Creating a National Park, 1910 to 1926

Popular histories of nature protection in southern Africa usually portray the prelude to the passing of the National Parks Act in 1926 as a contest between the forces of 'good' (those in favour of national parks) and 'evil' (those antagonistic or apathetic to the idea). 1 In southern Africa the development of national parks has not been dispassionately evaluated and dedicated modern conservationists have constructed what might be described as an 'appropriate' history indeed a proselytising one ignoring considerations other than current conservation preoccupations. This romanticised view of past nature protection policies and attitudes is more akin to folklore than to history and it has distorted the paradoxical origins of protectionist endeavour. Such simplistic and inaccurate interpretations beg closer examination and a more objective and critical explanation is needed, one which takes cognisance of the complexities of the South African political economy at the time. The creation of national parks anywhere in the world can only be understood in the context of the time and place in which this occurs. Fundamentally, the founding of a national park concerns the allocation of certain natural resources and for this reason it is a polititcal, social and economic issue more than a moral one. What was accomplished in the mid 1920s in South Africa was not so much the acceptance that the principle of a national park was morally correct, as the acceptance by white South Africans of the philosophy that the viewing and studying of game animals constituted a legitimate, and financially viable, form of land use and that the state should provide land for this purpose. Many circumstances intertwined to make the national park a reality. It was not merely accidental that the passing of the National Parks Act in 1926 took place atLthe same time as demonstrations of an aggressive, though perhaps still nascent, Afrikaner nationalism. 2 Other manifestations of the Afrikaner nationalist thrust included the adoption of Afrikaans as an official language, the revival of interest in Voortrekker traditions, the resurgence of republican sentiments and the loosening of ties with