Government Cattle: Anti-Wildlife Politics in East and Central Africa

Schauer, Jeff

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-02883-1_4

Jeff Schauer⁴

Part of the book series: African Histories and Modernities ((AHAM))

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Abstract

This chapter explores multiple iterations of “anti-wildlife” politics and critiques offered by African subjects and others of colonial conservation regimes. These critiques began as efforts to reform, as when Nyasaland farmers and missionaries petitioned against the game laws, but embraced forms of civil disobedience and criticism of colonial intermediaries, as when Northern Rhodesian hunters flouted the game laws and attacked its enforcers. In colonial representative councils, African members openly associated wildlife protection with colonialism, offering an outright nationalist critique. Conservationists responded by developing forms of community conservation to blunt these critiques and walling off some protected areas as national parks.

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Notes

1.
Adamson to Hale, March 23, 1951, KNA KW23/175.
2.
George Adamson, Bwana Game: the Life Story of George Adamson (London: Collins and Harvill Press, 1968), 190.
3.
Adamson to Hale, March 23, 1951, KNA KW23/175.
4.
Hale to Adamson, April 4, 1951, KNA KW 23/175.
5.
Doyle, Crisis; Steinhart, Black Poachers; Stuart Marks, Life as a Hunt.
6.
Steinhart, Black Poachers; Hughes, Moving the Maasai.
7.
For example, Jonathan Derrick, Africa’s ‘Agitators’: Militant Anti-Colonialism in Africa and the West, 1918–1939 (London: Hurst & Company, 2008); Joe Lunn, Memoirs of the Maelstrom: a Senegalese Oral History of the First World War (Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1999); Tony Ballantyne and Antoinette Burton, Empires and the Reach of the Global, 1870–1945 (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012).
8.
Nyasaland Annual Report 1927 (Zomba: Government Printer, 1927).
9.
“An ordinance relating to game and wild animals,” Laws of Nyasaland Protectorate, No. 1 of 1927 (Zomba: Government Printer, 1927).
10.
John McCracken, A History of Malawi, 1859–1966 (Woodbridge: James Currey, 2012).
11.
Bruce Fetter, “Malawi: Everybody’s Hinterland,” African Studies Review, 25:2/3 (1982), 79–116: 82.
12.
Chijere Chirwa Wiseman, “Child and Youth Labour on the Nyasaland Plantations, 1890–1953,” Journal of Southern African Studies, 19:4 (December 1993), 662–680: 667.
13.
See John McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi 1875–1940 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977); Andrew Porter, Religion versus Empire? (New York: Manchester University Press, 2004); Landeg White, Magomero: Portrait of an African Village (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
14.
Henry Drummond, Tropical Africa (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons: 1908), 18–21.
15.
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16.
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17.
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18.
Pearce, confidential notes on Nyasaland, August 1913, NA CO525/119/6.
19.
Petition from the churches, NA CO525/119/6.
20.
Missionaries’ petition against the Game Ordinance, 1926, NA CO525/119/6.
21.
Nguludi Mission Report, March 7, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
22.
St Michael Catholic Mission Report, March 10, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
23.
Game Bill, Nyasaland, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
24.
Acting Provincial Commissioner (Central) to Provincial Commissioner, March 12, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
25.
Resident’s Report, Kota Kota, April 30, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
26.
Resident’s Report, Kota Kota, April 30, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
27.
Nyasa Mission Report from Lukubula, March 19, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
28.
Governor to Amery, June 15, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
29.
House of Commons Debate, November 28, 1927, vol 211, cc 33–4; House of Commons Debate, November 24, 1927, vol 210, c 2085 W.
30.
Ormsby-Gore to Bowring, December 8, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
31.
R. S. Hynde to Acting Chief Secretary, February 24, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
32.
R. S. Hynde to Acting Chief Secretary, February 24, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
33.
“Common Sense,” Nyasaland Times, March 15, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
34.
“The Boma Cattle,” Nyasaland Times, October 21, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
35.
“The Game Bill,” Nyasaland Times, November 5, 1927, NA CO525/119/11.
36.
G. H. Wilson, Archdeacon of the Shire to Dr. Hetherwick, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
37.
Copy of resolutions passed at Cholo Planters’ Association meeting, January 16, 1927, NA CO525/119/6; Secretary of the Nyasaland Planters’ Association to Chief Secretary, January 21, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
38.
Copy of resolutions passed at Cholo Planters’ Association meeting, January 16, 1927, NA CO525/119/6.
39.
Nyasaland Governor to Colonial Secretary, October 24, 1928, NA CO525/123/1.
40.
Nyasaland Governor to Colonial Secretary, May 9, 1928; Internal Memo, April 28, 1928, NA CO525/123/1.
41.
In Northern Zambia, D. C. Gordon Tredwell supposedly put an entire village on trial to discourage hunting of the black lechwe herds. D. G. Coe and E. C. Greenall, Kaunda’s Gaoler: Memories of a District Officer in Northern Rhodesia and Zambia (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 94.
42.
Pitman, Report.
43.
“Oriental Sik and Red Lechwe Animals in danger,” Guardian, March 28, 1955.
44.
W. F. H. Ansell, “The Declining Red Lechwe,” Oryx 3, (1955–6); SPCA Secretary to Member, October 15, 1957, NAZ SEC6/16.
45.
Grimwood to Provincial Commissioner (Southern), June 9, 1956, NAZ SEC5/79.
46.
Fraser Darling Report, Extracts, 1958, 82, 84, RCMS 348/2/8/1, Cambridge UL.
47.
Grimwood to Member, January 25, 1956, NAZ SEC6/16.
48.
District Commissioner (Namwala) Tour Report, May 22, 1956, NAZ SEC6/16.
49.
Extract from the Report on the Joint Tour by the District Commissioners (Namwala, Mazabuka), September 14–23, 1955, NAZ SEC6/16.
50.
Undated internal memo, February 1956, NAZ SEC6/16.
51.
Acting Director of Veterinary Services to Member, April 21, 1956, NAZ SEC6/16.
52.
District Commissioner (Namwala) Tour Report, May 22, 1956, NAZ SEC6/16.
53.
Extract from Report, September 14–23, 1955, NAZ SEC6/16.
54.
Provincial Commissioner to Secretary for Native Affairs, June 27, 1956, Memo in Office of the Member, August 22, 1956, NAZ SEC5/79.
55.
Telephone Record, Provincial Commissioner Livingstone, May 11, 1957, NAZ SEC6/16.
56.
Ibid.
57.
Provincial Game Officer (Livingstone) to Game Department Director, July 3, 1957, NAZ SEC6/16.
58.
Provincial Game Officer (Livingstone) to Game Department Director, July 3, 1957, Report on the Siamusonde/Nalubamba Chila, June 20, 1957, NAZ SEC6/16.
59.
Hansard (Northern Rhodesia), Questions to the Member for Natural Resources, April 2, 1958; Provincial Commissioner (Southern) to Member, January 27, 1958, NAZ SEC 5/79.
60.
Parnell to Member, August 7, 1957, NAZ SEC6/16.
61.
Governor to Chief Mukobela, May 5, 1958, NAZ SEC6/16.
62.
District Commissioner (Namwala) to Provincial Commissioner (Southern), March 28, 1958, NAZ SEC5/79.
63.
Tobias Haller, The Contested Floodplain: Institutional Change of the Commons in the Kafue Flats, Zambia (Lexington Books, 2012).
64.
District Commissioner (Mazabuka) to Provincial Commissioner (Southern), NAZ SEC6/16.
65.
Provincial Game Officer (Livingstone) to Director, July 3, 1957, NAZ SEC6/16.
66.
Memo, Kenneth Kaunda, September 17, 1964, NAZ EP1/1/21.
67.
J. W. Davidson, The Northern Rhodesian Legislative Council (London: Faber & Faber, 1947), 18.
68.
“Kenya Legislative Council: Polling for European Seats,” Times (London), April 4, 1934.
69.
Between 1953 and 1963, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland were part of an imperial federation.
70.
Minutes of Eastern Province African Provincial Council Meetings, 1952–1956, NAZ SEC5/35.
71.
Provincial Commissioner (Eastern) to Secretary of Native Affairs, February 18, 1952, NAZ SEC5/36.
72.
NAZ. SEC 5/35; SEC 5/34; SEC 5/38.
73.
Questions and answers on Game, Eastern Province African Provincial Councils, 1955, NAZ SEC5/33; Eastern Province African Provincial Council Minutes, 1952, NAZ SEC5/35; African Provincial Council meeting April 11–13, 1950, NAZ SEC 5/34.
74.
Record of Eastern Province African Provincial Council meeting, April 13–14, 1955, NAZ SEC5/34.
75.
Minutes of Eastern Province African Provincial Council Meeting, April 11–13, 1950, NAZ SEC 5/35; Minutes of Eastern Province African Provincial Council meeting, May 28–29, 1952, NAZ SEC 5/34.
76.
Minutes of Eastern Province African Provincial Council meeting, May 16–18, 1951, NAZ SEC5/34.
77.
Minutes of Eastern Province African Provincial Council meeting, May 28–29, 1956, NAZ SEC5/34.
78.
Record of Southern Province African Provincial Council meeting, April 10–13, 1956, NAZ SEC5/42.
79.
Kenya Legislative Council, 1948 to 1949, Third Session, December 16, 1948.
80.
Blower, Banagi Hill, 156–7.
81.
Kenya Legislative Council, 1949–1950, Fourth Session, December 15, 1949.
82.
Kenya Legislative Council, 1957, Second Session, November 7, 1957.
83.
Kenya Legislative Council, 1957, Second Session, October 24, 1957.
84.
Kenya Legislative Council, Motion, Game Policy for Kenya, December 10, 1959, 730–731.
85.
Kenya Legislative Council, Motion, Compensation Game Damage, November 21, 1957, 1030.
86.
Kenya Legislative Council, Motion, Compensation Game Damage, November 21, 1957, 1033.
87.
Kenya Legislative Council, July 11, 1961.
88.
Kenya Legislative Council, May 25, 1961.
89.
Kenya Legislative Council, October 19, 1961
90.
Tanganyika Legislative Council, 32nd Session, April 30 to June 6, 1957; May 29, 1957.
91.
Tanganyika Legislative Council, 36th Session, February 14, 1961, Mr. Buhatwa, Mr. Kundya, Mr. Tumbo, Mr. Hunter.
92.
Kenya Legislative Council, November 30, 1961.
93.
Kenya Legislative Council, July 20, 1962.
94.
Northern Rhodesia Legislative Council, The Fauna Conservation (Amendment) Bill 1962, August 21, 1962.
95.
Northern Rhodesia Legislative Council, Motions, Game and Fisheries Departments, July 22, 1959.
96.
Northern Rhodesia Legislative Council, Wildlife Policy Motion, July 26, 1961.
97.
Mr. Oda, Motion on Kipedo Valley National Park, February 8, 1967. Uganda Legislative Council Debates.
98.
Mr. C. B. Katiti, September 22, 1958. Uganda Legislative Council Debate.
99.
Mr. Oda, June 8, 1960, Game and Fisheries. Uganda Legislative Council Debate; Mr. Karegyesa, Alleged Game damage in north Kigezi, July 20, 1961. Uganda Legislative Council Debate.
100.
Mr. Babiiha, Controlled hunting area, July 19, 1961. Uganda Legislative Council Debate.
101.
For example, the London Conference in 1933, and a conference at Victoria Falls in 1950. Conference Proceedings, September 18–19, 1950, KNA KW1/84.
102.
Letters, 1949, KNA KW8/5.
103.
Ruben Matheka, “Antecedents to the Community Wildlife Conservation Programme in Kenya, 1946–1964,” Environment and History 11, 3 (August 2005): 239–267.
104.
Neumann, “Postwar Conservation Boom.”
105.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Report, 1947 (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1948).
106.
Keith Caldwell, “Report on Faunal Survey in Eastern and Central Africa,” August 14, 1947, KNA KW1/84.
107.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Report, 1943 (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1944).
108.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Reports, 1946 and 1947 (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1948).
109.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Reports, 1949 (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1950).
110.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Reports, 1955 (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1956).
111.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Reports, 1949 (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1950).
112.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Reports, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955. Visitor numbers hit 735 in 1955, with revenue reaching £500.
113.
Norman Carr, Valley of the Elephants: The Story of the Luangwa Valley and Its Wildlife (London: Collins, 1979), 15–16.
114.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Reports, 1954 (1955); Carr, Valley of the Elephants, 16.
115.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Reports, 1950 (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1951).
116.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Reports, 1957 (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1958).
117.
Tanganyika Territory Legislative Council meetings, 28th session, first volume of session 1953/54. Member for Agriculture and Natural Resources, November 17, 1953.
118.
Tanganyika Territory Legislative Council meetings, 28th session, first volume of session 1953/54. Member for Agriculture and Natural Resources, November 17, 1953.
119.
Game Department Annual Report, Colony and Protectorate of Kenya (Nairobi: Government Printer, 1961). The Narok project became the core of the Maasai Mara reserve.
120.
Minutes of the Nairobi National Park Advisory Committee, November 27, 1946, KNA KW13/31.
121.
Internal memoir, Cowie and Caldwell, April 14, 1953, KNA KW8/7.
122.
Proclamation NO. 3 of 1950, April 20. Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Reports, 1950 (Lusaka, Government Printer, 1951).
123.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Reports, 1953 (Lusaka, Government Printer, 1954).
124.
Proceedings of the Second National parks service conference, Nairobi, April 14–15, 1955, KNA KW6/54.
125.
Proceedings of the first Kenya National Parks Service conference, Nairobi, February 5–6, 1955, KNA KW6/54.
126.
Minutes of the Nairobi National Park Advisory Committee, August 26, 1947; Minutes of the Nairobi National Park Advisory Committee, February 2, 1948, KNA KW13/31.
127.
Minutes of the Nairobi National Park Advisory Committee, May 22, 1951, KNA KW13/31.
128.
Minutes of the Nairobi National Park Advisory Committee, November 26, 1953, KNA KW13/31.
129.
Notes from Chairman of the Forest Boundary Commission on the possible addition to Mt. Elgon Forest Reserve, October 27, 1948; Chairman of the Forest Boundary Commission, July 12, 1951; Forest Department to Cowie, October 1, 1951, KNA KW13/46.
130.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Reports, 1951 (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1952).
131.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Reports, 1955 (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1956); ZSL, Eustace Poles Journal, June 30, 1949.
132.
In particular, Shetler, Imagining Serengeti.
133.
Tanganyika Territory Legislative Council meetings, 32nd session. Mr. Baker, May 29, 1957
134.
Tanganyika Report on action taken to implement the London convention of 1933, 1952, KNA KW1/84.
135.
Kenya Wild Life Society, First Annual Report (1956), 5.
136.
Kenya Wild Life Society, First Annual Report (1956), 38.
137.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Report, 1952 (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1953).
138.
Northern Rhodesia Game and Tsetse Control Department Annual Reports, 1958 (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1959).
139.
“Buganda wants game control powers: ‘protectorate is too slow to act,’” Uganda Argus, May 11, 1960.
140.
Tanganyika Legislative Council, October 15, 1958, 45.

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University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA
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Schauer, J. (2019). Government Cattle: Anti-Wildlife Politics in East and Central Africa. In: Wildlife between Empire and Nation in Twentieth-Century Africa. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02883-1_4

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02883-1_4
Published: 05 December 2018
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
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Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02883-1
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