Apartheid South Africa’s Participation in United Nations-Organized International Environmental Initiatives in the 1970s: A Reassessment

This article focuses on apartheid South Africa’s participation in United Nations-organised international environmental initiatives in the 1970s in order to reassess contemporary and historiographical views that the country was an extremely reluctant participant in UN-led environmental initiatives in the 1970s because it threatened the country’s policy of uncontrolled economic growth and promoted the environment as a political issue, and because the country was not allowed to participate in many of these UN initiatives owing to its isolation within this world body. Utilising archival evidence this article clearly demonstrates that the processes whereby the country decided whether or not to participate in specific UN-organised international environmental initiatives in the 1970s were very complex and conflicting, and in general did not result from a lack of governmental commitment to address the country’s multiple environmental challenges. The main argument of this article is that South Africa’s limited participation in UN-organised international environmental initiatives in the 1970s resulted from two reasons, namely the mutual distrust between the country and the UN which reached new lows as the 1970s progressed, and the prevailing South African foreign policy strategy of deliberately keeping a low profile in order to avoid confrontation on the international stag

Oil Exploration in Colonial Nigeria, c. 1903-58

This article explores the history of oil exploration in colonial Nigerian between c.1903 and 1958 when the first shipment of Nigerian crude oil arrived in Rotterdam. It debunks the two most persistent myths in Nigerian oil historiography namely that oil exploration dates back to 1908 when the German oil company, the Nigeria Bitumen Corporation started operations. An examination of contemporary sources show that oil exploration activities date back to at least 1903, and that Nigeria Bitumen was indeed a British oil company with a listing on the West African Market of the stock exchange in London. The paper argues that the challenging Nigerian environment, which required sophisticated technology, and the limited support from the British government ensured the failure of early oil exploration activities by small British oil concerns. Consequently, over time, the exploration of the oil possibilities of colonial Nigeria became the domain of large, integrated oil companies, in particular Royal Dutch/Shell and British Petroleum, who had the financial resources to fun the expensive search for oil in the colony, and the technological expertise and equipment to achieve success over the long term. This dominance by the majors remained a characteristic of the Nigerian oil industry well into the 1990s. The colonial roots of two additional characteristics of the modern oil industry in Nigeria are further traced, namely the enclave nature of the industry within the broader Nigerian economy, and the establishment of oil as a national concern, which concern in general overruled the oil-related problems and concerns of local oil producing communities until the emergence of oil-related minority struggles in the 1990s

Locating environmental justice in the internal anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, c.1970s-1994

This article forms part of a wider long-term research project that focus on environment in the apartheid era in South Africa (1948-1994). The research involves various different strands which each has its own aim and includes producing a detailed analysis of both governmental and non-governmental environmental governance during this period; determining the direct and indirect environmental impacts of uncontrolled economic growth, and the environmental toll of apartheid policies in homelands and black townships; investigating the environmental impact of militarisation and the numerous South African military endeavours in the Southern Africa region in the 1970s and 1980s; detailing and evaluating the quality and quantity of "khaki" (i.e. military) conservation, and writing the history of environmental concern and activism within the anti-apartheid movement. The research is guided by the belief that looking at the apartheid-era through the lens of the environment enables researchers to uncover many unexplored injustices associated with this specific political system. In addition, this research adds to the developing literature and understanding of the environmental toll of repressive governance on a more general level

The Politics of the Global Oil Industry: An Introduction

Output Type: Book Revie

Religious Responses to Environmental Crises in the Orange Free State Republic, C. 1896-C. 1898

The purpose of this article is to explore the religious responses within the Orange Free State republic to the environmental crises in the period c. 1896 to c. 1898. During this time the state was subjected to severe drought, flooding, and the outbreak of various diseases. The article examines the way in which these afflictions where interpreted by the Christian and wider community in terms of God's wrath for unrepented sins. The persistence of synchronistic elements of folk religion was seen to have brought plagues like those found in Exodus which were visited upon the Pharaoh and his kingdom. This interruptive frame work led to calls for national repentance, but also a resistance to scientific and medical resolutions to the crises. It also reinforced racial divisions. Black Africans were perceived as the carriers of the disease so their movement was prohibited. The article goes on to show how the effect of this biblical frame of reference protected the concept of God as the ever-present active God in every aspect of life against the scientific rationalism of the age, while at the same time ironically hindering the work of mission and the life of the churc

Environmental non-governmental contributions to the global environmental movement, 1962-1992

Despite the fact that humankind's concern for the environment dates back many centuries, the concept of nature as an infinite resource that could be exploited as humankind saw fit, prevailed. The environmental revolution of the 1960s shattered this belief and recurrent environmental disasters in the late sixties brought home the finite capability of the natural environment to absorb unchecked industrial and demographic growth

Il Verde e il Nero: La Giustizia Ambientale Nella Lotta Contro L'Apartheid in Sud Africa

This article forms part of a wider long-term research project that focus on environment in the apartheid era in South Africa (1948-1994). The research involves various different strands which each has its own aim and includes producing a detailed analysis of both governmental and non-governmental environmental governance during this period; determining the direct and indirect environmental impacts of uncontrolled economic growth, and the environmental toll of apartheid policies in homelands and black townships; investigating the environmental impact of militarisation and the numerous South African military endeavours in the Southern Africa region in the 1970s and 1980s; detailing and evaluating the quality and quantity of "khaki" (i.e. military) conservation, and writing the history of environmental concern and activism within the anti-apartheid movement. The research is guided by the belief that looking at the apartheid-era through the lens of the environment enables researchers to uncover many unexplored injustices associated with this specific political system. In addition, this research adds to the developing literature and understanding of the environmental toll of repressive governance on a more general level

"(S)hell in Nigeria"? Ken Saro-Wiwa en die stryd van die Ogoni

The purpose of this article is to analyse and put into historical perspective the struggle in which Nigeria's Ogoni people has been involved against that country's federal government as well as the Shell oil company since 1988. The role played by the charismatic Ogoni politician and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa until his execution on 10 November 1995, is highlighted in particular. Against the background of Saro-Wiwa's life and work, the history of the Ogoni people and of oil production in Nigeria, the role of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), the Ogoni revolts of 1990 until 1994 and the Goikoo murders of 21 May 1994 will be discussed and analysed. It becomes clear that the Ogoni people themselves became very divided as a result of the nature and scope of their struggle against Shell Nigeria and the federal government, and that Ken Saro-Wiwa was a controversial figure who was not as completely innocent as portrayed in the media at that time and even· today. Light is also shed throughout on topical environmental and human rights issues

The Lingering Environmental Impact of Repressive Governance: The Environmental Legacy of the Apartheid Era for the New South Africa

This article aims to explore the historical link between contemporary environmental problems and the environmental, economic and political policies of the apartheid government. The analysis draws on an examination of the detrimental environmental impacts of the apartheid era and how international isolation impacted on governmental environmental management in the country, before turning attention to the way in which the ANC government has managed the South African natural and human environments in the period after 1994. The article shows that despite many important new developments since 1994, that there are high levels of continuity between the environmental management practices of the old and the new regimes. This state of affairs negatively impacts on the ability of the ANC government to provide every South African citizen with the clean and safe environment guaranteed to all within the 1996 Bill of Rights.This article also appeared unchanged as a chapter in the following edited collection: Jan Oosthoek and Barry K. Gills (eds), _The Globalization of Environmental Crisis_ (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), pp. 109-120