ocean is not the only part of the ocean’s thermohaline circulation that is experiencing shifts. In the South Indian Ocean, <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022GL102070#:%7E:text=Climate%20models%20consistently%20project%20a,Ocean%20to%20the%20Indian%20Ocean.">the Agulhas Current is also weakening</a> due to changing distribution in heat and freshwater from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean. </p>
<p>And in the Pacific Ocean, west of the Americas, El Niño events – the warming of that specific ocean – <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/el-nino/">are intensifying</a>. </p>
<p>The Ditlevsens based their findings largely on sea surface temperatures. The paper does not consider other factors such as which carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels in the atmosphere (and take-up by the oceans), coupled with temperature changes, would be the tipping point for the AMOC to shut down, or the state of <a href="https://os.copernicus.org/articles/13/609/2017/os-13-609-2017.pdf">deep water generation</a> – water of specific density, salinity and temperature – at the source regions in the North Atlantic for the functioning of the AMOC. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-paper-warning-of-a-collapse-of-the-atlantic-meridional-overturning-circulation/">broad consensus</a> among scientists is that, while the AMOC is <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36288-4">weakening</a>, the probability of it completely shutting down in this century is low. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/atlantic-collapse-qanda-with-scientists-behind-controversial-study-predicting-a-colder-europe-211221">Atlantic collapse: Q&A with scientists behind controversial study predicting a colder Europe</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It’s also important to point out that ocean currents and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018220305964?casa_token=FQc67q_HCgAAAAAA:vtYWYHwhtqir5aS8_hNz_k7Knn124MeNq4n8bqPOAQLmVdtS3kP6WT12-7sgj62h2vh1_6Od7A">circulation change over time</a>. The AMOC <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/2016PA003056">has strengthened and waned</a> pre-human history over geological time, particularly in response to colder or warmer periods. For example, studies along the western margin of South Africa have found that the AMOC in the South Atlantic <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/palo.20038">is sensitive to changes</a> in the global climate cycle.</p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1016168827653">Previous research</a> has also indicated that the AMOC <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo1352">weakened or shut down</a> before, thousands of years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. That happened under different conditions than what we are experiencing today. During that time the climate was much colder and the ice sheets were at a maximum position, although a warming phase led to the retreat of ice sheets afterwards. </p>
<h2>Perspective</h2>
<p>This large body of evidence suggests that the AMOC will continue to weaken as currents fluctuate over time, driven by different environmental factors. But scientists have not yet accepted that a total shutdown of the system will occur over the next few years or couple of decades.</p>
<p>However, the paper that’s caused so much controversy shouldn’t be dismissed entirely. For one thing, it’s a good conversation starter on this very important topic. It also provides a timeline for when the AMOC could shut down – anywhere between 2025 and 2095. While the consensus is that this isn’t accurate, it’s a useful starting point from which other scientists could generate scenarios and models for further study. </p>
<p>In doing so, our collective understanding of the AMOC system will deepen, which should influence policy decision-making.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eugene Bergh receives funding from the National Research Foundation South Africa.</span></em></p>Oceanographic systems vary over years, decades and centuries.Eugene Bergh, Senior Lecturer, North-West UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2098872023-08-02T13:42:36Z2023-08-02T13:42:36ZOil drilling threatens the Okavango River Basin, putting water in Namibia and Botswana at risk<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539042/original/file-20230724-3109-lx9i2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C0%2C5130%2C3394&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Oil exploration could put the Okavango Delta at risk. Photo: Sergio Pitamitz/VWPics/Universal Images/
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/aerial-view-of-plains-zebras-grazing-in-the-okavango-delta-news-photo/1487610089?adppopup=true">Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Namibian and Botswana governments may be risking their water resources for oil and gas revenue. They have <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/us-concerns-grow-over-oil-exploration-in-the-okavango-region">licensed</a> a Canadian firm, <a href="https://reconafrica.com/">ReconAfrica</a>, to prospect for oil in the Cubango Okavango River Basin, in an area covering 34,000km². </p>
<p>In total, the river basin covers <a href="https://www.okacom.org/cubango-okavango-river-basin-corb">700,000km²</a>, encompassing a network of river systems across Angola, Namibia and Botswana. The Cubango and Cuito rivers, which originate from the Angolan highlands, join the Okavango River at the border between Angola and Namibia, and flow into the Okavango Delta in Botswana. </p>
<p>The Okavango River sustains over <a href="https://www.okacom.org/what-okavango-river-basin">half a million people</a> in Namibia and Botswana. The main <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022169406002496">livelihood activities</a> in the basin are arable farming, livestock farming, fishing and tourism. </p>
<p>The Okavango Delta, a <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1432/">World Heritage Site</a>, contributes significantly to tourism in Botswana. It is one of the largest freshwater wetlands in southern Africa and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/okavango/why/">home</a> to over 1,000 plant species. Over 480 bird species, 130 species of mammals, and numerous species of reptiles and fish can be found in the area. </p>
<p>Our team, with expertise in groundwater resource assessment and protection, has assessed the vulnerability of the Okavango River and Delta to oil and gas drilling. We <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1474706523000748?via%3Dihub">conclude</a> that possible impacts on water resources are of particular concern in this sensitive area. </p>
<h2>Reasons to worry</h2>
<p>It is worrying that oil and gas extraction is being considered in this area. The current exploration licence in Namibia allows the company to drill exploratory stratigraphic wells. Drilling near the Omatako River in Namibia already endangers the groundwater since the drilling waste fluids have been discarded in <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/test-drilling-oil-namibia-poses-water-risk">unlined pits</a>. Most people in this arid region rely on groundwater, which can easily be contaminated when the water table is shallow, as it is here.</p>
<p>ReconAfrica <a href="https://reconafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/ReconAfrica-Report.pdf">estimates</a> that the area has large volumes of oil and gas resources, though it has not yet fully assessed whether recovering them would be economical. The resources are in a site about the size of the <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/usgs-estimates-oil-and-gas-texas-eagle-ford-group">Eagle Ford shale field in Texas</a>, a very large oil and gas deposit. </p>
<p>Several geologists have <a href="https://earthsciencesociety.com/2021/08/05/canadian-company-recon_africa-drills-for-oil-in-the-okavango-delta/">noted</a>, however, that the resources are unlikely, in their view, to be economically viable, based on the geological information of the region. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Namibian government granted Recon exploration licences <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/oil-drilling-fracking-planned-okavango-wilderness">without following due procedure</a> for its environmental impact assessment. This is despite the fact that the lease area includes parts of the <a href="https://www.kavangozambezi.org/">Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Park</a> and the Okavango River. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539532/original/file-20230726-19-w9ssvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539532/original/file-20230726-19-w9ssvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539532/original/file-20230726-19-w9ssvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539532/original/file-20230726-19-w9ssvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539532/original/file-20230726-19-w9ssvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539532/original/file-20230726-19-w9ssvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539532/original/file-20230726-19-w9ssvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539532/original/file-20230726-19-w9ssvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Okavango River and Delta, the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Park, and the Recon lease areas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anton Lukas</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1474706523000748?via%3Dihub">study</a> illustrates the possible grim impact of the potential oil and gas extraction operations. This includes possible contamination of:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the water resources around the Omatako River</p></li>
<li><p>the Okavango River</p></li>
<li><p>the Okavango Delta. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>We used publicly accessible borehole data from the Namibian Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, and the Botswana Department of Water Utilities. We obtained geological structure data from Namibia’s Geological Survey and the Botswana Geoscience Information Centre. </p>
<p>We found that contamination could infiltrate the aquifer system and contaminate the groundwater near the Omatako River. Contaminated groundwater could take three to 23.5 years to reach the Okavango River system via the shallow, sandy aquifer. </p>
<p>Contaminated groundwater from proposed drill sites could reach the Okavango Delta even faster along another route: certain geological structures underground. These structures – <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/graben">grabens</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/dike-igneous-rock">dykes</a> – have associated faulting and fractures respectively, along which groundwater can travel.</p>
<p>The geological structures in the area are associated with parts of the Earth’s crust that are tectonically active: they might change. This makes it more complicated to assess the Okavango Delta’s vulnerability. Existing permeable structures can serve as pathways for groundwater contamination. Tectonic stresses can create new permeable structures or modify ones that were previously impermeable. </p>
<p>Initial calculations, using publicly accessible data, indicate that contamination from drilling activities that travels via geological structures could reach the Okavango Delta within just four days.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539274/original/file-20230725-21-jcbua6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539274/original/file-20230725-21-jcbua6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539274/original/file-20230725-21-jcbua6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539274/original/file-20230725-21-jcbua6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539274/original/file-20230725-21-jcbua6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539274/original/file-20230725-21-jcbua6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539274/original/file-20230725-21-jcbua6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539274/original/file-20230725-21-jcbua6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Okavango Dyke Swarm fracture zone with groundwater flow towards the Okavango River system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anton Lukas</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our results should be verified with localised field studies. </p>
<h2>Need to revisit clearance certificate</h2>
<p>A ReconAfrica <a href="http://the-eis.com/elibrary/sites/default/files/downloads/literature/459_EIA_Petroleum%20Exploration%20License_PEL_No%2073_Kavango%20East%20and%20West%20Regions.pdf">environmental impact assessment</a> did not identify any serious risks that could follow from oil drilling in the area. The Namibian government then awarded an updated <a href="https://reconafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/ReconAfrica-Receives-Environmental-Clearance-Certificate-to-Drill-12-New-Wells-in-the-Kavango-Basin-1.pdf">environmental clearance certificate</a> to the company.</p>
<p>Even though there wasn’t enough data to determine the possible groundwater impact, the environmental impact assessment <a href="http://the-eis.com/elibrary/sites/default/files/downloads/literature/459_EIA_Petroleum%20Exploration%20License_PEL_No%2073_Kavango%20East%20and%20West%20Regions.pdf">deemed</a> contamination to be negligible. </p>
<p>Our study highlights the possible dire consequences of allowing oil and gas extraction activities in the Cubango Okavango River Basin. </p>
<p>Based on our results, we recommend that all oil and gas extraction activities in the Okavango region be halted until there’s a proper understanding of the groundwater sources, pathways and receptors. </p>
<p>Future environmental impact assessments must make an honest effort to obtain all relevant information so that all possible risks to water resources are identified. This would allow for the proper protection of natural resources.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209887/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Surina Esterhuyse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Oil and gas exploration pose a threat to the Okavango River Basin water resources. The Namibian and Botswana governments need to properly assess the risk of contamination.Surina Esterhuyse, Senior Lecturer Centre for Environmental Management, University of the Free StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2098842023-07-21T07:13:53Z2023-07-21T07:13:53ZZimbabwean migrants: South Africa’s anti-immigrant sentiments are hindering policy reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538522/original/file-20230720-17-fba5cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Effective African economic development depends on economic integration and free movement of people.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GettyImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The South African Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, recently <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/2023/490.pdf">lost a court case</a> that anyone could have anticipated was unwinnable. He probably expected to lose it too. He lost it on humanitarian and technical grounds. It prevents him from terminating the South African government’s concession to refugees from neighbouring Zimbabwe nearly fifteen years ago.</p>
<p>In April 2009, South Africa provided legalised shelter for Zimbabweans hit by economic and political crisis in their country across the Limpopo River. The <a href="http://www.dha.gov.za/index.php/statements-speeches/506-remarks-by-minister-malusi-gigaba-on-the-announcement-of-the-zimbabwean-special-dispensation-permit-in-pretoria-12-august-2014">Zimbabwe Dispensation Project</a> was the first form of a policy to temporarily accommodate Zimbabwean refugees. It became the Zimbabwean Special permit in 2014 and after 2017 it was known as the <a href="http://www.dha.gov.za/index.php/immigration-services/gazetted-extension-of-zep">Zimbabwe Exemption Permit</a>. Zimbabweans who had arrived during the crisis period of 2008-09 had full freedoms, but no rights to citizenship even for their children, for as long as the permits allowed.</p>
<p>In 2021, Home Affairs decided to end the special dispensation after a period of grace lasting till the end of 2022 to allow Zimbabweans to regularize their circumstances. Some were expected to be able to obtain residence and work rights based on their skills and occupations, and others were to return to Zimbabwe. The number of people affected by the ruling is estimated at around 178 000 who remained on their ZE permits. Children born in South Africa were expected and allowed to obtain Zimbabwean citizenship and were not allowed South African citizenship.</p>
<p>178 000 is a relatively small number compared with the total number of immigrants in South Africa, <a href="https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/spotchecks/are-there-15-million-undocumented-immigrants-living-south-africa-no-another">estimated at 3.96 million by StatsSA</a>. Many of the registered Zimbabweans are educated and skilled. Most have been successfully living in South Africa for 15 years. Why not simply regularize all the law-abiding Zimbabweans living under the permit?</p>
<p>Elsewhere in Africa and <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/ejml16&div=4&g_sent=1&casa_token=&collection=journals">around the world </a> larger numbers of irregular migrants have been regularised. In South Africa, <a href="https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=samp">Mozambican refugees</a> were regularized after the end of the Mozambican civil war. But the current <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/anti-foreigner-sentiment-wont-solve-south-africas-labour-woes">anti-migrant sentiment</a> in South Africa made such a course difficult for the Minister of Home Affairs. This is why he opposed a court action he pretty much knew he would lose.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-free-movement-of-people-is-an-au-ambition-whats-standing-in-its-way-100409">The free movement of people is an AU ambition: what's standing in its way</a>
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<p>I have been studying migration policy on the continent, including the African Union’s adoption of a protocol on the free movement of people in 2018 which <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-free-movement-of-people-is-an-au-ambition-whats-standing-in-its-way-100409">I have argued</a> could facilitate economic growth and the trade integration. </p>
<p>Migration policy in South Africa seems constantly in flux. Most of the <a href="http://www.dha.gov.za/WhitePaperonInternationalMigration-20170602.pdf">immigration policy white paper</a> passed by cabinet in 2017 has never been implemented. Policy documents and a <a href="https://pmg.org.za/call-for-comment/1138/">law amendment on labour migration</a> published a year and a half ago are still in limbo. A promised new white paper on immigration has not yet been published. Some of the proposals could have simplified migration rules such as a proposal to replace the critical skills list with a points system, while others such as the quota system proposed in the draft law would have added further complexities.</p>
<p>Will any reforms be implemented before the general election of 2024? Probably not. This is the fundamental problem. Immigration policy is so highly politicised that the government seems afraid to move. <a href="https://nsi.org.za/projects/migration-governance-reform/">Our programme of research </a> seeks to show how South Africa could learn positive lessons on migration reform from other African countries and elsewhere. </p>
<h2>Hostility to migration</h2>
<p>While politicians <a href="https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/sareport/Adv5a.htm">frequently voice sentiments </a> hostile to migration and migrants, sensible policies in practice and on the table are shrouded in camouflage and occasionally sneaked through. One example is the <a href="https://www.southafrica-usa.net/homeaffairs/permit_corporate.htm">corporate labour permit</a>, another is the rising number of <a href="http://www.dha.gov.za/index.php/immigration-services/exempt-countries">African countries with visa-free access to South Africa</a>. Access to skilled employees needed from beyond our borders is being simplified. Reforms will be hidden behind a veil of hostility to foreigners.</p>
<p>This is hardly unique to South Africa. In the UK, while the government threatens to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda and stakes its fate on “stopping the boats” in deference to its political base, “long-term immigration … <a href="https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2023/05/25/international-migration-hits-new-high-in-2022-but-there-are-signs-of-change/">rose to 1.2 million</a> for the year ending December 2022, an increase of 221,000 from the previous year”.</p>
<p>Similarly, Georgia Meloni who was elected Prime Minister of Italy at least in part for her anti-immigrant views, has set aside work permits for 425 000 non-EU migrants to immigrate into Italy up to 2025. Laura Boldrini, of the centre-left Democratic Party, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/08/italy-grants-work-permits-425k-non-eu-migrant-workers/">said the high quotas</a> were a surrender and </p>
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<p>a bitter dose of reality for those who have built their political careers by demonising immigration as a national security threat.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.guilford.com/books/The-Age-of-Migration/Haas-Castles-Miller/9781462542895">A textbook on migration</a> warns us, when it comes to migration policies, “not to equate political rhetoric with policy practice”. It is not surprising that in many countries migration policies seem confused or incomprehensible. Migration policy reform seems elusive in the context of such opacity.</p>
<p>And yet, effective African economic development depends on economic integration. Most countries are pretty small, especially economically, and effective integration entails the movement of persons across borders without excessive hindrances.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/free-movement-of-people-across-africa-regions-are-showing-how-it-can-work-197199">Free movement of people across Africa: regions are showing how it can work</a>
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<p>Not all African governments, even of richer countries, have been as hesitant as South Africa to reform migration policies. Members of both the East African Community and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have made greater progress than the regions at the southern and northern ends of the continent. Countries in Africa can learn not only from experiences in the EU or in South America, but also from other African countries and regions.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://nsi.org.za/about/">New South Institute</a> is running the <a href="https://nsi.org.za/projects/migration-governance-reform/">Migration Governance Reform in Africa</a> project, or MIGRA. The rationale and framework for the MIGRA project are set out in <a href="https://nsi.org.za/publications/migration-governance-reform-first-report/">our new working paper </a>.</p>
<p>We are studying migration policy and practice in four African countries, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya and Nigeria, and in four regional organisations, <a href="https://www.sadc.int/">SADC</a>, <a href="https://www.eac.int/">the EAC</a>, <a href="https://ecowas.int/">ECOWAS</a> and the African Union. We believe that countries and regions in Africa can learn as much from each other as they can from experiences elsewhere. Papers on these eight cases will be published over the next year or so, as they are completed, and we will also be preparing other forms of media to engage in conversation with the wider public as well as with policymakers.</p>
<p><a href="https://nsi.org.za/publications/migration-governance-reform-first-report/">The work we have already done </a> shows us some exciting examples of reform on the African continent. In east and west Africa there are many ways to allow cross border migrants access for different periods and reasons. Even in southern Africa the recent <a href="https://www.tralac.org/blog/article/15940-botswana-and-namibia-concluded-an-agreement-on-the-movement-of-persons.html">agreement between Namibia and Botswana on travel</a> by citizens of the two countries across their common border with identity documents alone shows what progress is possible. Visa-free travel is proliferating in Africa, as the recent bilateral agreement between South Africa and Kenya shows. There are many more examples.</p>
<p>Our project grows as much out of optimism about recent developments on migration governance around the African continent, as from the frustration and confusion about migration policy in many places. Perhaps it will make a small contribution to improving the practice, and maybe even the political rhetoric. And perhaps the South African cabinet will decide to grant the Zimbabwean exemption permit holders and their children <a href="https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=samp">the same kind of amnesty that was offered to 220 000 Mozambican refugees</a> in December 1996.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209884/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Hirsch is Leader of the Migration Governance Reform Program of the New South Institute; Emeritus Professor of Development Policy and Practice at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town; and Research Associate at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.</span></em></p>Immigration policy is so highly politicised that the South African government seems afraid to move.Alan Hirsch, Research Fellow New South Institute, Emeritus Professor at The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2089972023-07-11T16:16:46Z2023-07-11T16:16:46ZPainted messages in Angola’s abandoned liberation army camps offer a rare historical record<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535493/original/file-20230704-16-1h6k37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lilian Ngoyi, one of the leaders of the 1956 women’s march against apartheid, is immortalised on an abandoned building. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Justin Pearce</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Angola’s Malanje province, the buildings of Camalundu stand abandoned amid open fields. On one of them, the fragmented words “IAN NGOYI” recall a figure little-known in Angola but familiar to South Africans: anti-apartheid leader <a href="https://theconversation.com/lilian-ngoyi-an-heroic-south-african-woman-whose-story-hasnt-been-fully-told-188345">Lilian Ngoyi</a>. </p>
<p>These large letters partly hide some words that were painted previously. From the faded letters that are visible, I could make out some words apparently in Spanish. These layers of paint – texts of South Africa’s then liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), on top of Cuban texts painted on Portuguese colonial buildings – illustrate the changing uses of the site over the years. </p>
<p>Over the past three years I have been part of a project called <a href="https://global-soldiers.web.ox.ac.uk/">Global Soldiers in the Cold War</a>. We study the international exchanges of ideas about soldiering and politics that resulted from the interlinked liberation struggles and civil conflicts across southern Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. As part of this <a href="https://www.sources-journal.org/917">research</a> I visited some of the sites where liberation soldiers were trained in Angola. </p>
<p>The sites provide a rare tangible record of the international solidarity that existed during the Cold War: solidarity that prompted Cuba to provide civilian and military expertise to Angola’s MPLA-led government and to liberation movements from Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The liberation movements looked not only to their own countries’ histories but to earlier struggles in Cuba and Vietnam for ideas and inspiration.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-narrative-unfolds-about-south-africas-protracted-war-in-angola-54575">A new narrative unfolds about South Africa's protracted war in Angola</a>
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<p>After taking control of independent Angola in 1975, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (<a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/angolan-civil-war-1975-2002-brief-history">MPLA</a>) – still fighting a civil war against its rival, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/UNITA">Unita</a>) – gave refuge to liberation fighters from Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. The apartheid regime in South Africa, determined to undermine the liberation movements, provided military support to Unita in order to weaken the MPLA. Both the MPLA and the exiled movements <a href="https://theconversation.com/fidel-in-africa-how-the-cuban-leader-played-a-key-role-in-taking-on-apartheid-69665">enjoyed the support of Cuban and Soviet military advisers</a>.</p>
<p>Camalundu, established by the colonial government as an agricultural training centre, was used by the MPLA first as a civilian and later as a military training centre, with Cuban personnel.</p>
<h2>Places of learning and solidarity</h2>
<p>Historians have viewed liberation guerrilla training camps as a particular kind of social and political environment. Host countries like Angola allowed exiled movements to act, to a certain extent, like enclave governments with state-like powers over their own members. </p>
<p>Guerrillas, already filled with idealism, absorbed ideas and experiences from their new environment. But they were also at the mercy of national and international strategic calculations, without the immediate prospect of returning home in triumph. </p>
<p>Camps were places where liberation fighters came into contact with officials and soldiers from their host countries, as well as trainers from Cuba and the Soviet Union. The slogans painted at Camalundu provide evidence of how people were taught that they were there as part of a global struggle.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536286/original/file-20230707-23-2owghu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536286/original/file-20230707-23-2owghu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536286/original/file-20230707-23-2owghu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536286/original/file-20230707-23-2owghu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536286/original/file-20230707-23-2owghu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536286/original/file-20230707-23-2owghu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536286/original/file-20230707-23-2owghu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sixth congress of the Non-Aligned Movement, held in Havana in 1979, commemorated at Camalundu.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Justin Pearce</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Facing the building with Lilian Ngoyi’s name was another slogan in Spanish: “VI cumbre un paso mas en la unidade de los no-alineaos” (six completes another step in the unity of the non-aligned), a reference to the <a href="http://cns.miis.edu/nam/documents/Official_Document/6th_Summit_FD_Havana_Declaration_1979_Whole.pdf">sixth congress of the Non-Aligned Movement</a>, which was held in Havana in 1979. </p>
<h2>From King Cetshwayo to Ho Chi Minh</h2>
<p>South African history appears again with the name of Cetshwayo, the last Zulu monarch to resist the British Empire before conquest. His name was painted above the entrance of another now-abandoned building. This was likely painted in 1979, the<a href="https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv02918/06lv02942.htm"> ANC’s “Year of the Spear”</a>, the centenary of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/anglo-zulu-wars-1879-1896">Battle of Isandlwana</a> when Cetshwayo’s army resisted the better-armed British. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535508/original/file-20230704-29-xeht2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535508/original/file-20230704-29-xeht2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535508/original/file-20230704-29-xeht2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535508/original/file-20230704-29-xeht2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535508/original/file-20230704-29-xeht2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535508/original/file-20230704-29-xeht2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535508/original/file-20230704-29-xeht2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Zulu king Cetshwayo, defeated in 1879, commemorated a century later.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Justin Pearce</span></span>
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<p>On a similar building, the letters “…O C… MI…” point to the commemoration of the Vietnamese revolutionary leader <a href="https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/people/ho-chi-minh-ho-chi-minh">Ho Chi Minh</a>. On another building, the remains of his portrait are just about visible, above the English translation of a slogan associated with him:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/40928/nothing-is-more-precious-than-independence-and-freedom">Nothing is more precious than freedom and independence</a>. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>An ANC delegation <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/green-book-report-politico-military-strategy-commission-anc-national-executive-committee">visited Vietnam in 1978</a>, a visit that had a profound effect on its military strategy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535504/original/file-20230704-17-n6i00w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535504/original/file-20230704-17-n6i00w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535504/original/file-20230704-17-n6i00w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535504/original/file-20230704-17-n6i00w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535504/original/file-20230704-17-n6i00w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535504/original/file-20230704-17-n6i00w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535504/original/file-20230704-17-n6i00w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Fragments of the name of Ho Chi Minh, painted not long after the ANC sought strategic advice from Vietnam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Justin Pearce</span></span>
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<p>Many of the slogans at Camalundu seem to point to events between 1978 and 1980. Not long after that, the ANC presence there ended when its soldiers were moved to Caculama, further east. Caculama had housed a training camp established by the Zimbabwean African People’s Union (<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25065139">Zapu</a>), which became vacant after Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 and the Zimbabwean soldiers went home. </p>
<p>Around the same time, American president Ronald Reagan and South African prime minister <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/pieter-willem-botha">PW Botha</a> renewed their respective countries’ <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2538933">commitment to supporting Unita</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-narrative-unfolds-about-south-africas-protracted-war-in-angola-54575">against the MPLA</a>. The Angolan ruling party had taken a firm stand against apartheid and Washington saw it as a bridgehead for communist influence. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/radio-as-a-form-of-struggle-scenes-from-late-colonial-angola-128019">Radio as a form of struggle: scenes from late colonial Angola</a>
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<p>The MPLA began to see the foreign liberation fighters it was hosting as a potentially useful military reserve. The former ANC soldier Luthando Dyasop recalls how ANC leader <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-anc-is-celebrating-the-year-of-or-tambo-who-was-he-85838">Oliver Tambo</a> <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-08-16-luthando-dyasop-journey-of-a-disillusioned-comrade-during-apartheid-south-africa/">told</a> soldiers of the ANC’s army, Umkhonto we sizwe (MK), they needed to “bleed a little” in recognition of Angola’s support for the South African struggle. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535503/original/file-20230704-17-82gfc1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535503/original/file-20230704-17-82gfc1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535503/original/file-20230704-17-82gfc1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535503/original/file-20230704-17-82gfc1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535503/original/file-20230704-17-82gfc1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535503/original/file-20230704-17-82gfc1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535503/original/file-20230704-17-82gfc1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The remains of bunkers and trenches speak to the defensive function of the camp at Caculama.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Justin Pearce</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Southern Africa liberation movements and geopolitics</h2>
<p>Whereas Camalundu’s buildings stand in open countryside, Caculama is buried in thick bush. Trenches and the remains of underground bunkers remind us that this was the front line of the MPLA’s war against UNITA. Exiled movements were responsible for their own security within Angola. When the MPLA positioned ANC soldiers somewhere like Caculama, it knew that in defending its own camps, the ANC would also be part of the government’s defensive lines.</p>
<p>In their different ways, Camalundu and Caculama provide historians with evidence of liberation struggles and how they were entangled with the international politics of the time. </p>
<p>A Zimbabwean government delegation, I was told, had visited Caculama shortly before I was there – an acknowledgement at least of the site’s historical significance. Yet so far almost no attention has been given to preserving these sites.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.sources-journal.org/917">A longer article about the training sites with more photos was published by Sources journal</a></em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin Pearce received funding from The Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>The sites provide a rare tangible record of the international solidarity that existed during the Cold War.Justin Pearce, Senior lecturer, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071502023-06-25T11:11:29Z2023-06-25T11:11:29ZChildren’s movement affects health and development but research is lacking in Africa: here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531373/original/file-20230612-220077-jzsxfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children’s health and development depend on how much time they spend doing physical activity, being sedentary and sleeping.</p>
<p>Research on movement behaviours in children is essential. It helps us to understand what influences these behaviours, and their contribution to health and development. </p>
<p>Most <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/10/e049267">evidence</a> on movement behaviours comes from high-income countries. Here children have different lifestyles, environments and cultures from those in low- and middle-income countries. For example, children in African countries face different challenges in achieving healthy levels of physical activity and sleep. Safety, transport, infrastructure, culture, climate, nutrition, and different levels and types of screen time exposure may all present challenges. </p>
<p>Africa, as a continent, contributes less than <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/connect/africa-generates-less-than-1-of-the-worlds-research-data-analytics-can-change-that">1% of research</a> worldwide. This means over <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/africa-population/">16%</a> of the world’s population has been excluded from the research. </p>
<p>The international <a href="https://sunrise-study.com/#about">SUNRISE study</a>, which we are part of, aims to bridge this gap. It conducts studies on movement behaviour in collaboration with researchers in several African countries, including Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa, where we are based. We bring a collective expertise across disciplines such as public health, physiotherapy and child development. </p>
<p>SUNRISE findings so far show that the proportion of children in low- and middle-income countries meeting recommendations for movement behaviours is low, compared to high-income countries. This highlights the need for research and intervention in Africa. </p>
<p>But since the beginning of this study we have faced a wide range of challenges. In each country, the target number of children for the study is around 1,000. Researching their movement behaviour requires technology.</p>
<p>The challenges include access to devices to track movement, the lack of awareness of such tools and what they do, difficulty in securing funds, and institutional challenges. </p>
<p>Solutions include local collaboration, reducing financial barriers, developing new low-cost devices, and using contextually relevant methods. The following sections describe the challenges and possible solutions in detail.</p>
<h2>Challenges</h2>
<p><strong>Access to devices</strong></p>
<p>Accelerometers are a type of digital wearable device, similar to Fitbits and smart watches. But they measure movement more accurately than commercially available devices. This is why they are more commonly used in research. These devices are generally more expensive because they are “research-grade”, and upwards of US$250 each (before software and delivery). This is a major challenge for those of us working in African countries, as at least 50 devices would be needed to conduct large scale studies like SUNRISE. There is no local manufacturer or distributor of accelerometer devices. Researchers need a legal licence to import or export them. </p>
<p>The SUNRISE study is able to loan devices. But exorbitant customs and shipping charges for moving this equipment to and between African countries makes sharing difficult – even when it’s only for research. This leads to unnecessary costs and delays, which means Africa gets left behind in this scientific field. </p>
<p><strong>Lack of awareness about the benefits of accelerometers</strong></p>
<p>These devices are often novel in African settings. Some parents and caregivers in our study areas have been sceptical about using them. For example, caregivers have asked whether the devices attract lightning, or whether they have some physical effect on the body. This may lead to another challenge in recruiting sufficient participants for the study. And data collection can take a long time when the shortage of devices is added to the time to get local buy-in. </p>
<p><strong>Difficulty in securing funds</strong></p>
<p>SUNRISE study researchers in Africa battle to get funding. They rely on highly competitive international funding, which seldom prioritises movement behaviour research in young children. It costs a lot to attend conferences internationally and to publish research in reputable academic journals. Open access journal fees can even exceed the monthly salary of a research assistant in an African country. </p>
<p><strong>Institutional challenges</strong></p>
<p>Within African research institutions, another challenge is how to build capacity. Few research institutes focus on movement behaviours in Africa. Accelerometer data is often complex to manage, and needs trained staff. High-income countries typically have access to support staff and students who can assist with this. This is not the case in many African countries. So it is difficult to conduct high-quality research and translate it into policy and practice. </p>
<h2>Possible solutions</h2>
<p>A possible solution is to collaborate with local partners and stakeholders to identify the most appropriate devices for each context and population. </p>
<p>All stakeholders, including local government and non-government organisations, ought to remove barriers so that the researchers can focus on the quality of evidence to inform policy and practice that is anchored to the local context. </p>
<p>Establishing some type of research equipment hub in Africa would go some way to help. But even moving equipment within Africa is not easy. Governments should consider waiving import and export charges for research equipment. The development of low-cost devices that can be produced and used efficiently in Africa is the best way forward. </p>
<p>Researchers in Africa could also examine other new data collection methods that are customised to the local context. Qualitative research (interviews and focus groups) can provide valuable insights into the factors that influence movement behaviours in different contexts. These insights are vital for the development of measurement tools and interventions that are culturally appropriate and effective. </p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>There are many other pressing needs in Africa. But the contribution of movement behaviours to population health and development is significant, particularly as there is growing evidence of the global economic costs of physical <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2214-109X%2822%2900482-X">inactivity</a>. We need local research on these behaviours, starting in the early years, when patterns of behaviour are established. </p>
<p>Without addressing barriers to robust research, researchers in this region will continue to lag behind in this field. </p>
<p>This means that we lose opportunities to learn how to promote movement behaviours that support health and development, thus setting children on the best path for life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207150/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Draper receives or has received funding from the British Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the South African Medical Research Council, the Jacobs Foundation, and the European Commission.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Okely receives funding from NHMRC, Research Council of Norway, World Health Organization, and UNICEF.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aoko Oluwayomi receives funding from ISBNPA-PIONEER PROGRAM SCHOLARSHIP 2022</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chalchisa Abdeta receives funding through HDR Scholarship from the University of Wollongong, Australia.</span></em></p>Africa contributes less than 1% of research worldwide on movement behaviours in children. This means that research on movement behaviours has largely excluded over 16% of the world’s population.Catherine Draper, Associate Professor at MRC/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit, University of the WitwatersrandAnthony Okely, Distinguished Professor of Public Health, University of WollongongAoko Oluwayomi, PhD Candidate (Exercise Physiology), University of LagosChalchisa Abdeta, PhD candidate, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2058602023-05-30T11:17:11Z2023-05-30T11:17:11ZHalf of Africa’s white rhino population is in private hands – it’s time for a new conservation approach<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527956/original/file-20230524-18-lohud9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A white rhino in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Enrico Di Minin</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Southern white rhinos are widely known as a <a href="https://rhinos.org/blog/facing-down-a-crisis-how-we-almost-lost-the-white-rhino/">conservation success story</a>. Their population grew from fewer than 100 individuals in the 1920s <a href="https://rhinos.org/blog/facing-down-a-crisis-how-we-almost-lost-the-white-rhino/">to 20,000</a> in 2012, mostly in South Africa. </p>
<p>This success was partially due to the inclusion of the private sector, which started in the 1960s when white rhinos were moved from their last remaining population in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park and placed in other state reserves as well as on private land. In 1991 the <a href="https://lawfulliving.co.za/book/text/agriculture--game-theft.html">Game Theft Act</a> formalised conditions for private rhino ownership and use. Poaching pressure was low at the time, and the demand for rhinos by ecotourists and trophy hunters gave private landowners incentives to grow their rhino populations. </p>
<p>Based on publicly available data, <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.2593">our recent paper</a> shows that, today, private landholders conserve over half of South Africa’s white rhinos. Communities conserve a further 1% of the white rhinos. This trend is not unique to South Africa. More than 75% of Zimbabwe’s and Namibia’s white rhinos are on private lands. Although outside their natural range, in east Africa 72% of Kenya’s white rhino populations are conserved by private landowners.</p>
<p>In South Africa, the increasing contribution of private rhino custodians over the past few decades is partly due to their success and partly due to shrinking rhino populations in <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-02-14-saving-private-rhino-non-government-owners-of-the-animals-succeed-in-stemming-poaching-carnage/">key state parks</a>. Poaching is largely to blame for shrinking populations. A decade ago, the 2-million-hectare Kruger National Park held over half of the world’s 20,000 white rhinos. Today the park has just over 2,000 of the <a href="https://africageographic.com/stories/kruger-rhino-poaching-update-75-population-reduction-in-10-years/">remaining 16,000 white rhinos</a>. Kruger lost 6% of its population to poaching in <a href="https://sajs.co.za/article/view/11300">2020 alone</a>. Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park has suffered <a href="https://mg.co.za/environment/2023-02-08-rhino-poaching-declines-in-kruger-but-poachers-are-on-the-rampage-in-kzn/">similar declines</a>.</p>
<p>Private ranches in South Africa, meanwhile, lost <a href="https://sajs.co.za/article/view/11300">just 0.5%</a> of their rhinos to poaching in 2020. This is likely because smaller private properties are easier to secure and because private ranchers spend more per rhino on security – <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fee.2593#page=4">R28,600 (US$2200)</a> per rhino in 2017, <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fee.2593#page=4">compared with an estimated R8,600 (US$520)</a> per rhino spent by South African National Parks.</p>
<p>This high spend on security may have reduced poaching risk, but it has also reduced the <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12741">benefits accrued</a> from owning rhinos. Even for rhino owners who are not financially motivated, the growing costs of protecting rhinos from poaching are difficult to sustain. </p>
<p>In our <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.2593">paper</a>, we outline potential policy pathways to support rhino conservation beyond state parks. Additional revenue streams are needed to give private and community rhino custodians the incentive. These could include tapping into markets beyond ecotourism and trophy hunting, such as carbon and biodiversity credits. Incentives could also include private sector funding through impact investments, and government funding through tax incentives. New community custodians are likely to require state support, at least initially.</p>
<p>As large grazers, rhinos play <a href="https://africageographic.com/stories/why-are-rhinos-important-for-ecosystems/">an important role</a> in their ecosystem. Their decline is evoking <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719305099">strong sentimental reactions</a> from people around the world. This raises the question: to what extent should the costs of protecting globally valued rhinos be carried by their local custodians?</p>
<h2>The cost is too high</h2>
<p>In 2018 we <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12741">estimated</a> that 28% of private rhino owners in South Africa were disinvesting, while 57% were continuing as usual and 15% were investing in more rhinos. </p>
<p>At that time rhino breeder John Hume was one of the flagship investors. He and some other private rhino owners had been investing in rhinos in the hope that rhino horn trade would be legalised, which would make the cost-benefit ratio of owning rhinos <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12412">considerably more favourable</a>. </p>
<p>But in April 2023, Hume held an online auction to sell the 2,000 white rhinos he owned – representing about 13% of the continental population. <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-05-01-shaky-future-for-2000-rhinos-after-mega-breeders-auction-fails-to-attract-bidders/">He said</a> he could no longer afford his costly rhino breeding operation. The auction failed to attract any bidders. </p>
<p>There are three possible outcomes for Hume’s rhinos. One, a buyer could take over the operation. Two, the animals could be relocated to parks in South Africa or other <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/4185/45813880#geographic-range">countries in sub-Saharan Africa</a>. Or they might be relocated abroad, beyond their historical range (for instance to Asia or Australia).</p>
<p>The first outcome would be the simplest. But it doesn’t solve the problem that rhinos are increasingly expensive to support. </p>
<p>The second option is attractive because it would boost population numbers in parks that have lost their populations. However, the “space” for rhinos in many of these parks likely signals their failure at protecting their rhinos in the first place. Rewilding would require a new strategy for <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320721004705">protecting them</a>.</p>
<p>Moving rhinos beyond their historical range has been considered before. A multi-million-dollar <a href="https://theaustralianrhinoproject.org/index.php/about">proposal</a> to move rhinos to Australia (where they do not naturally occur) received support but also <a href="https://theecologist.org/2017/may/02/rhinos-should-be-conserved-africa-not-moved-australia">criticism</a>. Almost 1,000 white rhinos are already in captivity around the world and such projects arguably divert funds and expertise away from conservation efforts in the countries where rhinos naturally occur.</p>
<p>It’s important to consider how to support private rhino custodianship so that we don’t end up with more rhinos for sale that <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-01-16-private-and-communal-lands-conserve-half-of-africas-rhinos-and-call-for-adaptive-policies/">no one wants to buy</a>.</p>
<h2>Innovative solutions, partnerships</h2>
<p>A diversity of models and a <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2021-08-05-saving-private-rhino-we-must-reimagine-the-future-of-species-conservation-in-south-africa/">common vision</a> is needed to conserve thriving populations of rhinos across state, private and community land. </p>
<p>Rhinos should not unjustly burden those who serve as their custodians. Income from ecotourism and trophy hunting is insufficient under current poaching conditions and costs. How can the cost-benefit ratio of conserving rhinos be shifted?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Several rhinos are seen at a distance against the backdrop of grassland and a mountain" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">White rhinos on a large private game reserve in South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hayley Clements</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Legalising international horn trade would certainly shift the ratio, but there is <a href="https://africageographic.com/stories/will-legal-international-rhino-horn-trade-save-wild-rhino-populations/">strong pushback</a>. At best horn trade is a medium-term solution since international policy moves slowly.</p>
<p>Additional, nearer-term options include <a href="https://conservationnamibia.com/articles/cnam2020-wildlife-credits.php">rhino credits</a> and <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/03/23/wildlife-conservation-bond-boosts-south-africa-s-efforts-to-protect-black-rhinos-and-support-local-communities">impact bonds</a> – large-scale philanthropy that pays for conservation success. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.oneearth.org/how-restoring-key-wildlife-species-can-be-a-game-changing-climate-solution/">growing evidence</a> that wildlife populations can increase soil carbon – possibly enabling wildlife ranches to tap into carbon credit markets. The government can also recognise and support the role of rhino custodians through <a href="https://www.birdlife.org.za/what-we-do/important-bird-and-biodiversity-areas/what-we-do-ibas/fiscal-benefits-project/">tax incentives</a>. South Africa is a pioneer in biodiversity stewardship tax incentives, though they are currently only available to landowners who formally declare their land as protected. </p>
<p>Time is <a href="https://africageographic.com/stories/the-state-of-africas-rhino/">running out for rhinos</a>: more inclusive, equitable and innovative solutions are needed to support their conservation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205860/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hayley Clements receives funding from a Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Research Grant and Kone Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Balfour is a freelance ecologist and a member of the IUCN SSC African Rhino Specialist Group and Chairs the SADC Rhino Management Group. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Enrico Di Minin receives funding from the European Research Council – EU's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreement 802933).</span></em></p>To what extent should the costs of protecting globally valued rhinos be carried by their local custodians?Hayley Clements, Researcher, Stellenbosch UniversityDave Balfour, Freelance conservation ecologist, Nelson Mandela UniversityEnrico Di Minin, Associate Professor in Conservation Geography, University of HelsinkiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2048182023-05-10T13:24:09Z2023-05-10T13:24:09ZNamibia and South Africa’s ruling parties share a heroic history - but their 2024 electoral prospects look weak<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524080/original/file-20230503-15-wxlrrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Presidents Hage Geingob, left, and Cyril Ramaphosa at the Union Buildings in Tshwane.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Namibian president Hage Geingob used his <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-state-visit-president-hage-geingob-republic-namibia-20-apr-2023">recent state visit</a> to South Africa to also address a meeting of the national executive committee of the governing party, the African National Congress (<a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/">ANC</a>). This underscored the ANC’s historic ties to Namibia’s governing party, South West Africa People’s Organisation (<a href="https://www.politicalpartydb.org/wp-content/uploads/Statutes/Namibia/Namibia_Swapo_1998.pdf">Swapo</a>).</p>
<p><a href="https://www.iol.co.za/the-star/news/no-phala-phala-talk-between-ramaphosa-and-hage-geingob-2ca0db5e-074f-44d2-838f-05f39fd54b2c">According to President Cyril Ramaphosa</a>, who also heads the ANC, the party had a “wonderful engagement” with Geingob, who <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DrHageGeingob/">posted on Facebook</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As former liberation movements, we learn from one another, a manifestation of the deep bonds of solidarity formed during our struggle against oppression.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As political scientists and sociologists, we both followed individually and jointly the performance of the two organisations since the days of the liberation struggles. We have continuously analysed and commented on trends in their governance of the countries.</p>
<p>In our view, the nostalgic reminiscences of the parties’ days as liberation movements serve as a heroic patriotic history turned into a form of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056244.2018.1500360">populism</a>. Such romanticism uses the merits of the past to cover failures in the present. It also is a potential threat to the achievements of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000203971404900105">constitutionalism</a>. </p>
<p>Geingob’s visit came at a time when both governments under the former liberation movements, Swapo and the ANC, face an erosion of their political legitimacy. With elections in 2024 <a href="https://www.eisa.org/calendar2024.php">in both countries</a>, their challenges are similar.</p>
<p>Both face tough choices about how best to handle the challenges when entering the election year. They have, since moving into office, disappointed expectations, not least in their <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-31-years-after-independence-namibians-arent-in-a-festive-mood-157151">failures</a> to fight <a href="https://www.ufs.ac.za/docs/default-source/news-documents/opinion_politicsandcorruption_gb1.pdf?sfvrsn=3cd06c20_0">corruption</a>. Voters in South Africa and Namibia will in 2024 pass their verdict at the ballot boxes.</p>
<p>How they perform will shape the future of democracy in both countries.</p>
<h2>History with lasting bonds</h2>
<p>South African-Namibian relations have a special history. </p>
<p>After the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I">first world war</a>, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Treaty-of-Versailles-1919">Treaty of Versailles</a> officially ended the war between Germany and the Allied powers. It turned the German colony South West Africa into a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mandate-League-of-Nations#ref13450">C-mandate of the new League of Nations</a>. Its administration was delegated to South Africa. It effectively <a href="https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/item/9690/thesis_hum_1997_getz_tr.pdf?sequence=1">annexed</a> the territory and <a href="https://www.unmultimedia.org/avlibrary/asset/2040/2040311/">entrenched apartheid</a>. </p>
<p>This led the national liberation movement <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/SWAPO-Party-of-Namibia">Swapo</a> to take up arms. Recognised by the UN General Assembly as the
<a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/189617?ln=en">“sole and authentic representative of the Namibian people”</a>, Swapo and the ANC, which had likewise launched an armed struggle, became <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/Thula_Simpson_abstract.pdf">close allies</a>. Both received <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40283233?seq=8">wide international support</a>.</p>
<h2>From liberation movements to governments</h2>
<p>Under UN supervised elections <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/2225_89.htm">in November 1989</a>, Swapo obtained an absolute majority (58%). Independence was proclaimed on 21 March 1990. The date was chosen by the elected Constituent Assembly in recognition of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Sharpeville-massacre">the Sharpeville massacre</a> in 1961 – when apartheid police murdered 69 unarmed black people protesting against being forced to carry <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ApartheidMuseumSA/posts/heres-what-a-dompas-which-literally-means-dumb-pass-looked-like-during-the-apart/10157134498674628/">identity documents</a> controlling their movement. Released only weeks earlier from prison, Nelson Mandela attended the ceremony as the <a href="https://kapweine.ch/en/independence-from-namibia/">celebrated guest of honour</a>.</p>
<p>Apartheid in South Africa came officially to an end through the result of the first democratic elections in 1994. Like Swapo, the ANC emerged as the <a href="https://www.eisa.org/wep/sou1994results1.htm">majority party (62.7%)</a>. It indicated the success of the democratic settlements in both countries that Swapo and the ANC led processes leading to the drawing up of final constitutions. These embedded accepted democratic principles: free and regular elections, independent judiciaries, bills of fundamental human rights, and the separation of powers of the three branches of government.</p>
<p>Since then, both countries have continued to rank among the top African democracies. Regular elections were largely free and fair. Judiciaries have remained independent and have served as a check on executive power. Both parties initially increased their majorities. Crucially, however, the parliaments dominated by <a href="https://ippr.org.na/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/IPPR%20Opinion%20No%2021%20-parliament.....pdf">Swapo</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-parliament-fails-to-hold-the-executive-to-account-history-shows-what-can-happen-192889">ANC</a> have failed to hold governments to account on major issues.</p>
<h2>Popularity in decline</h2>
<p>Support for the ANC peaked at nearly 70% in the third democratic election <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40607814">in 2009</a>, but by the 5th election <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-africas-2019-general-election-post-analysis">in 2019</a>, it had fallen to 57.5%. Even this was regarded as a triumph, put down to the personal <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-za/cyril-ramaphosa-popular-amongst-south-africans-political-parties-questionable">popularity of its latest leader, Cyril Ramaphosa</a>.</p>
<p>In the run-up to the elections in 2024, surveys predict the ANC will lose its absolute majority, and be forced to <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/234405/south-africa-shock-poll-shows-anc-heading-towards-2024-coalition/">form a coalition to remain in power</a>. It is also anticipated that it will lose its majority <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/mercury/news/anc-prospects-are-dim-for-2024-elections-c5f442f2-7913-454d-a38f-e041e475a2db">in several provinces</a>. It may even lose Gauteng, the country’s economic hub, and KwaZulu-Natal. It has long lost control of the Western Cape to the opposition <a href="https://www.eisa.org/pdf/JAE9.2Africa.pdf">Democratic Alliance</a>.</p>
<p>In Namibia, Swapo has fared comparatively better. By <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2014-12-02-namibias-swapo-win-elections-geingob-voted-as-president/">2014</a>, it had consolidated its political dominance into a whopping 80% of votes for the National Assembly, and 86% of votes for its directly elected <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290429183_From_Nujoma_to_Geingob_25_years_of_presidential_democracy">presidential candidate Hage Geingob</a>. But the National Assembly and presidential elections <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00358533.2020.1717090">in 2019</a> marked a turning point. With 65.5% the party lost its two-third majority.</p>
<p>For both, ANC and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352737011_Namibia's_Regional_and_Local_Authority_Elections_2020_Democracy_beyond_SWAPO">Swapo</a>, the loss of control over the regional, provincial and <a href="http://democracyinafrica.org/democracy-beyond-swapo-in-namibia/">local levels of government</a> has turned politics into a matter of alliances, with shifting coalitions. Politics has become a negotiated commodity.</p>
<p>Principles are regularly traded for power, eroding the trust which citizens place in politicians and democracy. For all that they continue to dominate central government. But, their dominance is being steadily eroded by their lacklustre performance in power and failures in delivery of basic services. <a href="https://f3magazine.unicri.it/?p=402">State capture</a> has become a form of governance.</p>
<h2>2024 and the limits to liberation</h2>
<p>It is too early for any reliable predictions regarding the 2024 election results. While many assume that the ANC will lose its absolute majority, it has an uncanny ability to defy expectations. But even if it squeaks home, its credibility is likely to be further damaged. Unless he is shuffled aside by the ANC (a possibility whispered quietly in dark corners as the brightness of his image dims), Ramaphosa is likely to remain in office as South Africa’s president. But he could be <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-votes-in-2024-could-a-coalition-between-major-parties-anc-and-eff-run-the-country-204141">compelled to lead a coalition government</a>.</p>
<p>Swapo’s electoral prospects seem less bleak, even though it is thought that the opposition will make gains. Geingob’s two terms as state president ends. <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2023/03/13/namibian-president-names-netumbo-nandi-ndaitwah-woman-successor//">Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah</a> Swapo’s first female candidate, might become the head of state. But in both countries, those holding office will face an uphill battle.</p>
<p>Numerous <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/limits-to-liberation-in-southern-africa">analyses</a> have explored how former liberation movements in southern Africa have failed the ideals of the liberation struggle when in power, even becoming undemocratic and increasingly corrupt. They have transited <a href="https://www.thebrenthurstfoundation.org/news/when-liberation-movements-don-t-liberate-and-what-africans-can-do-about-it/">from dominance to decline</a>. In many ways, this was to be expected.</p>
<p>Few parties can retain power for decades without losing their popularity. Yet in southern Africa, liberation movements’ loss of popularity is combined with accusations that they have betrayed the promises of freedom. They have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589346.2017.1282337">displayed a democratic deficit</a>. By dismissing accountability for the lack of delivery they have squandered their trust and support. </p>
<p>How Swapo and the ANC respond to any further decline will define the future of democracy. Opposition parties are expected to play an increasing role. But the former liberation movements might benefit from their <a href="https://www.eisa.org/pdf/JAE5.1Chiroro.pdf">fragmentation and dilemma</a>. After all, opposition parties have so far offered <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-african-voters-are-disillusioned-but-they-havent-found-an-alternative-to-the-anc-171239">little if any credible alternatives</a> which promise more well-being for the ordinary people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204818/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of Swapo since 1974. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Southall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How Swapo and the ANC respond to any further decline in electoral support will define the future of democracy in both countries.Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of PretoriaRoger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2007442023-03-09T14:28:58Z2023-03-09T14:28:58ZJimmy Carter’s African legacy: peacemaker, negotiator and defender of rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512455/original/file-20230227-1191-gv4ueg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Carter's interest in southern Africa was crucial to keeping the peace.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When historians and pundits praise Jimmy Carter’s <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-american-studies/article/abs/nancy-mitchell-jimmy-carter-in-africa-race-and-the-cold-war-stanford-ca-stanford-university-press-2016-4500-pp-xiv-883-isbn-978-0-8047-9358-8/DB52A5925C6F10E199F93FB881AB03D9">achievements</a> as the US president and extol his exemplary post-presidential years, they mention the recognition of China, the <a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/e-lessons/the-panama-canal-treaties-jimmy-carter">Panama Canal Treaties</a> and the <a href="https://carterschool.gmu.edu/why-study-here/legacy-leadership/camp-david-hal-saunders-and-responsibility-peacemaking">Camp David Accords</a>. Almost no one mentions what Carter achieved in Africa during his presidency. This is a serious oversight. </p>
<p>When I interviewed President Carter in 2002, <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/extra/?id=25540&i=Excerpt%20from%20the%20Introduction.html">he told me</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I spent more effort and worry on Rhodesia than I did on the Middle East.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The archival record supports the former president’s claim. Reams of documents detail Carter’s sustained and deep focus during his presidency on ending white rule in Rhodesia, and helping to bring about the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/zimbabawean-independence-day">independence of Zimbabwe</a>.</p>
<p>There were several reasons for Carter’s focus on southern Africa. First, realpolitik. Southern Africa was the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25798909?seq=4">hottest theatre</a> of the Cold War when Carter took office in January 1977. A year earlier, Fidel Castro had sent <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Conflicting-Missions-Havana-Washington-1959-1976/dp/0807854646">36,000 Cuban troops</a> to Angola to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Conflicting-Missions-Havana-Washington-1959-1976/dp/0807854646">protect the leftist MPLA</a> from a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Conflicting-Missions-Havana-Washington-1959-1976/dp/0807854646">South African invasion</a> backed by the Gerald Ford administration. The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Visions-Freedom-Washington-Pretoria-1976-1991/dp/1469628325">Cubans remained in Angola until 1991 </a>.</p>
<p>Mozambique was no longer governed by America’s NATO ally, Portugal, but instead by the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4185752">left-leaning Frelimo</a> . Apartheid South Africa – so recently a stable, pro-American outpost far from the Cold War – suddenly faced the prospect of being surrounded by hostile black-ruled states.</p>
<p>The unfolding events in southern Africa riveted Washington’s attention on Rhodesia, where the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Carter-Africa-International-History/dp/0804793859">insurgency against the white minority government</a> of <a href="https://www.mandela.ac.za/Leadership-and-Governance/Honorary-Doctorates/Ian-Smith-1979">Ian Smith</a> was escalating. One week after the Carter administration took office it assessed the crisis in Rhodesia: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This situation contains the seeds of another Angola … If the breakdown of talks means intensified warfare, Soviet/Cuban influence is bound to increase.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The administration knew that if the war did not end, the Cuban troops might cross the continent to help the rebels.</p>
<h2>And then what?</h2>
<p>It was unthinkable that the Carter administration, with its <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/human-rights#:%7E:text=He%20intended%20to%20infuse%20a,the%20fate%20of%20freedom%20">stress on human rights</a>, would intervene in Rhodesia to support the racist government of Ian Smith. But, given the Cold War, it was equally unthinkable that it would stand aside passively enabling another Soviet-backed Cuban victory in Africa. Therefore, the administration’s first <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44376206">Presidential Review Memorandum</a> on southern Africa, written immediately after Carter took office, announced:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In terms of urgency, the Rhodesian problem is highest priority.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Carter administration assembled a <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=25540">high-powered negotiating team</a>, led by <a href="https://aysps.gsu.edu/andrew-young-biography/">UN Ambassador Andrew Young</a> and <a href="https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/vance">Secretary of State Cyrus Vance</a>, to coordinate with the British and hammer out a settlement. These negotiations, spearheaded by the Americans, led to the <a href="https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/5847/5/1979_Lancaster_House_Agreement.pdf">Lancaster House talks</a> in Britain, and the free elections in 1980 and black majority rule in an independent in Zimbabwe. </p>
<p>There was another reason for Carter’s interest in southern Africa: race. Carter <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hour-Before-Daylight-Memories-Boyhood/dp/0743211995">grew up in the segregated South</a> of the 1920s and 1930s. As a child, he did not question the racist strictures of the <a href="https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/what.htm">Jim Crow South</a>, but as he matured, served in the US Navy and was elected governor of Georgia, his worldview evolved. </p>
<p>He appreciated how the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/">civil rights movement</a> had helped liberate the US South from its regressive past, and he regretted that he had not been an active participant in the movement. When I asked Carter why he had expended so much effort on Rhodesia, part of his explanation was:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I felt a sense of responsibility and some degree of guilt that we had spent an entire century after the Civil War still persecuting blacks, and to me the situation in Africa was inseparable from the fact of deprivation or persecution or oppression of Black people in the South. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Parallels with the US South</h2>
<p>Carter’s belief that there were parallels between the freedom struggles in the US South and in southern Africa may have been naïve, but it was important. </p>
<p>Influenced by Andrew Young, who had been a <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/young-andrew">close aide</a> to <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/biographical/">Martin Luther King </a>, Carter transcended the knee-jerk anticommunist reaction of previous American presidents to the members of the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/struggle-Zimbabwe-Chimurenga-War/dp/0949932000">Patriotic Front</a>, the loose alliance of insurgents fighting the regime of <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/lifeinfocus/a-life-in-focus-ian-douglas-smith-last-white-prime-minister-rhodesia-zimbabwe-a8754971.html">Ian Smith</a>.</p>
<p>Young challenged the Manichaean tropes of the Cold War. <a href="https://stanfordpress.typepad.com/blog/2017/04/race-and-the-cold-war.html">He explained in 1977</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Communism has never been a threat to me … Racism has always been a threat – and that has been the enemy of all of my life. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Young helped Carter see the Patriotic Front, albeit leftist guerrillas supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union, as freedom fighters. Therefore, unlike the Gerald Ford administration which had <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Carter-Africa-International-History/dp/0804793859">shunned</a> the Front and tried to settle the conflict through negotiations with the white leaders of Rhodesia and South Africa, Carter considered the Front the key players. He brought them to the fore of the negotiations. This was extraordinarily rare in the annals of US diplomacy during the Cold War. </p>
<p>Carter has not received the credit his administration deserves for the Zimbabwe settlement. It was a success not only in moral terms, enabling free elections in an independent country. It also precluded a repetition of the Cuban intervention in Angola. It was Carter’s signal achievement in sub-Saharan Africa. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512411/original/file-20230227-24-kep09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512411/original/file-20230227-24-kep09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512411/original/file-20230227-24-kep09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512411/original/file-20230227-24-kep09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512411/original/file-20230227-24-kep09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512411/original/file-20230227-24-kep09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512411/original/file-20230227-24-kep09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The late former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan (C) speaks as former US president Jimmy Carter and Graca Machel of Mozambique look on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexander Joe/AFP via Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Angola and the Cold War reflexes</h2>
<p>Carter also improved US relations with the continent as a whole. He <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Carter-Africa-International-History/dp/0804793859">increased</a> trade, diplomatic contacts and, simply, treated Black Africa with respect.</p>
<p>During the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Carter-Africa-International-History/dp/0804793859">war in the Horn of Africa</a>, he resisted intense pressure to throw full US support behind the Somalis when the Somali government waged a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Carter-Africa-International-History/dp/0804793859">war of aggression</a> against leftist Ethiopia. His administration attempted valiantly to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-abstract/34/5/853/490367">negotiate a settlement</a> in Namibia and condemned apartheid in South Africa. </p>
<p>But in Angola, as historian Piero Gleijeses’ superb <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Visions-Freedom-Washington-Pretoria-1976-1991/dp/1469628325">research</a> has shown, Carter reverted to Cold War reflexes. He asserted that the US would restore full relations with Angola only after the Cuban troops had departed. This, even though he knew that the Cubans were there by invitation of the Angolan government, and were essential to hold the South Africans at bay. Carter’s was the typical response of US governments to any perceived communist threat. But it serves to highlight – by contrast – how unusual was the administration’s policy of embracing the Patriotic Front in Zimbabwe. </p>
<p>For the next 40 years, Carter focused more on sub-Saharan Africa than on any other region of the world. The Carter Center’s almost total <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/23/1158358366/jimmy-carter-took-on-the-awful-guinea-worm-when-no-one-else-would-and-he-triumph">eradication of Guinea worm</a> has saved an estimated 80 million Africans from this devastating disease. Its election monitoring throughout the continent, and its conflict resolution programmes, have bolstered democracy. </p>
<p>Carter’s work in Africa, and especially in Zimbabwe, forms a significant and underappreciated part of his impressive legacy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200744/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nancy Mitchell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Carter’s work in Zimbabwe forms a significant and under appreciated part of his legacyNancy Mitchell, Professor of History, North Carolina State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1983162023-02-10T09:09:16Z2023-02-10T09:09:16ZHenry Kissinger: history will judge the former US secretary of state’s southern African interventions to be a failure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507529/original/file-20230201-22-xvmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Henry Kissinger, who sexed up the art of diplomacy in the eight years between 1969 and 1977, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67574495">has died</a> at the age of 100.</p>
<p>In the obituaries that have been written, some laud Kissinger’s role in the shaping of East-West relations while he was in office as US Secretary of State. And many in their commentary on the decades beyond call him a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24916333#metadata_info_tab_contents">“statesman”</a>. </p>
<p>Radical critics have pointed to Kissinger’s ruthless methods – like <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB437/">encouraging the coup</a> in Chile in September, 1973 – and called for him to be <a href="https://www.hrw.org/legacy/community/bookreviews/hitchens.htm">put on trial for “war crimes”</a>.</p>
<p>Traditionally, diplomacy was staid – a near-hidden enterprise for grey-suited men who (mostly by intuition) understood the grave matters of war and peace. Kissinger turned it into a site of celebrity, the jet-set and expert opinion. The world watched where he went.</p>
<p>Kissinger’s diplomatic achievements were quite astonishing – the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/rapprochement-china">recognition of China</a> (1971/72) by the US was simply breathtaking. But domestically more important was America’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/vietnam-war-how-us-involvement-has-influenced-foreign-policy-decisions-over-50-years-194951">withdrawal from Vietnam</a> (1973) and the Nixon administration <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/45181235#metadata_info_tab_contents">policy of détente</a> (easing of hostility) with the Soviet Union, which led to a series of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Strategic-Arms-Limitation-Talks">strategic arms limitation talks</a>.</p>
<p>These helped to secure Kissinger’s global brand. But his track record in the global south – especially in Africa – is dismal. </p>
<p>Not a little of Kissinger’s fame – or infamy, depending on the particular issue at hand – was facilitated by <a href="https://adst.org/2016/03/on-the-road-again-kissingers-shuttle-diplomacy/">“shuttle diplomacy”</a>, a tactic first used in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Yom-Kippur-War">Yom Kippur War of 1973</a>. In an effort to mediate between the warring Egypt and Israel, Kissinger very publicly jetted between the two countries. </p>
<p>A year later, a form of shuttle diplomacy was necessary in southern Africa as it became plain that Kissinger had misread the region’s place in world affairs and its politics.</p>
<p>This was evident from a 1969 leaked policy document which had set out America’s approach to regional affairs. The policy recommended that the US “tilt” towards the region’s white-ruled and colonial regimes to protect US economic (and strategic) interests. </p>
<p>As the grand narrative of Kissinger’s life story is written, his southern African interventions must be judged a failure as he neither ended colonialism nor minority rule in the region. </p>
<h2>White minority rule</h2>
<p>Famously, Kissinger’s <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj1y9zXlPT8AhXSMcAKHfREAEkQFnoECCgQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fworldrestored00kiss&usg=AOvVaw1bBVPkUufYxYxQco7LwSFE">doctoral thesis</a> at Harvard was on the diplomacy of the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815). He argued that “legitimacy” in international affairs rested on establishing a balance between powerful states rather than promoting justice. </p>
<p>But 19th century Europe was no guide to managing 20th century southern Africa, when the legitimacy of states was seized with liberation rather than the niceties of big power diplomacy.</p>
<p>In April 1974, a coup in Lisbon had signalled an <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000011345">end to Portuguese colonialism in Africa</a>. This exposed the vulnerability of white rule in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South African controlled South West Africa (now Namibia). Although hidden at the time, it is nowadays clear that the events in Lisbon helped to prime the fire that was to come to South Africa.</p>
<p>With the stability of the “white South” under threat, US policy required rethinking.</p>
<p>It was Cuba’s intervention <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-30-years-since-cuito-cuanavale-how-the-battle-redefined-southern-africa-78134">in Angola</a> that helped Kissinger reframe Washington’s approach to the region in Cold War terms. South Africa and the United States supported the rebel Unita movement to fight the government of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Popular-Movement-for-the-Liberation-of-Angola">MPLA</a>) which was allied to Soviet Union. </p>
<p>It required drawing the apartheid regime closer while, simultaneously, urging change in Zimbabwe and Namibia.</p>
<p>The shuttle started with a speech in Lusaka, Zambia, which put pressure on white-ruled Rhodesia to accept the idea of “majority rule”. More gently, Kissinger asked South Africa to announce a timetable to achieve “self-determination” in Namibia. Kissinger then travelled to Tanzania to make a similar address.</p>
<p>A series of high-profile meetings followed with apartheid’s then prime minister, John Vorster. These took place in Germany and Switzerland. The record of these encounters make interesting reading. Over dinner on 23 June 1976, the ice was broken over a racist joke which established a bonhomie between a dozen white men who deliberated on the future of a sub-continent of black people for two hours.</p>
<p>The apartheid regime had catapulted directly into Kissinger’s star-studded orbit.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0314/1553485.pdf">official record</a> of the talks suggests the South African delegation appear dazed. Were they overwhelmed by the occasion, or were they reeling from the events the previous week in <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-epochal-1976-uprisings-shouldnt-be-reduced-to-a-symbolic-ritual-185073">Soweto</a>, when apartheid police killed unarmed school children protesting against the imposition of the Afrikaans language as a medium of instruction? </p>
<p>For their part, the American side seemed keen to learn – at an early moment in the proceedings, Kissinger declared that he was “trying to understand”; at another, he was being “analytical”.</p>
<p>True to diplomatic form, apartheid was not discussed even though some attention was given to South West Africa. The discussion remained focused on Rhodesia.</p>
<p>Eventually a strategy was agreed: Vorster would get the recalcitrant Rhodesians to agree on majority rule; Kissinger would get the Zambians and the Tanzanians to support the deal; movement on the Namibian issue would be slower.</p>
<p>The high moment of the entire exercise was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/18/archives/new-jersey-pages-kissingers-meeting-with-vorster-opens-on-a-hopeful.html">Kissinger’s September 1976 visit</a> to Pretoria. By happenstance, Rhodesia’s prime minister, Ian Smith, was scheduled to be in town to watch a rugby match.</p>
<p>The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/21/archives/johannesburg-news-and-notes-vorster-is-hopeful-over-rhodesia.html">reported</a> that Kissinger was received with a small guard of honour – of black soldiers – at the Waterkloof Air Base when his plane landed. And Kissinger and his entourage – including the all-important press – set up camp in Pretoria’s Burgerspark Hotel.</p>
<p>For four days an increasingly isolated and internationally condemned South Africa basked in the spotlight of world attention – undoubtedly, it was the high point of apartheid’s diplomacy. </p>
<p>The drama of the weekend turned less on whether Kissinger met black leaders who were critical of apartheid – the activist editor <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/percy-tseliso-peter-qoboza-1938">Percy Qoboza</a> was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/21/archives/johannesburg-news-and-notes-vorster-is-hopeful-over-rhodesia.html">the only one</a> – than on whether Kissinger, as an envoy of the US, could meet directly with Smith, whose regime was not internationally recognised.</p>
<p>In the event the two men met for four hours on the Sunday morning, and a deal was sealed. A tearful Smith, then prime minister, announced that Rhodesia would accept the principle of majority rule. </p>
<p>But the follow up processes were fumbled. The illegal regime limped on for another four years.</p>
<p>Kissinger had two further visits to South Africa. One was in September 1982 when he delivered the <a href="https://www.africaportal.org/publications/saiia-international-affairs-bulletin-vol-6-no-3-1982/">keynote address</a> at a conference organised by the South African Institute of International Affairs. The second was when (with others) he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/15/world/kissinger-fails-with-zulus.html">unsuccessfully tried</a> to solve the crisis over Inkatha Freedom Party leader <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mangosuthu-G-Buthelezi">Mangosuthu Buthelezi</a>’s rejection of South Africa’s interim constitution in April 1994. </p>
<p>Kissinger’s interest in southern Africa in the mid-1970s was predicated on the idea that balance would return if the interests of the strong were restored. He failed to understand that the struggle for justice was changing the world – and diplomacy itself. </p>
<p><em>Article was updated to reflect Henry Kissinger’s death.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198316/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Vale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>He failed to understand that the struggle for justice and freedom in southern Africa was changing the world - and diplomacy itself.Peter Vale, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria, and Visiting Professor of International Relations, Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1975392023-01-29T18:33:48Z2023-01-29T18:33:48ZWhat makes archaeology useful as well as exciting? It offers lessons from the past<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504640/original/file-20230116-14-caekqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Great Zimbabwe</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Archaeology is fun. It’s so much fun that sometimes people do not treat it with the seriousness it deserves. Studying the past, through what people leave behind, can offer insights into some of the world’s <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/making-archaeology-relevant-to-global-challenges-a-global-south-perspective/5F0E4C5D48FDD2D77D4ED1F4402F3740">challenges</a> – like hunger, health, and protecting the environment.</p>
<p>Some of the most impressive archaeological sites in the world include <a href="https://www.economist.com/interactive/christmas-specials/2021/12/18/great-zimbabwe-archaeology">Great Zimbabwe</a>, the Egyptian <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-is-behind-outlandish-theories-about-africas-ancient-architecture-83898">Pyramids</a> and the Great Wall of China. Side by side with these very old and massive structures are sediments, old bones, seeds, pottery, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-found-the-earliest-glass-production-south-of-the-sahara-and-what-it-means-142059">glass</a>, metals and human <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-cave-site-in-kenyas-forests-reveals-the-oldest-human-burial-in-africa-160343">skeletons</a>. All yield clues about ancient environments, <a href="https://theconversation.com/65-000-year-old-stone-swiss-army-knives-show-early-humans-had-long-distance-social-networks-184648">societies</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/at-unguja-ukuu-human-activity-transformed-the-coast-of-zanzibar-more-than-1-000-years-ago-176035">economies</a>. </p>
<p>Archaeological discoveries sometimes grab headlines: Howard Carter’s discovery of <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-discovery-of-king-tuts-tomb/">Tutankhamun’s tomb</a> in Egypt in 1922, the <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/terra-cotta-warriors-found">Terracotta Army</a> discovery by local farmers in China in 1974, the spectacular objects of <a href="https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-585;jsessionid=CED15264FBBE42956F1B722E51F56113">Igbo Ukwu</a> in Nigeria, the gold burials of <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-book-on-mapungubwe-archive-contests-history-of-south-african-world-heritage-site-187926">Mapungubwe</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/spectacular-anglo-saxon-burial-uncovered-heres-what-it-tells-us-about-women-in-seventh-century-england-196675">Staffordshire hoard</a> in England are a few examples that come to mind. </p>
<p>At <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Great-Zimbabwe-Reclaiming-a-Confiscated-Past/Chirikure/p/book/9780367638979?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9e6GmajE_AIVqRkGAB2ASAeQEAMYASAAEgJNufD_BwE">Great Zimbabwe</a>, the excavation team I lead always discovers interesting things that show how this place was once connected across Africa and with India and China. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-found-the-earliest-glass-production-south-of-the-sahara-and-what-it-means-142059">How we found the earliest glass production south of the Sahara, and what it means</a>
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<p>But beyond being interesting, what is the value of these discoveries? The short answer is that they offer lessons from human experience. They show us different options that we could think about and modify to suit changing circumstances. Materials, land use, water storage, cultural practices and ways to manage <a href="https://theconversation.com/archaeology-shows-how-ancient-african-societies-managed-pandemics-138217">health</a> are just some of the kinds of options I mean. </p>
<h2>Lessons from human experience</h2>
<p>For example, of the many “gifts” that the Romans gave to the world, concrete is one of the most studied materials. It has the potential to reduce greenhouse gases known to cause global warming and climate extremes. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add1602">Studies</a> in design and engineering are showing that adapting Roman techniques can improve modern concrete formulations, making them durable and environmentally friendly. </p>
<p>And modern designers have been inspired by <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/mrs-online-proceedings-library-archive/article/abs/craft-knowledge-as-an-intangible-cultural-property-a-case-study-of-samarkand-tiles-and-traditional-potters-in-uzbekistan/CEF57A6A272919D6CD6A3CCC3F331F40">research</a> into ancient tiles used in Asian regions such as Uzbekistan. </p>
<p>Learning from the past also promotes balanced approaches to sustainable farming practices. It can lead to responsible <a href="https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/reclaiming-great-zimbabwes-past-to-learn-lessons-for-the-future">planetary stewardship</a>. For example, we can learn about growing traditional crops such as millet and sorghum that are not only nutritious but also help in <a href="https://theconversation.com/chemical-traces-in-ancient-west-african-pots-show-a-diet-rich-in-plants-177579">biodiversity</a> conservation and heritage protection.</p>
<p>Clues to environmental changes can come from unexpected places. One of the most exciting archaeological discoveries I have worked on is the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11457-010-9059-9">Oranjemund shipwreck</a>. Diamond miners in Namibia stumbled on this in 2008 when dredging sand. A Portuguese ship had sunk in the 1530s and its cargo was on the seabed. Through international collaborations, we rescued 20 tons of copper, nearly 40kg of gold coins, 7 tons of unworked elephant tusks and many other items from the ship. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Mine workers excavate an ivory tusk found on site of a shipwreck in Oranjemund, Namibia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Amy Toensing / Getty Images</span></span>
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<p>Work by teams bringing together different scientific techniques, such as stable isotopes and ancient DNA, identified the West African forest region as the source of the elephants hunted for their <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982220316638">ivory</a>. Most of that elephant population has since disappeared, through unsustainable consumption. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fossil-tracks-and-trunk-marks-reveal-signs-of-ancient-elephants-on-south-africas-coast-164306">Fossil tracks and trunk marks reveal signs of ancient elephants on South Africa's coast</a>
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<p>Archaeology also shines a light on the different ways human societies have organised themselves. For example, discoveries of <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Bantu_Migration">evidence</a> showing the migrations of different groups of people in Africa show the limitations imposed by the national borders created by <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/berlin-conference">colonial powers</a>. Before European colonialism, African peoples were connected in different ways. Archaeology presents this African heritage and offers social cohesion as an alternative to <a href="https://theconversation.com/xenophobia-does-not-tell-the-full-story-of-migration-in-south-africa-182784">xenophobia</a>. </p>
<h2>Multidisciplinary discovery</h2>
<p>Another value of archaeology is that it uses multiple <a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-dna-helps-reveal-social-changes-in-africa-50-000-years-ago-that-shaped-the-human-story-175436">fields of knowledge</a> to discover and interpret findings. Studies of <a href="https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-68;jsessionid=D5D108B5CB4C4FBAC536C5EE12F12808">precolonial African trade</a>, for example, use multiple sources and techniques such as oral and documentary history, languages and archaeological materials analysis to show that communities in southern Africa were networked with each other and those in central and eastern Africa. Archaeologists recovered iron gongs produced in central Africa at Great Zimbabwe together with a coin minted at Kilwa on the Indian Ocean coast. This shows movement of resources and people within Africa – which is once again a goal through the <a href="https://theconversation.com/africas-free-trade-area-offers-promise-for-cities-but-only-if-theres-investment-187177">African Continental Free Trade Area</a>. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://theconversation.com/archaeological-site-along-the-nile-opens-a-window-on-the-nubian-civilization-that-flourished-in-ancient-sudan-174575">heritage</a>, archaeological discoveries also have economic and intrinsic value. Some of the world’s most visited tourism destinations are archaeological sites – Machu Picchu in Peru is one. This goes against the perception that archaeology is all about discovery for discovery’s sake and that it is a luxury in a hard-pressed world. </p>
<p>Archaeology matters because lessons from the past can put solutions on the table, mixing excitement with problem solving.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197539/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shadreck Chirikure receives funding from the British Academy, the University of Oxford, the National Research Foundation of South Africa, and the University of Cape Town. He is affiliated with the University of Cape Town. </span></em></p>Archaeological discoveries show the different options that have solved human problems over time.Shadreck Chirikure, Director, Research Laboratory, Professor of Archaeological Science and British Academy Global Professor, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1984552023-01-26T10:14:59Z2023-01-26T10:14:59ZHeat stress is rising in southern Africa – climate experts show where and when it’s worst<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506391/original/file-20230125-2999-tc5bml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Being too hot isn't just uncomfortable: it can be dangerous.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Angel DiBilio/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most of us have felt either too hot or too cold at some point in our lives. Depending on where we live, we may feel too cold quite often each winter, and too hot for a few days in summer. As we’re writing this in late January 2023 many southern Africans are probably feeling very hot and fatigued; a prolonged regional heatwave began around 9 January.</p>
<p>Being too hot isn’t just uncomfortable. Heat stress causes dehydration, headaches, nausea – and, when people are exposed to high temperatures for protracted periods, they risk <a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/ehp.123-A275">severe health outcomes and could even die</a>. For instance, at least five people working on farms in South Africa’s Northern Cape province <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/we-were-struggling-to-breathe-five-farm-workers-died-of-heat-stroke-in-sweltering-northern-cape-20230122">have died from heat stroke</a> in January. At least <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/south-asias-intense-heat-wave-sign-things-come-rcna30239">90 people died in India and Pakistan</a> in May 2022 during a devastating heatwave.</p>
<p>The situation is only going to get worse. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/about/frequently-asked-questions/keyfaq3/">warns</a> that “globally, the percentage of the population exposed to deadly heat stress is projected to increase from today’s 30% to 48%-76% by the end of the century, depending on future warming levels and location”.</p>
<p>We wanted to create a detailed picture of when and where heat stress occurs in southern Africa. By applying a global gridded dataset of a human thermal comfort index, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.8009">we found</a> that there has been a consistent change in thermal comfort – the human body’s experience of the outdoor thermal environment – from the 1970s to today. Simply put, southern Africans are experiencing heat stress more often than in 1979.</p>
<p>Given that global temperatures are <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/about/frequently-asked-questions/keyfaq3/">set to rise</a> in the coming years and decades, these findings are worrying. Warmer temperatures will mean that regions that were classified as having “favourable” thermal comfort will more regularly be classified as regions of “thermal stress”. Heatwaves have been projected to occur more frequently, and to be more intense.</p>
<h2>Measuring thermal comfort (or stress)</h2>
<p>Over the past two decades, scientists from across the world have developed the <a href="https://utci.lobelia.earth/what-is-utci">Universal Thermal Climate Index</a>. It has advanced our ability to model human thermal comfort levels, ranging from cold stress to heat stress. Earlier thermal comfort indices typically only modelled heat stress because they mainly measured the combined effects of humidity and temperature to calculate an equivalent temperature. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Temperature extremes can put people’s health at risk. Authors supplied.</span>
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<p>This equivalent temperature would essentially measure how we feel in relation to the surrounding environment. For example, at 5pm on 23 January, Johannesburg’s outdoor air temperature was 29˚C; relative humidity was 30%; the sky was clear and there was a gentle breeze of 16km/h. </p>
<p>For someone outside, the equivalent temperature would have been slightly higher than the outdoor temperature (<a href="https://utci.lobelia.earth/images/what-is-utci/global-diff.png">possibly as high as 32˚C</a>), largely due to the effect of relative humidity and limited wind chill.</p>
<p>The Universal Thermal Climate Index considers a wider range of factors that influence thermal comfort than its predecessors. In addition to air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed, it also includes radiant heat, a measure of how hot we feel when standing in the sun rather than in the shade. </p>
<p>The index is built for humans navigating the real world: it includes a clothing model and an exertion model. </p>
<p>During the current southern African heatwave, for instance, the model assumes that nobody is dressed in a fuzzy jersey. In winter, it assumes nobody in countries like Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Eswatini, Lesotho and South Africa is wearing shorts and a T-shirt.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the inclusion of all these factors means that the Universal Thermal Climate Index is a more accurate and realistic indicator of the level of thermal comfort (or discomfort) perceived by the human body.</p>
<h2>Southern African application</h2>
<p>To apply the Universal Thermal Climate Index to southern Africa, we drew data from the <a href="https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/derived-utci-historical?tab=overview">ERA5-HEAT</a> data collection, which provides an hourly dataset, of the equivalent temperature derived from the index, for 1940 to present; it is produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.</p>
<p>We zoomed into the time period 1979-2021 and considered thermal comfort at annual, seasonal and monthly scales. Over these scales, we calculated the average climatology, and investigated changes and year-to-year variability patterns in day-time, night-time and daily average equivalent temperatures across southern Africa.</p>
<p>We found that heat stress occurs most widely during the summer months (December to March); cold stress occurs mainly during the winter months (June to August). Heat stress was, as one would expect, most common during the day and cold stress more common at night.</p>
<p>Drilling further into the data, we discovered that, from September to March, more than 85% of the subcontinent experiences day-time heat stress. Over parts of the Northern Cape in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, day-time heat stress can reach very strong, and potentially dangerous, heat stress levels during these months. </p>
<p>From May to August, our results showed that more than 80% of southern Africa experiences night-time cold stress, and over much of South Africa night-time cold stress can reach moderate cold stress. In short, it’s unusual for people in the region to feel extremely cold and fairly common in certain months to feel extremely hot, especially outside.</p>
<h2>Going forward: why it’s bad news</h2>
<p>Everyone in southern Africa is at risk of heat stress. But children, the elderly, and those with underlying comorbidities are more vulnerable. </p>
<p>Those working outdoors, like farm and construction workers, are especially vulnerable because there’s little that can be done to adapt to and cope with heat stress while working outdoors during the day-time. <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2023-01-22-heat-stroke-deaths-department-suggests-working-early-late-hours/">Adjusting work hours</a> to avoid peak heat hours is one measure that could be applied.</p>
<p>There are also some coping mechanisms you could apply in your daily life. Limit your exposure to the sun by moving to shade or indoors to a well-ventilated or air-conditioned room. Keep hydrated (with water), avoid strenuous activities (like sports or excessive manual labour), wear lightweight protective clothing, a hat and sunblock, and, if you feel ill, seek medical attention.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Roffe works for the Agricultural Research Council. She receives funding from the National Research Foundation, South Africa. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Fitchett receives funding from the National Research Foundation</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adriaan Van Der Walt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Simply put, southern Africans are experiencing heat stress more often than in 1979.Sarah Roffe, Researcher, Agricultural Research CouncilAdriaan Van Der Walt, Senior Lecturer of Physical Geography and GIS, University of the Free StateJennifer Fitchett, Professor of Physical Geography, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973492023-01-11T11:41:24Z2023-01-11T11:41:24ZElephant poaching rates vary across Africa: 19 years of data from 64 sites suggest why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503583/original/file-20230109-13-53i5vz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s a grim and all too common sight for rangers at some of Africa’s nature reserves: the bullet-riddled carcass of an elephant, its tusks removed by poachers. African elephant populations have <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/2354/#table-2">fallen by about 30% since 2006</a>. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1403984111">Poaching</a> has driven the decline.</p>
<p>Some reserves, like Garamba in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Selous in Tanzania, have lost hundreds of elephants to poachers over the last decade. But others, like Etosha National Park in Namibia, have been targeted far less. What might explain this difference?</p>
<p>That’s what we set out to explore in our <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.2270">new paper</a>. We investigated why poaching rates vary so widely across Africa and what this might reveal about what drives, motivates and facilitates poaching. To do this, we used a statistical model to relate poaching levels from 64 African sites to various socio-economic factors. These included a country’s quality of governance and the level of human development in the area surrounding a park.</p>
<p>Our findings suggest that poaching rates are lower where there is strong national governance and where local levels of human development – especially wealth and health – are relatively high. Strong site-level law enforcement and reduced global ivory prices also keep poaching levels down.</p>
<p>Understanding these dynamics is crucial. The illegal wildlife trade is <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-environ-101718-033253">one of the highest value illicit trade sectors globally</a>, worth several billion dollars each year. It poses a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystems, which are <a href="https://www.unep.org/un-biodiversity-conference-cop-15">the bedrock of human well-being</a>. And elephants are more than just a culturally significant icon. They are “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0395-6">ecosystem engineers</a>” that can boost forest carbon stocks and <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.1557">diversify habitats</a> through their feeding. Their presence in national parks and reserves also has economic benefits, bringing in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13379">valuable tourism revenues</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/115/458/1/2195193">deaths of both poachers and rangers</a> in the continent’s violent biodiversity “war” also underscores our findings: when elephants lose, we all lose.</p>
<h2>Data collection</h2>
<p>We developed a statistical model using 19 years of data on 10,286 poached elephants at 64 sites in 30 African countries. These data were collected, mostly by wildlife rangers, as part of the global programme for <a href="https://citesmike.org/">Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE)</a>, administered by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rangers are the real champions of this research, working under difficult conditions to protect elephants and other biodiversity. Photo: Tim Kuiper.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We then linked the poaching data to key socio-economic data related to areas around the parks, individual countries and global markets.</p>
<p>Poaching of high-value species like elephants and rhinos is driven primarily by <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article-abstract/59/1/24/4967883">sophisticated criminal syndicates</a>. So we used criminology theory and evidence from the scientific literature to generate hypotheses about factors that might drive, facilitate or motivate the decisions of these syndicates and the local hunters they recruited. We then identified datasets representing these factors, such as the <a href="https://ucdp.uu.se/">Uppsala Armed Conflict Dataset</a> and the Global Data Lab’s <a href="https://globaldatalab.org/shdi/">Subnational Human Development index</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/statistical-models-and-ranger-insights-help-identify-patterns-in-elephant-poaching-137834">Statistical models and ranger insights help identify patterns in elephant poaching</a>
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</em>
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<p>Our tailored statistical model allows us to test for the effect of one hypothesised driver of poaching while accounting for the others. It also means we can look at local, national, regional and global factors together.</p>
<h2>Key findings</h2>
<p>Parks with higher levels of human development (based on health and wealth metrics from household surveys) and stronger law enforcement suffered less poaching. Poaching was also lower in countries where there was strong national governance quality. We measured this using the <a href="https://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/">World Bank’s governance indicators</a>. </p>
<p>Socio-economic and political drivers were far more common than ecological ones. A park’s accessibility and size, the density of its vegetation and its elephant population did not affect its poaching levels. </p>
<p>The strong associations we found between poaching and factors like corruption and human development do not necessarily imply that these factors directly cause poaching. Correlation does not imply causation. Deeper research at particular sites will reveal what underlying processes are at play, and offer a better understanding of cause and effect. </p>
<p>But we do have some suggestions about what might lie behind the associations we found. These are rooted in <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12622">previous studies</a>.</p>
<h2>Solutions transcend biodiversity</h2>
<p>Why, for instance, would higher levels of local human well-being in an area be associated with lower poaching?</p>
<p>One explanation could be that, in areas of economic deprivation and in the absence of alternatives, local residents might participate in poaching to meet their basic needs or earn extra income.</p>
<p>Another interpretation might be that criminal ivory syndicates seeking to recruit local hunters target areas of lower human well-being because they can operate more effectively there.</p>
<p>A number of biodiversity conservation actors, like government wildlife departments or environmental NGOs, have already recognised the value in focusing on improving human well-being around parks and reserves. A stellar example is <a href="https://communityconservationnamibia.com/">Namibia’s conservancy model</a>. It achieves effective conservation through local communities governing and benefiting from wildlife. </p>
<p>Our study highlights that site-based conservation action alone cannot control illegal killing. A lot of what drives and facilitates elephant poaching is beyond conservationists’ remit or control.</p>
<p>Conservationists can’t be expected to solve local human development issues or hold governments accountable on their own. Wider societal action to address poverty is required. This could include empowering women, increasing access to basic education, and promoting resilience to climate change. Such action is valuable in its own right, but will likely deliver benefits for elephants too. </p>
<p>Finally, the positive relationship that we found between poaching and ivory prices suggests that tackling demand for illegal wildlife in end-markets is a key part of the puzzle.</p>
<p>We suggest that tackling elephant poaching, and indeed the broader illegal wildlife trade, requires dealing with the wider systemic challenges of human development, corruption and consumer demand. It is not enough to just focus on actions traditionally defined as “wildlife conservation”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197349/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Kuiper receives funding from the South African National Research Foundation and the University of Cape Town Research Council. This work arises from a consultancy from the UN CITES Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants programme, to E.J. Milner-Gulland and Tim Kuiper (CITES project S-598), which was funded by the European Union. The consultancy brief was to identify and analyse covariates of illegal killing across MIKE sites, and a peer-reviewed paper was one of the planned outputs</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>This work arises from a consultancy from the UN CITES Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants programme, to E.J. Milner-Gulland and Tim Kuiper (CITES project S-598), which was funded by the European Union. The consultancy brief was to identify and analyse covariates of illegal killing across MIKE sites, and a peer-reviewed paper was one of the planned outputs. Potentially relevant group memberships: I am currently a Trustee of WWF-UK and a member of the IUCN-SSC Sustainable Use and Livelihoods specialist group.</span></em></p>The findings suggest that poaching rates are lower where there is strong national governance and levels of local human development are higher.Timothy Kuiper, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Cape TownEleanor Jane Milner-Gulland, Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1897412022-08-31T16:56:08Z2022-08-31T16:56:08ZMikhail Gorbachev: southern Africans have a special reason to thank him<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482092/original/file-20220831-11-td7z0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mikhail Gorbachev at his news conference following a summit with US President Ronald Reagan in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1986. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Bryn Colton/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The whole world has much to thank Mikhail Gorbachev for. As <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-consequential-but-ultimately-tragic-figure-last-leader-of-the-ussr-mikhail-gorbachev-dies-aged-91-189676">many have pointed out</a> since <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-31/ex-soviet-leader-mikhail-gorbachev-dead-at-91/101389174">his death in Moscow earlier this week</a>, Gorbachev – the last leader of the Soviet Union – did more than anyone to bring the Cold War to an end peacefully, reducing the threat that nuclear weapons might be used. </p>
<p>He allowed the countries of Eastern Europe to move out of the Soviet orbit and towards democracy in 1989. And he tried to set Russia on the path to a more democratic society. His actions led to the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. </p>
<p>Though Vladimir Putin views that break-up <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-historical-russia-soviet-breakup-ukraine/31606186.html">as a very negative development</a>, most have welcomed it. </p>
<p>Southern Africans have a special reason to thank Gorbachev. He <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/grade-12-topic-4-end-cold-war-and-new-global-world-order-1989-present">helped bring apartheid to an end</a>. He did this both directly and indirectly.</p>
<h2>Pivotal interventions</h2>
<p>The assistance that the Soviet Union provided to both the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia and Umkhonto we Sizwe was essential in enabling them to fight armed struggles against the South African regime. Without that assistance the South West Africa People’s Organisation and the African National Congress might not have survived in exile, or ultimately come to power. </p>
<p>But it was not those armed struggles that brought them to power. That was made possible in part by the fact that from 1988 the balance of forces in the region changed. In that Gorbachev played a major role. </p>
<p>Soon after taking over as general secretary of the central committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985, he decided that the Soviet Union should withdraw from regional wars in which it was engaged, most notably in <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-to-withdraw-from-afghanistan">Afghanistan</a> and <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203874240-15/angola-namibia-crisis-1988-resolution-chris-saunders">Angola</a>. </p>
<p>He then authorised his diplomats to engage with the Americans to help mediate a negotiated settlement for Angola. They assisted in that process, which led to an agreement being reached in December 1988 that provided for the withdrawal of the Cuban military from Angola and the independence of Namibia. </p>
<p>The Soviet Union then participated in the joint commission that was set up as a result of that agreement to ensure it was implemented. When a crisis in April 1989 threatened its implementation, the Soviets again worked with the Americans to help defuse the crisis, after which Namibia moved towards independence with the assistance of the United Nations.</p>
<p>By then the Soviet Union had made it clear that it was in favour of a negotiated settlement in South Africa. At the same time, the communist ideology that had underpinned the Soviet Union and its satellite countries was crumbling.</p>
<p>The success of the Namibian transition helped make possible the South African one that followed. But it was also the collapse of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe, and the removal of what South Africa’s National Party government had seen as a communist threat, that made it possible for the new President of South Africa, FW de Klerk, to take his party with him when he agreed to open the door to a negotiated settlement. </p>
<p>The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union destroyed what remaining credibility the idea of a <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/apartheid-crime-against-humanity-unfolding-total-strategy-1948-1989">“total onslaught”</a> still had in National Party circles and reduced fears, both in those circles and in Western capitals, that the South African Communist Party would control the ANC if it were to come to power. </p>
<p>Though de Klerk initially hoped for a power-sharing arrangement, even such a settlement, which turned out not to be possible, meant the end of apartheid and white minority rule. </p>
<h2>Unexpected outcomes</h2>
<p>Like Gorbachev, De Klerk was a reformer whose domestic reforms led <a href="https://inews.co.uk/opinion/fw-de-klerk-south-africa-last-apartheid-president-mikhail-gorbachev-1295872">to unexpected consequences</a>.</p>
<p>When De Klerk made his breakthrough speech <a href="https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02039/04lv02103/05lv02104/06lv02105.htm">in February 1990</a>, unbanning the ANC and announcing that Nelson Mandela would be released from prison unconditionally, he made much of what had happened in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in late 1989. He said that events there had weakened “the capacity of organisations which were previously supported strongly from those quarters”. </p>
<p>Without Gorbachev those changes would not have taken place, and without them it is unlikely that De Klerk would have moved as he did at that time.</p>
<p>By the end of the 1980s, internal pressures, most particularly from mass resistance, and a variety of external pressures from the west, including sanctions, were undermining the apartheid regime. </p>
<p>But of all the external factors that helped lead to the ending of apartheid in 1994, the collapse of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the process leading to the end of the Soviet Union must count among the most important. </p>
<p>And we have Gorbachev to thank for that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Saunders does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>External changes, including the end of the Cold War, helped lead to the ending of apartheid. Gorbachev played a major role in that process.Chris Saunders, Emeritus Professor, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1841892022-07-12T15:06:09Z2022-07-12T15:06:09ZAfrica is a treasure trove of medicinal plants: here are seven that are popular<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469755/original/file-20220620-16-wmjtqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The pink periwinkle is used as a tonic and emetic for the treatment of many health conditions. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Jekesai Njikizana/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Plants have directly contributed to the development of important drugs. The antimalarial treatment artemisinin, pain medication morphine, and cancer chemotherapy taxol are just three examples of drugs derived from plants. Africa is endowed with up to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25065751">45,000</a> plant species – about <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/548007a.pdf">25%</a> of the world’s plant genetic resources. More than 5,000 plant species from this enormous <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/02/14/biodiversity">African resource</a> are used in traditional medicines. Medicinal plant specialists Associate Professor Adeyemi Aremu and Professor Nox Makunga highlight some of these plants.</em> </p>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473393/original/file-20220711-14-ezom1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473393/original/file-20220711-14-ezom1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473393/original/file-20220711-14-ezom1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473393/original/file-20220711-14-ezom1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473393/original/file-20220711-14-ezom1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473393/original/file-20220711-14-ezom1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473393/original/file-20220711-14-ezom1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473393/original/file-20220711-14-ezom1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Artemisia afra.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dr Marietjie Stander</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2><em>Artemisia afra</em> Jacq. ex Willd. (African wormwood)</h2>
<p><em>Artemisia afra</em> is the only species in its genus that is indigenous to the African continent. It’s often regarded as a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0254629908003165">potential flagship</a> plant because of its high popularity and diverse uses in African traditional medicine.
African wormwood has been used for coughs, colds, influenza and malaria. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2019.112127">Scientific evidence</a> of its antimicrobial, anti-depressant, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects has been reported. African wormwood gained <a href="https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210216/Artemisia-plant-extracts-show-potential-anti-SARS-CoV-2-activity-in-vitro.aspx">global interest</a> when it was promoted as having <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53484298">potential</a> to treat COVID-19 and was tested in <a href="https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12985-021-01651-8">laboratory</a> <a href="https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12985-021-01651-8">studies</a>. The extracts had some degree of inhibitory activity against feline coronavirus and SARS-CoV-2. But this requires further clinical study to reach a valid conclusion. </p>
<p>The traditional uses and increasing popularity of African wormwood have resulted in a number of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874119324560?via%3Dihub">commercial herbal products</a>. But with insufficient clinical data, it’s not yet known whether African wormwood is a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874119324560?via%3Dihub">treasure chest</a> of new drugs.</p>
<h2><em>Catharanthus roseus</em> (L.) G.Don</h2>
<p>This plant is also known as bright eyes, Cape periwinkle, graveyard plant, Madagascar periwinkle, old maid, or pink periwinkle. It is native and endemic to Madagascar. The plant is <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/617459/">commonly used</a> as a tonic and emetic for the treatment of many health conditions including rheumatism, diabetes, and skin-related and venereal diseases.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469745/original/file-20220620-22-8hm7gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469745/original/file-20220620-22-8hm7gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469745/original/file-20220620-22-8hm7gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469745/original/file-20220620-22-8hm7gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469745/original/file-20220620-22-8hm7gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469745/original/file-20220620-22-8hm7gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469745/original/file-20220620-22-8hm7gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Catharanthus roseus, commonly known as bright eyes, Cape periwinkle, graveyard plant, Madagascar periwinkle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Pink periwinkle has <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7080/8/4/80">several phytochemicals</a> which are associated with antioxidant, antimicrobial, antidiabetic and anticancer properties. Alkaloids remain <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/617459/">one of the signature</a>. Two of its <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00253-020-10592-1">alkaloids</a>, vincristine and vinblastine, have been extensively explored by the pharmaceutical industry. These two alkaloids were the first <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7080/8/4/80">plant-derived anticancer</a> agents deployed for clinical use.</p>
<h2><em>Griffonia simplicifolia</em> (DC.) Baill. (Griffonia, Atooto, gbogbotri, kajya, kanya, kwakuo-aboto)</h2>
<p><em>Griffonia simplicifolia</em> is a woody climbing shrub. It is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874121004293?via%3Dihub">native</a> to west and central African countries including Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Togo. In African traditional medicine, the seeds are reputed to exert several medicinal effects and have been explored as an aphrodisiac, and a remedy for diarrhoea, stomach ache and dysentery.</p>
<p>The plant’s chemical properties have been studied extensively. It has been found to contain <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187553641360059X?via%3Dihub">rich phytochemicals</a> with enormous pharmaceutical value. Particularly, the seeds are known as an excellent source of 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan (commercially called <a href="https://go.drugbank.com/drugs/DB02959">oxitriptan</a>) which the body uses to produce serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter which is known to affect sleep, appetite, pain and mood. It plays an important role in treating depression, insomnia, obesity and related health conditions, especially those associated with mental health.</p>
<p>The seed of <em>Griffonia simplicifolia</em> remains one of the most reliable and abundant sources. Commercial interest has increased over the years. Based on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874121004293?via%3Dihub">recent estimates</a>, the market value for annual bulk seed extract for the plant is between US$32 million and US$100 million and demand is expected to grow at 7% per year.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469747/original/file-20220620-12-unvc54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469747/original/file-20220620-12-unvc54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469747/original/file-20220620-12-unvc54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469747/original/file-20220620-12-unvc54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469747/original/file-20220620-12-unvc54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469747/original/file-20220620-12-unvc54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469747/original/file-20220620-12-unvc54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sceletium tortuosum or Kanna blooming.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2><em>Sceletium tortuosum</em> (L.) N.E.Br. (kanna, kougoed)</h2>
<p>Kanna is an endemic South African succulent. It is sparsely distributed in semi-arid areas and used for conditions relating to stress, depression, pain and anxiety. Mesembrine-<a href="https://gaiastore.eu/en/news/kanna-extracts-and-effective-alkaloids-their-properties-and-therapeutic-potential/">type alkaloids</a> are dominant and typically responsible for the pharmacological effects exerted by kanna as a psychoactive plant and mood stimulant. Zembrin® has been developed as a <a href="https://www.plthealth.com/product-catalog/zembrin">standardised extract</a> of the plant. It’s used as a dietary supplement with the potential to elevate mood, relieve stress and improve cognition. The use of this species stems from the traditions of the <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/9/2557/htm">Khoekhoe and San</a>. </p>
<p>Many other medicinal uses have been reported for this species as it can be used to treat headaches, abdominal pains and respiratory ailments. Trimesemine™ (a commercially available extract high in concentrations of mesembrine) has been shown to act as a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378874115302348?via=ihub">monoamine releaser</a>, by increasing serotonin, a chemical messenger that is produced by the body that is also known to regulate the mood. It is potentially useful for attention deficit and other central nervous system disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.</p>
<h2><em>Strophanthus gratus</em> (Wall.and Hook.) Baill. (Climbing oleander)</h2>
<p><em>Strophanthus gratus</em>, a vigorous evergreen climbing shrub, occurs in tropical regions from Senegal to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In traditional medicine, climbing oleander has been used to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23312025.2019.1710431">treat</a> snake bites, sores, gonorrhoea, constipation and fever. The root is claimed to be an aphrodisiac.</p>
<p>Cardiac glycosides, which are organic compounds that increase the output force of the heart, are the signature compounds in the plant. Particularly, <a href="https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/html/10.1055/s-0037-1601207">ouabain</a> has been identified as the main glycoside which is dominant in the seed. </p>
<p>Ouabain, a cardio glycoside, was isolated because of the way climbing oleander is used in traditional medicine. It’s now used as a treatment for heart failure and arrhythmias or irregular heartbeat. Recent studies have also found a novel use that can prove relevant for <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4033509/">metastatic</a> prostate <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tox.22834">cancer</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469748/original/file-20220620-13-i39wxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469748/original/file-20220620-13-i39wxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469748/original/file-20220620-13-i39wxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469748/original/file-20220620-13-i39wxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469748/original/file-20220620-13-i39wxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469748/original/file-20220620-13-i39wxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469748/original/file-20220620-13-i39wxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Pelargonium sidoides also known as African geranium or South African geranium.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2><em>Pelargonium sidoides</em> DC (African geranium, South African geranium)</h2>
<p>This <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378874114000373">medicinal geranium</a> which is indigenous to South Africa and the Lesotho highlands has root tubers that are harvested for medicinal purposes. People use these tubers for diarrhoea, colic, gastritis, tuberculosis, cough, liver disorders, menstrual complaints, gonorrhoea, and many other medical conditions.</p>
<p>Clinical evidence suggests the effectiveness of extracts prepared from this species for the management of <a href="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006323.pub3/full">acute respiratory</a> tract infections. These data support the use of this medicinal geranium especially for alleviating symptoms of acute inflammation of the nasal cavity and sinuses and the common cold in adults. Umckaloabo® (EPs® 7630), a standardised proprietary extract, is one of most successfully produced plant-derived pharmaceuticals from this species. A number of <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/617459/">clinical studies</a> have shown it can reduce the symptoms of acute bronchitis. </p>
<p>Over-the-counter medications (Kaloba and Umcka) made from extracts of this pelargonium are now sold all over the world. Linctagon® is a <a href="https://www.linctagon.co.za/why-linctagon/">pelargonium-inspired</a> medication that is prescribed to assist the body to fight colds and flu by stimulating the immune system.</p>
<h2><em>Siphonochilus aethiopicus</em> (Schweinf.) B.L. Burtt (African ginger, Wild ginger)</h2>
<p>African ginger is native to western and southern tropical Africa, where it <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874120333456">occurs</a> in about 30 African countries. This wide range of distribution likely accounts for its use for a variety of health conditions. These include respiratory problems (like cough and influenza), pain, inflammation and malaria.</p>
<p>An analysis of the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0254629916304677">essential oil</a> of the root and rhizome of African ginger found about 70 compounds in the root and 60 compounds in the rhizomes. The bioactive compounds siphonochilone and eucalyptol found in the roots and rhizomes have demonstrated potential for treating asthma and allergic reactions. In a clinical trial, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954611103914326">eucalyptol</a>, which is present in root and rhizome essential oil, has demonstrated anti-inflammatory activity in bronchial asthma.</p>
<p>In South Africa, this species is classified as <a href="http://redlist.sanbi.org/species.php?species=2061-1">critically endangered</a> because it has been over-harvested for traditional medicine. This species is fast headed towards extinction in South Africa in the wild. <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/14/3/192">Cultivation</a> is strongly encouraged for its conservation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184189/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adeyemi Oladapo Aremu receives funding from the National Research Foundation, Pretoria, South Africa. He is a member of the Global Young Academy (GYA), Young Affiliate of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nox Makunga receives funding from the South African National Research Foundation, Pretoria.
</span></em></p>Thousands of plant species are used in African traditional medicine. Extracts from some of these plants are part of important pharmaceutical drugs.Adeyemi Oladapo Aremu, Associate professor, North-West UniversityNox Makunga, Associate Professor: Medicinal plant biotechnology, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.