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Writing the Ancestral River
“Writing the Ancestral River” is an illuminating biography of the Kowie River in the Eastern Cape. This tidal river runs through a formative meeting ground of peoples who have shaped South Africa’s history: Khoikhoi herders, Xhosa pastoralists, Dutch trekboers and British settlers. Their direct descendants in the area still interact in ways that have been decisively shaped by their shared history.
This is also a natural history of the river and its catchment area, where dinosaurs once roamed and cycads still grow. The natural world of the Kowie has felt the effects of human settlement, most strikingly through the development of harbour at the mouth of the river in the 19th century and a marina in the late 20th century, which have had a decisive and deleterious impact on the Kowie.
By focusing on this ‘little’ river, the book raises larger questions about colonialism, capitalism, ‘development’ and ecology. It asks us to consider the connections between social and environmental injustice. Acknowledging the past, and the inter-generational, racialised privileges, damages and denials it established and perpetuates, is necessary for any shared future.
This is also a natural history of the river and its catchment area, where dinosaurs once roamed and cycads still grow. The natural world of the Kowie has felt the effects of human settlement, most strikingly through the development of harbour at the mouth of the river in the 19th century and a marina in the late 20th century, which have had a decisive and deleterious impact on the Kowie.
By focusing on this ‘little’ river, the book raises larger questions about colonialism, capitalism, ‘development’ and ecology. It asks us to consider the connections between social and environmental injustice. Acknowledging the past, and the inter-generational, racialised privileges, damages and denials it established and perpetuates, is necessary for any shared future.
193 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 10, 2024
This is a scholarly yet very readable book for anyone who has the environment at heart and who has more than a passing interest in Eastern Cape colonial history. Having looked forward to reading 'The Ancestral River' I have not been disappointed. The writing is elegant (many literary quotations enhance the author's own beautiful descriptions of the Kowie River landscape); she constructs this work very deliberately and her point of view comes across forcibly.
As someone who lives on the 1840 property of the author's gt-gt-grandfather, 1820 Settler The Hon Wm Cock (whom she roundly condemns), I enjoy the vistas he had of the Kowie mouth that he 're-positioned' at great cost and effort - and more than that, I respect the achievements of this 19th century entrepreneur and we love and care for the property he and successive owners developed. We are not Cock family and despite (or because of?) this, it is a privilege to live above the still-pristine riverbank vegetation, conserve it, and share the history of this place. We have even hosted many descendant visitors.
William Cock certainly had his detractors. He was ambitious, self-motivated and determined to do things his way. I would, however, never have called him 'a warmonger'. Indeed, I question that he had any active role in fighting on the frontier. He was even in England at the outbreak of the Sixth Frontier War. He was a businessman and politician with some sense of civic duty: he gave to the church and helped develop various amenities in Grahamstown. His primary motive in 'moving' the River and developing the Port was to open up trade and grow the local economy. His motives in the 'Neptune' incident may not have been entirely altruistic - though Ely Gledhill and others contradict Jacklyn Cock's view - but he did play a part in breaking the provisioning embargo on the benighted shipload of desperate and starving convicts in 1849. Why does she feel it unlikely he felt any compassion - after citing Liz Stanley's caution 'any biographer's view is socially located and necessarily partial' on p94? Similarly, what proof that Wm C was among the destructive group of 'Gentlemen' (p95)? It's hard to imagine that, given his social standing in 1850/1 and his multifarious business and parliamentary interests he would've joined a group of vengeful young vandals. A huge assumption to have made - but this next one is insidious. 'Army butcher' unfairly suggests WC was some kind of murderer, when he merely became known for winning a contract with his colleague Lee for supplying meat to the army (it was in fact Lee, not Wm Cock, who was the butcher in the partnership).
Calamities and wars do indeed bring financial opportunities for those who manufacture arms, etc; in pandemics, those who sell hand-sanitizers and masks also make a lot of money. We live in a world of opportunism. Settlers from the British Isles thought nothing of developing rivers into ports and small harbours because that had been done in their Home Country; the age of protecting natural resources only came much later.
I was relieved when the negativity directed at entrepreneurs, capitalists et al (the author's own mother was not immune from criticism) changed towards the end of the book. Suddenly I had much common ground with the writer. Does she know that the 'Eco Champs' concept in KZN has taken root here in Nemato? Had she attended the community meeting(s) in 2023 where concern and plans were shared by all to clean up the Kowie River, she would have been heartened, as many of us were. And the Centenary Park river development she seemed so sure was underway will be fought very hard by Port Alfredans. Yes, we can acknowledge - but also explain - the damage done by powerful elites to our environment, but we cannot turn back the clock. Let us not deny that the 'developed' Kowie River and marina have also made positive improvements in our town's economy and in the lives of many (elites and poor alike). It deserves to be kept clean and cultural interests need protection. Yes, please let us preserve the untouched estuaries and rivers that are left and let us give entities of nature 'rights' - and fight for these.
As someone who lives on the 1840 property of the author's gt-gt-grandfather, 1820 Settler The Hon Wm Cock (whom she roundly condemns), I enjoy the vistas he had of the Kowie mouth that he 're-positioned' at great cost and effort - and more than that, I respect the achievements of this 19th century entrepreneur and we love and care for the property he and successive owners developed. We are not Cock family and despite (or because of?) this, it is a privilege to live above the still-pristine riverbank vegetation, conserve it, and share the history of this place. We have even hosted many descendant visitors.
William Cock certainly had his detractors. He was ambitious, self-motivated and determined to do things his way. I would, however, never have called him 'a warmonger'. Indeed, I question that he had any active role in fighting on the frontier. He was even in England at the outbreak of the Sixth Frontier War. He was a businessman and politician with some sense of civic duty: he gave to the church and helped develop various amenities in Grahamstown. His primary motive in 'moving' the River and developing the Port was to open up trade and grow the local economy. His motives in the 'Neptune' incident may not have been entirely altruistic - though Ely Gledhill and others contradict Jacklyn Cock's view - but he did play a part in breaking the provisioning embargo on the benighted shipload of desperate and starving convicts in 1849. Why does she feel it unlikely he felt any compassion - after citing Liz Stanley's caution 'any biographer's view is socially located and necessarily partial' on p94? Similarly, what proof that Wm C was among the destructive group of 'Gentlemen' (p95)? It's hard to imagine that, given his social standing in 1850/1 and his multifarious business and parliamentary interests he would've joined a group of vengeful young vandals. A huge assumption to have made - but this next one is insidious. 'Army butcher' unfairly suggests WC was some kind of murderer, when he merely became known for winning a contract with his colleague Lee for supplying meat to the army (it was in fact Lee, not Wm Cock, who was the butcher in the partnership).
Calamities and wars do indeed bring financial opportunities for those who manufacture arms, etc; in pandemics, those who sell hand-sanitizers and masks also make a lot of money. We live in a world of opportunism. Settlers from the British Isles thought nothing of developing rivers into ports and small harbours because that had been done in their Home Country; the age of protecting natural resources only came much later.
I was relieved when the negativity directed at entrepreneurs, capitalists et al (the author's own mother was not immune from criticism) changed towards the end of the book. Suddenly I had much common ground with the writer. Does she know that the 'Eco Champs' concept in KZN has taken root here in Nemato? Had she attended the community meeting(s) in 2023 where concern and plans were shared by all to clean up the Kowie River, she would have been heartened, as many of us were. And the Centenary Park river development she seemed so sure was underway will be fought very hard by Port Alfredans. Yes, we can acknowledge - but also explain - the damage done by powerful elites to our environment, but we cannot turn back the clock. Let us not deny that the 'developed' Kowie River and marina have also made positive improvements in our town's economy and in the lives of many (elites and poor alike). It deserves to be kept clean and cultural interests need protection. Yes, please let us preserve the untouched estuaries and rivers that are left and let us give entities of nature 'rights' - and fight for these.
January 3, 2019
Accessible, informative. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews