Decolonisation is in political and environmental reform

By Boiketlo Lamula

Politicians, more specifically Pan-African politicians, are the ones that often speak of “decolonisation”: decolonisation of our minds as people of colour, decolonization of our African states, decolonization of our education systems, and so the list goes on. Can environmentalists not speak of “decolonisation”?

A lot can be said about the discussion on 11 April with Professor Tsepo Madlingozi, a Commissioner at the South African Human Rights Council.

A flower is labelled in a vase. Photo by Boiketlo Lamula

Image poster courtesy of the E&IC office at Rhodes University.

Invited by the Office of Equity & Institutional Change, Professor Madlingozi facilitated a profoundly layered and intricate discussion about what it means to be South African, post-apartheid and living in a democracy. The basis of the talk was a reflection on the #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall movements, which shook the university 10 years ago, with March 2025 marking their 10th anniversary.

Rhodes University is in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, one of the provinces with a vast amount of land belonging to the Cape Floral Kingdom of South Africa, which is no wonder why, next to Stellenbosch University and The University of Cape Town, it boasts of a successful reputation in botanical and environmental studies. It is essential to distinguish between The Cape Floral Region and The Floral Kingdom. While The Floral Kingdom comprises groups of geographical areas across the various continents of the earth, the Cape Floral Region is the group specific to South Africa and distinguished areas of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape Provinces. As is in the name, these are vast arrays of land teeming with numerous species of flowers, one of the most famous and more commonly known being the Namaqualand Biome. However, less widely known, except to the botanical and environmental enthusiasts, these geographical areas are so specifically named because indigenous flora makes them up.

Eastern Cape flora. Photo by: Boiketlo Lamula

Those plants and flowers are native to South Africa. It is significant to state that this flora is “native” because what is commonly overlooked is that a lot of the plants, flowers, and trees that we grow in our gardens that pave our pathways and pavements are not native; they are invasive species, commonly from and native to Europe and Australasia, and sometimes South America.

While Jan Van Riebeeck was in the Cape of South Africa in 1652, he wrote a letter to his superiors in Holland saying, “Send us anything that will grow”. After that came Charles Darwin in 1836, who said, “Never before have I come across a more boring landscape, not even so much as a tree under which to have my lunch.”

Emphasis should be put on the words “landscape” and “tree” here in the words of Charles Darwin. So, what did the “landscape” of South Africa look like for Charles Darwin to whine about it, not even having a tree under which to rest and have his lunch? It was merely a vast escarpment of grasses and flowers! Except to the botanist and environmentalist, the layman will look at the grasses that carpet the Eastern Cape and many parts of the Western Cape and see only two or three different species or not even really notice that there could be at least ten different types of grasses in a tiny area. And what is significant, is that these grasses are native to South Africa.

I also chose to highlight the word “tree” because we have been taught to believe that trees reduce the impacts of climate change, hence the worldwide movement of planting trees and even marking special days for tree planting. But what is not recognised and acknowledged by politicians is that these trees are, in fact, robbing us of our nativity.

A poster advertising an event.

Rhodes University is the only university on the continent of Africa with a novel state-of-the-art Elevated C02 (carbon dioxide) facility, which studies how different plants will respond to varying levels of CO2 as life progresses on earth; the University has a thriving botany department made up of exceptional Doctors and Professors that have done and are doing studies which reveal that this mass planting of trees is actually robbing South Africa of its native grasses that better sequester (up takers) of carbon dioxide than the European trees are!

These foreign trees and plants are termed invasive species, and not only are they in the process of overpowering South Africa’s native grasses and flowers, but they are also, in fact, taking away one of the most remarkable identities of our biodiverse South Africa: our rich and beautiful Cape Floral Regions.

While these invasive plants serve us economically, it may also be time for us to broaden our decolonisation conversations to include this other aspect of our identity as South Africans and even as Rodents that sit right on the brim of this identity.