Environmental History in Southern Africa

The observatory is conscious of the fact that a number of indigenous practices akin to the sustenance of the environment like with other institutions on the continent, may have been disrupted, repressed or simply transformed with the advent of colonialism and the rise of global capitalism.
Our research therefore, locates itself at the intersection of indigenous concepts of ecological systems and multiple histories of the environment in colonial and postcolonial contexts. Special focus with regard to the interface between indigenous conservation approaches and Western / modern ones includes an examination of the impact of modernity and technology on the environment over an extended historical period, and the politics of nature conservation and animal reserves in Southern Africa.