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Summary

Environmental History in Southern Africa

1. The environmental history of gold mining in South Africa: Focusing on environmental racism

Gold mining industry partly triggered the industrialization of South Africa and changed the international monetary system from silver standard to gold standard to some extents. Meanwhile, racism was developed in the gold mining and its relative sectors in South Africa. Previous studies mainly focused on its complex impact on South Africa from perspectives of socio-economic and cultural history. This presentation will focus on environmental racism in gold mining from perspective of environmental history. Although environmental racism as a concept concluded from the unequal racial relation in the US, South Africa fits it completely. In this presentation, concrete cases of environmental racism in various locations (gold mines, compounds, reserves and Bantustans, tailing dams in Rand Gold Rush) will be addressed at different stages (racial discrimination, segregation, apartheid).

2. The transformation of socio-economic relationships between the San and Ovawambo people since the mid-1950s

This paper evaluates the historical and contemporary social, cultural, and economic interactions between the !Xun and Hai||om San communities and the Ovawambo people in north-central Namibia since the mid-1950s. The San and Ovawambo have long co-existed in this region, traditionally as nomadic hunter-gatherers and agro-pastoralists, respectively. Based on intensive ethnographic research in Ohangwena and Oshikoto regions, this study analyzes the effect of Finnish missionary activities and the war of liberation on relationships, trade and bartering of goods between these communities up to 1990, the year of Namibia’s independence. Additionally, it examines post-independence transformations of ethnic identities, romantic relationships, discrimination, as well as poverty and economic disparities within and across these communities. By employing thematic analysis of interviews and participant observations, this paper explores the dynamics of interethnic relationship, livelihood and power structures, enhancing our understanding of social divisions and cohesion in multiethnic communities.

instructor

1. Dr. Maohong BAO
(Specially Appointed Professor, Center for Global History, Osaka University / Peking University)
2. Dr. Ndapewa Fenny Nakanyete
(Lecturer of Human Geography, Department of Environmental Science, University of Namibia)

Date & Venue

19 February 2025（Wednesday）
14:00‐17:00 (JSP)
Large-sized meeting room, 3F, Inamori Foundation Memorial Hall, Kyoto University

Language

English (no interpreter)

Program

14:00‐14:05　Introduction [Dr. Akira Takada (Professor, ASAFAS, Kyoto University)]
14:05‐15:05　The environmental history of gold mining in South Africa: Focusing on environmental racism [Dr. Maohong BAO (Specially Appointed Professor, Center for Global History, Osaka University / Peking University)]
15:05-15:15　Short break
15:15-16:15　The transformation of socio-economic relationships between the San and Ovawambo people since the mid-1950s [Dr. Ndapewa Fenny Nakanyete (Lecturer of Human Geography, Department of Environmental Science, University of Namibia)]
16:15-17:00　Discussion [Dr. Yanyin ZI (Assistant Professor, College of Intercultural Communication, Rikkyo University. Discussant)]

Eligibility

Everyone is welcome to attend.

Organized by

The Center for African Area Studies, Kyoto University

Co-hosted by

MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) “Ecological future making of childrearing in contact zones between hunter-gatherers and agro-pastoralists in Africa”

https://www.cci.jambo.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp/efm/en/

Contact

The Center for African Area Studies, Kyoto University

caaskyoto[at]gmail.com (please replace [at] with @)

Notes

There are no parking lots available. Please use public transport.