Hunting and power : class, race and privilege in the Eastern Cape and the Transvaal Lowveld, c. 1880-1905

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:This dissertation examines the identity of hunters, sportsmen and their associated communities intwo diverse regions of southern Africa during the last two decades of the nineteenth and the firstdecade of the twentieth centuries. It argues that this was a critical period during which new patternsof hunting and local tradition were created. In the eastern Cape districts of Albany, Fort Beaufortand Bathurst kudu and buffalo were hunted pursuant to permits granted in terms of the Game Act,1886. An analysis of the identity of those to whom these permits were granted or refused providesinsights into power, connection and influence amongst the English-speaking colonial elite of theregion who sought to control the right to hunt 'royal game. It also reveals their interaction withcivil servants who exercised the power to grant or withhold the privilege. Kudu were transferredfrom public to private ownership, through a process of 'privatization and 'commodification onenclosed private land, and there preserved for sporting purposes by the local rural gentry. Thesurvival – and even growth – in numbers of kudu in the region was achieved in these private spaces.Buffalo, on the other hand, were hunted into local extinction notwithstanding their protection as'royal game. In the north-eastern Transvaal Lowveld wild animals in public ownership werehunted by a wide variety of hunters with competing interests. The identity of the 'lost Lowveldhunters, previously hidden from history, including an important but overlooked component of eliterecreational hunters from the eastern Cape, is explored as a window into the history of hunting inthe region prior to the establishment of game reserves. Both the identity and networks of thesehunters and sportsmen are considered in the context of enduring concerns about race, class, gender and the exercise of power.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University