Module 2: African heritage and sustainable living in a context of extreme climate variability

Seminar and Fieldwork Programme: Wednesday 3 – Tuesday 9 July

Fieldtrip: Wednesday 10 - Sunday 14 July

Professor Robert O’Donoghue
Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit

Development and Sustainability in Africa Week (Week 2)

The Eastern Cape is a region of extreme climate variability. The amaXhosa people used regional migration as a mitigation strategy to cope with this harsh environment.

This module will explore an emerging history of socio-ecological sustainability. The course spans the pre-colonial livelihood practices in the Eastern Cape to the climate change challenges of the present day.

Participants will start by planting indigenous trees with a youth programme of the Makana Region Centre of Expertise to offset air travel carbon. Daily fieldwork will be conducted on foot or by bicycle to minimize environmental impact.

In this week of the School, each day will open with a participant-led seminar on comparative environmental history and change. The themes of forests, grasslands, water, agriculture and biodiversity conservation will then be explored through encounters with local evidence of social-ecological change.

The rest of the day will be spent outdoors exploring indigenous knowledge practices. These practices have all but disappeared with the advent of modernity but are being recovered and enhanced through a Stepping-up to Sustainability Programme at the Environmental Learning Research Centre (ELRC) of Rhodes University. The ELRC is looking at innovations in water, energy, health, agriculture, biodiversity, transport and waste disposal in Africa. Participants will be asked to do a practical assignment on an area of interest. This week aims to prepare participants to travel to, and work together in, a rural area for the final week of the programme.

Field-Trip Programme (Week 3)

This week will be centred on community learning where participants will be challenged to practically apply the knowledge and experience they acquired to date. Participants will work in groups to explore a focus area. They will learn with rural tutors who are innovating to live in ways that might best enhance livelihoods. They will also see various ways of restoring degraded ecological systems and processes. Each group will prepare a seminar, reporting on their experience of the practical learning experience, to conclude the programme.

The field-trip will be to:

• Cata rural village in the Amathole Mountains near the town of Keiskammahoek (150 km north east of Grahamstown. You can also find out more about Cata at  www.cata.org.za/home)
• Coastal village of Hamburg on the Indian Ocean (120 km east of Grahamstown.)