书写祖先之河：科维人传记

《书写祖先之河》是东开普省科维河的一部具有启发性和不同寻常的传记
这条潮汐河流流经曾被称为祖维尔德的中心，这是一个不同民族形成的汇合地，他们塑造了我们的历史：霍伊霍伊牧民、科萨牧民、荷兰徒步旅行者和英国定居者。他们的直系后裔继续生活在该地区，并以他们共同的历史决定性地塑造的方式进行互动。这不仅是一部社会史，也是这条河及其集水区的自然史，这里曾经有恐龙出没，苏铁仍在生长。正如这本书所示，科维的自然世界感受到了人类住区的影响，最引人注目的是19世纪在河口建立了一个港口，20世纪末开发了一个码头。这两个项目都对科维产生了决定性的有害影响。人们越来越多地通过河流与自然和正义重新联系。承认过去，以及它建立和延续的跨代种族特权、损害和否认，对于任何共同的未来都是必要的。通过关注这个“小”河，这本书提出了关于殖民主义、资本主义、发展和生态的更大的问题，并要求我们考虑社会和环境不公正之间的联系。
Writing the Ancestral River: A biography of the Kowie
Writing the Ancestral River is an illuminating and unusual biography of the Kowie River in the Eastern Cape
This tidal river runs through the centre of what used to be called the Zuurveld, a formative meeting ground of different peoples who have shaped our history: Khoikhoi herders, Xhosa pastoralists, Dutch trekboers and British settlers. Their direct descendants continue to live in the area and interact in ways that have been decisively shaped by their shared history. Besides being a social history, this is also a natural history of the river and its catchment area, where dinosaurs once roamed and cycads still grow. As the book shows, the natural world of the Kowie has felt the effects of human settlement, most strikingly through the establishment of a harbour at the mouth of the river in the 19th century and the development of a marina in the late 20th century. Both projects have had a decisive and deleterious impact on the Kowie. People are increasingly reconnecting with nature and justice through rivers. Acknowledging the past, and the inter-generational, racialised privileges, damages and denials it established and perpetuates, is necessary for any shared future. By focusing on this `little’ river, the book raises larger questions about colonialism, capitalism, `development’ and ecology, and asks us to consider the connections between social and environmental injustice.

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