Ecological Survey of Zambia : The Traverse Records of C.G. Trapnell, 1932-43

Description

This publication is a collation of field records made over a ten year period. Colin Trapnell, Oxford Educated, was posted by the Colonial Office to Northern Rhodesia at the end of 1931 to undertake an ecological survey. Reports were published in 1937 and 1943. The field records contained in the present publication were made during 1932-1943.

Extract from Review: "Botswana notes and records" M.J.McFarlane.

In these two volumes “there is literally something for everyone”. In addition to acriculturalists, biologists and pedologists, forestry officers and regional and national planners, there is much here for historians, for example information on population numbers and migrations and the information on Chief Chipepo’s people and how they lived before they were removed from the Gwembe valley (Lower Zambezi) before the inundation caused by the construction of the Kariba Dam. Geologists and geomorphologists will find observations and debate on the significance and origin of various rock types and surficial materials – laterite, calcrete, silcrete. Even the size and shape of anthills does not escape record. The roundness or otherwise of sand grains prompts a debate: “is this Kalahari?”, a still unresolved issue in Southern Africa. Terrain features are described and placed in the context of transects leading to debate on the sequence of erosion surfaces. Local social and cultural practices are described and local perceptions recorded, Khotla laws, land allocation procedures and rights. Costume, songs, musical instruments and dances are woven into the rich fabric of these volumes.

Extracts from Trapnell’s personal diary have been included as itallicised text or footnotes, giving colour to the journeys. “Camp beds shouldn’t sag at the head”, “a lion chewed my socks” and the charming account of the important function of “the egg boy” (not spoiled for future readers by paraphrasing here). There are thumb sketches of local characters from whom Trapnell and colleagues received various forms of hospitality – the missionary who concluded Grace with “and, Oh Lord, send us a new fan belt.”, another who responded with “well, we kint stap you” when asked for permission to smoke.

The production editor, Paul Smith, and his team are to be congratulated for their organisational skills, categorising textual material without interrupting the flow of Trapnell’s traverse notes. The different devices used are clearly explained at the outset. Scientific names are indicated in italics, African plant names and terminology in bold, geographical names underlined. Passages concerned with agriculture, economic botany and anthropological information are indented and topics (e.g. medicinal plants, honey, wax, famine foods etc.) within these sections are labelled in bold. In addition, there are various tables (e.g. of synonyms and post-colonial name changes) and Appendices. African plant names and scientific equivalents (both vernacular to scientific and the reverse), with the language or languages used, are provided as an Appendix, as are ecological terms, crop plant names and agricultural terminology. Individual varieties of crop plants are similarly treated. Economically important plant species and their uses are listed, as are Trapnell’s grass, woody plant and herb collections at Kew. Combined with the excellent General Index, Place Name Index and Tribal Index, specific topics become readily accessible to readers with particular issues of concern.

Extract from Review: "Journal of Southern African studies "

The first volume of the book is enlivened by the survival of his highly entertaining personal diaries with their caustic comments on the people, especially officials, whom he encountered on his travels. He showed unfailing respect for the knowledge and expertise of the cultivators whom he met, and reserved his ethnic prejudices for his own compatriots. He describes F. M. Thomas, a future Provincial Commissioner and Minister for African Affairs, whom he met at Mongu, as ‘a weird Cornish specimen of the Welsh Celtic type – the place seems to run to Welshmen.’ The future Governor, Arthur Benson, a newly arrived cadet, also gets pretty short shrift. There is an account and photograph of the Balliol versus Trinity barge race at Senanga in 1933 – the result was a dead heat – and recollections of non-smoking American missionaries and of the rancher who found a lion under the dining-room table.   

This book is presented as providing an ecological baseline against which change can be measured. The editor points out that there is a renewed interest in ‘traditional’ knowledge and in the ‘sustainable utilisation of natural resources’. At the risk of euro-centricity, Trapnell’s traverse diaries can also be said to provide a Zambian Domesday Book. No individual has ever seen or described from ground level, or is likely ever again to see or to describe, as much of Zambia as Trapnell did: nor is it likely that anyone has ever seen the country with such well informed and highly developed powers of observation, depth of environmental understanding, and human sympathy. This book is a fitting monument to a remarkable man and will be a great resource for the people, and students, of Zambia.

Hugh Macmillan
St Antony’s College, Oxford 

ISBN

1842460021 (vol. 1)
184246003X (vol. 2)
1842460048 (vol. 3)
1842460056 (set)