Pestilences, Techno-Science and the Challenges of Environmental Control in Southern Africa, c. 1970-c.1983

• In Event: Extraction, Nutrition, and the Challenges of Environmental Control in Southern Africa.

Abstract

This paper tells the history of the management of invasive locust swarms in southern Africa in the 1970s and early 1980s. It examines the threats the pests posed to African livelihoods and the challenges in combating them. The article argues that in the 1970s, postcolonial southern African states’ attempts to manage the environment with the help of international organizations were intimately tied to the region’s experiences under colonial rule, their commitment to ensure the whole region’s independence and the new realities of their dependence on international donor support. This support entrenched a reliance on techno-chemical interventions at a time when the global environmental movement against pesticides was at its strongest. Southern Africa’s international collaborators ultimately ignored this global movement and locust control in the region continued to depend on the application of organochlorines. However, techno-science failed to address the social, political, and ecological conditions that allowed locusts to flourish. Consequently, the pests remained a menace.

Author

• Admire Mseba, University of Southern California