RECLAIMING AFRICAN ENVIRONMENTALISM, ecological struggles for wellbeing and habitability

292pp., illus., maps, paperback, HSRC Press, Cape Town, 2025

ISBN: 9780796926906

A collection of essays that contrast how development experts, environmentalists and state officials conceptualise environment and society with understandings of ecology and wellbeing amongst indigenous peoples and political minorities.

Contributions include:

"Rural Modernisation Through Commercial Monocorps: Thingification of Nature, Relationships and Personhood in the Lungela District, Mozambique" by Anselmo Matusse

"Windscapes: Frontiers of  Green Energy Capital Accumulation in South Africa" by Michelle Pressend

"Fracturing Contested Landscapes:  Tracking Natural Gas Prospectors and the Speculative Practice of Enacting Standing Reserves in the Kalahari Desert" by Pierre L. du Plessis

“'Technology changes everything': Benefits and Losses of Biotechnology by Nteboheng Phakisi-Portas

"The battle for the soul of Xholobeni: What is the land and Why is it Important for AmaMpondo?" by Sinegugu Zukulu

"Infrastructure Paradoxes of the Kuils River in Cape Town, South Africa" by Nikiwe Solomon.

Lesley Green is Professor of Earth Politics and Director of Environmental Humanities South, University of Cape Town. She leads the Critical Zones Africa project, collaborating with African universities. A former Fulbright Scholar and Rockefeller Humanities Fellow, she is a member of the Club of Rome and the Earth Humanity Coalition’s Steering Committee. Her book Rock | Water | Life won the 2023 Humanities Book Prize from the Academy of Science of South Africa.

Frank Matose is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Cape Town. He serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of the Commons. He is a Fellow of the Rights and Resources Coalition and an advisory committee member of Collaborating for Resilience.

Anselmo Matusse works as a research officer at the Environmental Humanities South, University of Cape Town, within the Critical Zones Africa project.

Nikiwe Solomon is an environmental anthropologist. A former fellow in the Seed Box project, she has trained SMEs and taught courses on society, science, and politics in the Environmental Humanities at UCT.