African conservation problem: what can we teach us in history

Summary: "conservation" in the context of Africa is related to wildlife and its protection. Africa's conservation is a controversial topic in political and social sense. We explore the relationship between the two spiritual long -lasting animals of the conservation issues and their new narratives, and provide samples for other environmental history studies that pay attention to the relationship between people and animals, indicating that historical experience will be beneficial to "new people's new people's new people's new people. The conservation activities of the world help us better understand the long -term conflict between humans and wild animals.

Author: Sandra Swart, a professor at the Department of History of Stellenbosch University of South Africa. In 2001, he was a doctor of history at Oxford University. After graduation, he taught at the Department of History of the University of Statunbos University in South Africa. The main research directions are South African history, environmental history, and animal history. She is the chairman of the Southern African History Society (SAHS) and has been the editor -in -chief of the "South African History Magazine" many times. Representative works include RIDING HIGH: Horses, Humans and History in South Africa (Johannesburg: WitwaterSrand University Press, 2010).

Translator: Xu Lu, Liang Xiaoyi, Li Xinghao

Source: "International Social Science Magazine" 2022, Issue 2 P87 -P91

Editor in charge: Liang Guangyan Zhang Nanqian

Quotation

Conservation is a controversial topic in political and social sense. This article will explore the relationship between the two spiritual long animals of 类 and human beings. In the process of studying how this relationship has changed over the past thousands of years, I tried to shape a "more than human history". I will introduce how to combine different disciplines such as paleontology, ancient ecology, archeology, and rock painting art, and these disciplines have been ignored by most historians so far. This research will provide samples for other environmental history research on human relations with animals, indicating that historical experience will be beneficial to the conservation activities of "people's new generations" and help us better understand the long -term conflict between human and wild animals.

Africa conservation issues

The "conservation" in Africa has nothing to do with the well -being of domesticated animals such as cats, dogs, or pigs, but is related to wildlife and preservice. Since the late 19th century, humans began to feel that they need to protect wildlife, and should not only treat them as beasts.

Today, there are many national parks that protect wildlife in South Africa. In Kruger National Park in South Africa, you can often see the path of the elephant with its cubs through the park. The park is in western South Africa and is connected to the border between Mozambique. Another national park is called Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, which is a vast desert. It is a cross -border park, crossing South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. Inside the park, when people span three countries, they don't even need to show their passports. Wildlife can also migrate arbitrarily in the park. The history of Africa's conservation has created it all. Of course, the national parks in South Africa are not only there, but also a park named after some kinds of animals such as Elephant Park and Zebra Park. All parks were established during a specific historical period. From the late 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, humans realized that many species were endangered, so they began to protect wildlife.

Crug National Park looks very harmonious. Elephants surround tourists' sightseeing cars, and people can move freely in the park. But in fact, the park hired the forbidden hunting area guard, they stared at the poachers and were ready to fight at any time. In addition, dangerous animals such as lions, leopards and snakes appear at any time. Once the Black Mamba snake is found, the guard will shoot directly, because the Heimanba snake will follow the sightseeing car, which is very aggressive and it is difficult for people to get rid of it. The Black Mamba snake is also the most dying snake in Africa. Even if it looks harmless, thick and cute, kill more people than lions. Therefore, in order to ensure personal safety, people need certain knowledge reserves to enter the restricted area. Nevertheless, there are still people who are killed every year in Cruag National Park, including those who are illegally entry from Mozambique and were killed in the park. The boundary of the national park is both the border between wild animals and a very political boundary.

Traditional narrative of conservation issues

Modern Africa's thinking about conservation issues is historical. People have regarded wild animals such as lions, dumplings, and tadpoles as vectors. They are terrible animals that need to be eliminated, because these animals steal crops and fruits to prey on livestock raised by people. Elephants can destroy people's hard -working crops for a year in the afternoon. By the end of the 19th century, this idea changed, and people began to consider these animals to protect them. Cape Town's local museums are collected by extinct ba donkeys, Cape Town lion, and blue horse antelope (Figure 1). The extinction of species makes people realize that the conservation of wild animals is imminent. It is found that the beast considered in the past is important for the ecosystem. In 1884, South Africa established the first wildlife forbidden hunter area, the Puffalo Game Reserve of Puffela Wildlife in Teramova. "WhiteWashed Version" is a traditional narrative of conservation. It hides many gloomy noodles in the establishment of wildlife forbidden hunting areas, and eventually presents the story of the public with racism. South Africa has experienced a sad and hostile history history. African descent, which occupied most of the population, did not obtain the right to vote until 1994. Earlier, South Africa was a racist country dominated by Europeans, especially Afrikan. Before the arrival of Europeans, people living in South Africa were indigenous people engaged in hunting and collection activities, such as the Bushmen and SANs, Kalen, Zulu and other tribes. What is the situation of African descent participating in conservation activities? We should not exclude them outside the historical narrative, we must not just treat them as stealing people. During the pre -colonial period, evidence showed that some African tribes already have the concept of protecting wildlife, such as female animals that cannot be killed or lactating during pregnancy. In addition, the rules and traditions of the tribe constitute an unconscious conservation. The leaders of the Zulu people have their own hunting area, and ordinary people cannot hunt there. Although this provision is not to protect wildlife, it is objectively protected by wild animals. There is another unintentional protection, namely totem animals. Some African tribes have their own totem animals, such as 狒狒, elephant, fish, etc. These animals symbolize power and kinship network, which cannot be killed or consumed, which also plays a protective role to a certain extent.

After Europeans ruled South Africa, cultural conflicts were staged. In the "White narrative", all armed white people are committed to protecting wild animals and fighting against black poachers. Ban donkeys were extinct at the end of the 19th century, and white people blamed it on the black man. But history tells us: White talents are culprit. On the one hand, white people hunt wild animals, and they are fast, and they also use their fur to make shoes, bags and hats. Trophies Hunters from York launched a competitive hunting activity here, hanging the hunting loot as a decoration on the wall. On the other hand, the establishment and development of animal animal husbandry make white people need to always rotate with the natural enemies such as dumplings, wolves, or lions. The above these have nothing to do with black hunters. Before the arrival of white people, the local indigenous tribe had existed for thousands of years, and wild animals have not died. In "White narrative", white men were shaped as heroic images, and they saved the Garden of Eden, Africa from the poachers. People often use this narrative for wildlife forbidden hunting areas, but when they talk about those evil thefts, they did not mention that most of the indigenous peoples on this dry land had to rely on hunting to support their families. As far as conservation is concerned, it is necessary to admit that "white narrative" is a successful story. For example, there are only 20 white rhinos in South Africa in the early 20th century. Under the protection of the so -called white hero, the number of white rhinos has returned to more than 20,000 heads.

However, the emergence of European conservation is accompanied by the phenomenon of "Fortress Conservation". The forbidden hunting area only allows paid tourists to enter, and theft or poverty -stricken indigenous hunters will be arrested or shot once. This is a conservation method that excludes indigenous people outside, and it did not change until the 1960s. The worst point of "Fortress Conservation" is highly militarized. For the establishment of wildlife forbidden hunting areas, indigenous people were forced to leave and moved away from the land. Those land is not a lord -free land, and some people have lived there for a long time. Jacob Dlamini, Jacob Dlaimini, described in the "Safari Nation" that indigenous people were forced to leave the land during the establishment of Cruag National Park. He also showed some sad photos that recorded the authorities to threaten the indigenous people with their children to leave with their children in order to establish a wildlife forbidden hunter area. Not only that, the authorities are often distributed to indigenous land.

New narrative of conservation issues

The latest conservation narrative method is to explore Animals Rewilding in cities and suburbs, and animals have become the center of narrative. For example, in the Cape Town Tourist Scenic Area, Fred (Figure 2) is a BABOON, which is "evil and full", was shot shot by government authorities in 2011. It is well known for threatening tourists, stealing and robbery. Fred is strong and irritable, and anyone who blocks the road will suffer its intimidation and violence. But there is also a well -known thing: it once broke into a car, but did not hurt the baby on the car. Therefore, when Fred was executed by the government in 2011, many people mourned its departure and missed its bravery. People held a public funeral for Fred, holding candles and said goodbye to it. South Africa began to implement a conservation policy more than 20 years ago, and the killing of the wild has become an illegal activity. Therefore, he entered the suburbs and intertwined with human society to become a major city issue. When it comes to conservation, it needs to be traced back to the relationship between humans and 狒狒 in ancient times. Although historians do not know how the African indigenous people talk about it in ancient times, many African tribes have been learned as totem animals, and the hunting tribe of Namibia and Angola is the case. African indigenous people attach great importance to 仿, imitate the behavior of 狒狒, observe the process of looking for water sources, and understand the diet. The state of human respect has lasted for nearly a thousand years until the relationship between the two has changed an important change. Africans turned to plant crops and vegetables, raising chickens, sheep and goats. But I like to eat the crops and fruits grown by farmers, and take away the livestock cubs. As a result, the relationship between 人 and human beings has changed a fundamental change, and the struggle between Africans and 狒狒 has begun. In an ancient African rock painting, the angry farmers tried to drive away a puppet with agricultural tools (Figure 3). From that moment, it became the enemy of human beings.

In the 20th century, people's attitudes towards have become worse. In 1924, the London Zoo ordered a group of males from Africa. The male has long teeth, huge body and unique butt, while female lacks ornamental value, so the zoo only ordered male. Due to the mistakes of the staff, the female cricket was also transported, and the result of the occurrence of the massacre. In the narrow cage, the male cubs killed many female cubs and the cubs born in the cage. There are only one of the 15 cubs that survive, and the rest are either killed by aggressive male or killed by their highly nervous mothers. S. Zuckerman was invited to study the massacre at the zoo. He believes that all long -term society is based on violence, and the brutal nature is born. He wrote "The Social Life of Apes" and published it in 1932. The book was published after the First World War, and the World War II also followed. The frequency of war makes it easy for people to accept this theory. It is believed that if humans cannot control social practice and other behaviors, they will be as brutal as the London Zoo. Subsequently, the theory spread to the field of psychology and political science. The most important thing is that the theory of "killer" permanently changes people's views on 狒狒, and the whole world regards 狒狒 as an aggressive animal. This idea is very wrong. On the one hand, 一 is an animal with high requirements for activity space. The place where they usually move is about 10-20 times that of cages. The London Zoo's massacre is caused by artificialness, not the nature of the puppet. On the other hand, the "Killer" theory seems to show a Darwin -style social order with patriarchal colors, which is particularly concerned by feminists. However, the spiritual long zoologists who studied 7 in the 1970s pointed out that this idea was completely wrong.

However, the stigma of has caused it, and the public is convinced of the theory of "killer". Desmond Morris, Robert Ardrey and others wrote this theory into film and literary works. Taking Cape Town as an example, the relationship between 类 and humans has undergone the worst changes in the past few decades. Affected by the concept of "killer", people have an incredible hostility on the crickets in the outskirts of Cape Town. People have built high walls to avoid jumping into the garden. People are afraid and worried about 到, but they cannot get rid of the puppet, so they exert violence on their bodies, and even resort to firearms and poison. Obviously, 受 is the victim, and humans have constructed a harmful image of the puppet. After the shot of the puppet named Fred, people found that its body had 72 scars through X -rays. These scars are evidence of conflict and hatred. Where does people's violence come from? Is it because of fear or anger? We need not only to understand the ecology of the 态, but also the dark side of human psychology. In order to save 狒狒, it is necessary to understand how people think of 狒狒. By thinking about the relationship between people and animals in history, historians can think about a new way of urban conservation. Once the local groups are destroyed, humans lose not only animal and genetic materials, but also the culture of the group. Therefore, before understanding the conservation, we must look at the conservation problem from a historical perspective.

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