Biographical Dictionary of Contributors to the Natural History of the Free State and Lesotho, A

Rodney Moffett

Description

This work briefly records the lives and achievements of 502 men and women who contributed, or are still contributing, to the natural history of the Free State and Lesotho, between 1829 and 2013.

Sujets

• Littérature Sud-Africaine
• Littérature sud-africaine
• Lesotho
• Culture
• HIStory
• État-Libre
• Flora
• Society
• Natural history
• Free State
• HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I
• Fauna
• Biographical dictionary
• Biology
• Geography
• Lesoto

Informations

• Publié par: UJ Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781920382353
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 15 Mo

Extrait

A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY NATURAL HISTORY OF CONTRIBUTORS TO THE OF THE FREE STATE AND LESOTHO

RODNEY MOFFETT

Cover image: Bongani Ntloko seated among a population of rare and endangered spiral aloe,Aloe polyphylla, in the Maloti Mountains, Lesotho. Photo by B. Ntloko.

A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF CONTRIBUTORS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FREE STATE AND LESOTHO

RODNEY MOFFETT

A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF CONTRIBUTORS TO THE

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FREE STATE AND LESOTHO

Rodney Mofett

Published by Sun Media Bloemfontein (Pty) Ltd.

Imprint: SunBonani Scholar

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Copyright © 2014 Sun Media Bloemfontein and the Author

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Views reLected in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher.

First edition 2014

978-1-920382-34-6 978-1-920382-35-3 (e-book) DOI: https://doi.org/10.18820/9781920382353

Set in 8.5/12 Optimum Cover design, typesetting and production by Sun Media Bloemfontein

Research, academic and reference works are published under this imprint in print and electronic format.

This printed copy can be ordered directly from: [e-mail] The e-book is available at the following link: https://doi.org/10.18820/9781920382353

This work is dedicated to Professor David Ambrose, KCMMOM, MBE, of Ladybrand, Free State. Formerly a member of the Faculty of Science and of the Institute of Education at the National University of Lesotho, his bibliographies and many other publications on Lesotho and its people provided most of the information on the Lesotho naturalists in this dictionary.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD ...........................................................................................................................................................

INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................................

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .....................................................................................................................................

REFERENCES ...........................................................................................................................................................

ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................................................................................

CONTRIBUTORS ...................................................................................................................................................

APPENDIX1............................................................................................................................................................

APPENDIX2............................................................................................................................................................

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As you enter the little town of Bethlehem on the Senekal road to Harrismith, you will find something unusual: a cemetery to the British dead. I stopped there one time and toured this unusual site in the heart of the Free State. Memorial plaques included circular, grey structures on which appeared the words “For King and Empire” with dates of death around 1901. These gravesites were interspersed with those of Boers and other locals and before long, you got the sense that lives and deaths of once mortal enemies were intertwined in history and in “the present past.” To understand South Africa’s traumas and triumphs, we have to retrace how we got here and how, what a visiting Indian scholar called “your entanglements”, shape who we are, what we have become, and how we can still chart a better future.

All of these thoughts ran through my mind as I read the outlines of the project to give this country a biographical dictionary of the natural history of the Free State and Lesotho. This is a rare gift, an account of how our regional flora and fauna came to describe us and define us. From butterfly collections to botanical exports from central South Africa to the herbarium in Kew, this book no doubt shows how human interactions were both shaped by and contributed towards the plant and animal life of the Free State.

We are not alone and we struggle as South Africans to learn how to live and learn and love together. Is it possible, through reading this book, that we might gain more insight into our common bonds of the past and our common destinies into the future by observing the lives of things? Was it not the biblical wise man that instructed, “go to the ant … and learn?” This is what fascinates me about the potential of this book, the possibility for a bio-ethnography of the region to emerge. That is, a set of insights that link ideas, culture, society, geography, history and biology in ways that open new insights into the past and future. In other words, a book that merely ticks off the contributions of individuals to the natural history of the region would lose the intellectual opportunities that such a work promises.

Perhaps this biographical dictionary could also recast our thinking about these manufactured borders that separated the Free State from Lesotho. After all, plants and animals hardly grow and flourish according to these human inventions that create new nations when previously there were none. This is what I mean by bio-ethnographies that link politics, geography and botany, for example, in deliberate conversation with each other.

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A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF CONTRIBUTORS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FREE STATE AND LESOTHO

My ambition for transdisciplinary thought might be running ahead of more modest goals for this book but I was enticed by the many fields traversed in this wonderful contribution to our understanding of our (un)natural histories. There is certainly material here for further research and inquiry into our botanical and zoological pasts and the role of human agency in creating and recreating the kind of society we have inherited.

With that prospect in sight, this is already a great book that will help us understand ourselves, and others.

Professor Jonathan D. Jansen, Ph.D.

Vice-Chancellor and Rector,

University of the Free State

Bloemfontein.

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INTRODUCTION

The world’s most fascinating subject is, without doubt, the individual

— Kader Asmal.

The late Kader Asmal’s words find an echo in the Basotho saying “Leloko ha le ya baneng le a fela”, which translates loosely as “When our heroes have departed, only their names and outstanding contributions will remain”.

These words capture, in a nutshell, the rationale for this biographical dictionary: to gather and briefly record the lives and achievements of the many men and women who contributed, or are still contributing, to the natural history of the Free State and Lesotho.

To some extent, botanical collectors have been covered in the overview workBotanical nd Exploration of Southern Africa, by Gunn and Codd (1981) and its 2 edition (Glen & Germishuizen, 2010). However, the latter omits many Free State and Lesotho botanists. There are also no similar reference works documenting past and present scientists and collectors in fields other than botany. A biographical dictionary that encompassed all fields of natural history seemed an excellent and necessary means of filling these gaps. Besides being of general historical interest in highlighting the work of former scientists, the inclusion of active contributors and their work makes this dictionary an important reference source for colleagues, fellow workers and future researchers. The scope is limited to the Free State and Lesotho for logistical reasons – to have covered the entire country and Lesotho would have taken too long, and produced a doorstopper of a book. It is hoped that other historians of the natural sciences will be inspired to compile similar regional archives.

The hunt for natural scientists in these regions uncovered many fascinating treasures, as well as important details of lesser-known or forgotten collectors. Apart from the more famous early naturalists and collectors, such as Adulphe Delegorgue, Ludwig Krebs, Joseph Orpen, Johan Wahlberg and the so-called father of South African zoology, Andrew Smith, the following are just a few examples among the dozens of less well-known or unacknowledged contributors who deserve to be remembered.

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Seidenstecher, a Prussian who collected butterflies – he was the first European to visit King Moshoeshoe, as early as 1829, and is credited with giving the Basotho their first horses. He subsequently disappeared on his way to Natal, possibly murdered.

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