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While there are many studies of the global influence of crops and plants, this is perhaps the first social history based around a plant in South Africa. Plants are not quite historical actors in their own right, but their properties and potential help to shape human history. Plants such as prickly pear tend to be invisible to those who do not use them, or at least on the peripheries of people’s consciousness. This book explains why they were not peripheral to many people in the Eastern Cape and why a wild and sometimes invasive cactus from Mexico, that found its way around the world over 200 years ago, remains important to African women in shacks and small towns. The central tension at the heart of this history concerns different and sometimes conflicting human views of prickly pear. Some accepted or enjoyed its presence; others wished to eradicate it. While commercial livestock farmers initially found the plant enormously valuable, they came to see it as a scourge in the early twentieth century as it invaded farms and commonages. But for impoverished rural and small town communities of the Eastern Cape it was a godsend. In some places it still provides a significant income for poor black families. Debates about prickly pear – and its cultivated spineless variety – have played out in unexpected ways over the last century and more. Some scientists, once eradicationists, now see varieties of spineless cactus as plants for the future, eminently suited to a world beset by climate change and global warming. The book also addresses central problems around concepts of biodiversity. How do we balance, on the one hand, biodiversity conservation with, on the other, a recognition that plant transfers – and species transfers more generally – have been part of dynamic production systems that have historically underpinned human civilizations. American plants such as maize, cassava and prickly pear have been used to create incalculable value in Africa. Transferred plants are at the heart of many agricultural systems, as well as hybrid botanical and cultural landscapes, sometimes treasured, that are unlikely to be entirely reversed. Some of these plants displace local species, but are invaluable for local livelihoods. Prickly Pear explores this dilemma over the long term and suggests that there must be a significant cultural dimension to ideas about biodiversity. The content of Prickly Pear is based on intensive archival research, on interviews conducted in the Eastern Cape by the authors, as well as on their observations of how people in the area use and consume the plant.

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Social History

Plants

HISTORY

Histoire

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Environment

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Publié par	WITS University Press
Date de parution	01 novembre 2011
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781776141173
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	4 Mo

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PRICKLY PEAR
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF A PLANT IN THE EASTERN CAPE
Nowinile Ngcengele picking prickly pear fruit (Opuntia ficus-indica), near Grahamstown (see Chapter 1 )
PRICKLY PEAR
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF A PLANT IN THE EASTERN CAPE
WILLIAM BEINART
and
LUVUYO WOTSHELA
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg
South Africa
www.witspress.co.za
Copyright © William Beinart and Luvuyo Wotshela 2011
William Beinart is Rhodes Professor of Race Relations, African Studies Centre, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
Luvuyo Wotshela is a researcher, University of Fort Hare History Project, South Africa.
First published 2011
ISBN 978 1 86814 530 0
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, Act 98 of 1978.
Wits University Press and the authors have made every reasonable effort to contact and acknowledge copyright owners. Please notify the publishers should copyright not have been properly identified and acknowledged. Corrections will be incorporated in subsequent editions of the book.
Edited by Lara Jacob
Proofread by Julie Miller
Cover design by René de Wet
Layout and design by René de Wet
Printed and bound by Paarl Media
CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgements
Glossary of Scientific and Common names for Prickly Pear
Introduction
CHAPTER 1
Prickly Pear, Brewing and Local Knowledge in the Eastern Cape, 2000-2006
CHAPTER 2
The Spread of Prickly Pear, 1750-1900
CHAPTER 3
Early Debates about the Control of Prickly Pear
CHAPTER 4
Experiments with Cactus in the Cape: A Miracle Fodder? 1900-1930
CHAPTER 5
Eradicating an Invader: Entomologists, Cactoblastis and Cochineal, 1930-1960
CHAPTER 6
The Multi-Purpose Plant, 1950-2006
CHAPTER 7
Scientists and the Re-evaluation of Cactus for Fodder and Fruit, 1960-2006
CHAPTER 8
Afrikaners and the Cultural Revival of Prickly Pear
CHAPTER 9
Conclusion: Back to the Brewers
Appendix
Endnotes
Index
PREFACE
We have aimed to write this book on the prickly pear for a general audience. About half the book (especially Chapters 2-5) is largely based on documentary sources, and the other half (Chapters 1 and 6-9) largely on interviews and observation. We have tried to cross-reference throughout. We did some interviews separately and some jointly. We have decided not to identify the specific interviewers on each occasion. Broadly speaking, we did the interviews and observations in Fort Beaufort township, and on some farms, together. Luvuyo Wotshela did the great bulk of interviewing in the former Ciskei while William Beinart (sometimes assisted by Troth Wells, who also took a number of the photographs) did most of the interviews with experts.
The original archival research was mostly done in the 1990s as part of a larger project funded by a British Academy grant. Interviews and subsequent research were funded by a grant from the Nuffield Foundation, UK, by the Rhodes Chair of Race Relations, University of Oxford, and by the Govan Mbeki Research Office, Travel and Subsistence Fund, University of Fort Hare. The Oppenheimer Fund at the University of Oxford made it possible for Luvuyo Wotshela to visit Oxford for a spell of joint writing. The Nuffield Foundation grant was held jointly with Dr Karen Middleton, with whom William Beinart co-authored some preliminary comparative papers, and who has published on the history of opuntia in Madagascar. Thanks are due to all of these institutions for their financial assistance.
William Beinart is Rhodes Professor of Race Relations, African Studies Centre, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
Lovuyo Wotshela is a researcher, University of Fort Hare History Project, South Africa.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Sincere thanks are owed to many people who spoke to us about prickly pear and related themes, as well as those who assisted in our quest for documentary material. They are mentioned in the footnotes. In particular we would like to thank Nowinile Ngcengele and her associates in Fort Beaufort, for her patience and enthusiasm through a sequence of interviews. Troth Wells and Ntsiki Wotshela gave us every kind of assistance and hospitality when Luvuyo Wotshela was in Oxford and William Beinart in Fort Beaufort. Neither of us was able to spend long sequences of time on this book, but the research and writing, in short and concentrated spells, was particularly enjoyable. We would also like to thank Julie Miller of Wits University Press for her patience and encouragement in taking this book through to print.
GLOSSARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND COMMON NAMES FOR PRICKLY PEAR
Note that in scientific literature, the binomial Latin name for species is often shortened to the initial for the first word. For example, Opuntia ficus-indica would be written O. ficus-indica after the first mention. Please also note that italics is used for scientific names and words not in English. Doornblad, kaalblad and rondeblaar are not treated as non-English words but as common names, so are not in italics.
Cactus pear. See spineless cactus.
Doornblad. Old Cape name for the spiny Opuntia ficus-indica.
Kaalblad. Old Cape name for the spineless Opuntia ficus-indica . This may have been the original variety of prickly pear introduced into South Africa.
Opuntia. A genus of about 160 different species of cactus native to the Americas, mostly from Mexico, the southern United States and central America, including the Caribbean. Most have oval or paddle-shaped, flat cladodes – as their leaves are called in scientific literature. Perhaps 10 to 12 species established themselves in the wild in South Africa and to different degrees became invasive. There are many other genuses of cactus, some of which also reached South Africa.
Opuntia aurantiaca. The jointed cactus. Smaller species than Opuntia ficus-indica , with smaller, more cylindrical cladodes. Introduced as a garden or rockery plant, it was not useful but became invasive and was particularly difficult to control. Called katjie (or litjieskaktus ) in Afrikaans and ukatyi in Xhosa (after a cat, because its spines are like cat’s claws).
Opuntia ficus-indica. The most common prickly pear with the best edible fruit and the origins of most spineless cactus. Called turksvy in Afrikaans and itolofiya yasendle emhlope or itolofiya yasendle in Xhosa (wild, white prickly pear of the veld).
Opuntia lindheimeri. Smaller plant than Opuntia ficus-indica with rounder cladodes and reddish-purple fruit. Called rondeblaar in Afrikaans, fruit called s uurtjies and ebomvu or isiqhamo esibomvu or ugazini in Xhosa (meaning red-fruited). Opuntia spinulifera is a larger rondeblaar , with a distinctively round cladode, but was not common in South Africa.
Opuntia stricta. Similar to Opuntia lindheimeri with a cladode that is less rounded but also has a reddish-purple fruit to which the term suurtjie also seems to be applied.
Prickly pear. The common English name for a wide variety of Opuntia species. The term probably originated in the Caribbean or North America and spread through the anglophone world from the late eighteenth century. In South Africa it included about ten different introduced species but usually refers to the most common Opuntia ficus-indica.
Rondeblaar. See Opuntia lindheimeri.
Spineless cactus. These are cultivated varieties of opuntia with few, if any, spines on their cladodes. They are now generally called cactus pear in the scientific literature and are largely derived from Opuntia ficus-indica . Early varieties were cultivated in Mexico, the Mediterranean and elsewhere, one or more of which probably came to South Africa in the eighteenth century. The term now usually refers to varieties from the Mediterranean, and especially those bred by Luther Burbank in California in the early twentieth century. There are many cultivars in South Africa with different growth habits and fruit colours. Called doringlose turksvy in Afrikaans and in Xhosa itolofiya engenameva (without spines) or occasionally itolofiya yabelungu (white people’s). They are sometimes named in Xhosa by the colour of the fruit, for example, itolofiya emthubi (yellow-fruited).

South Africa: Box indicates areas of midland and eastern Cape where prickly pear became best established
INTRODUCTION
If you drive along the roads of South Africa’s Eastern Cape in the summer months from January to March, you cannot fail to notice African women selling fruit. Most have tin dishes, buckets or plastic bags piled high with itolofiya or prickly pear – small fruits with yellowish skins. Our attention was first drawn to prickly pear by the roadside sellers, prompting memories of buying this cheap delicacy in summers long past. We soon discovered that this fruit, and the plant from which it comes, has a rich and fascinating past in South Africa. Both of us have researched on the Eastern Cape for many years. Exploring history from the vantage point of human relations with a plant has opened new avenues and revealed many interesting social as well as ecological issues.

Sketch of Opuntia ficus-indica showing spines on cladodes and position of glochids on immature fruit
Prickly pear is the common English name for a number of cactus species that originate largely from Mexico and neighbouring parts of Central America. These plants have crossed spatial and racial boundaries. Following their lead, our history explores diverse South African communities and bridges environmental, social and political themes. A study of the prickly pear introduces readers to hidden aspects of the rural and small-town past in South Africa that have echoes in other parts of the world.

A mature opuntia plant near Queenstown, 2008, showing hard stem, cladodes, flowers and i