Writing on the earth: Early European travellers to South Africa

The issue of land in South Africa has always been problematic. This is to be expected in a country whose history has been one of colonisation, contested borders and, in the more recent apartheid past, of legalised removals of people from the land. In recent post-colonial theory too, the notion of sp...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: M. Sienaert, L. Stiebel
Format: Article
Language:Afrikaans
Published: AOSIS 1996-04-01
Series:Literator
Online Access:https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/583
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author M. Sienaert
L. Stiebel
author_facet M. Sienaert
L. Stiebel
author_sort M. Sienaert
collection DOAJ
description The issue of land in South Africa has always been problematic. This is to be expected in a country whose history has been one of colonisation, contested borders and, in the more recent apartheid past, of legalised removals of people from the land. In recent post-colonial theory too, the notion of spatiality has proved to be significant: to write a history of a country and its people is to write a spatial history through the processes of naming, mapping, classifying and painting. Our project in this article is to explore some of the ways in which early European travellers to South Africa traced their presence in this country, and in so doing began a chapter of “writing on the earth", the ideological marks of which linger on into this century.
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spelling doaj.art-cc4b07ad7689418b83da3ca6ef6ff73a2022-12-21T21:58:29ZafrAOSISLiterator0258-22792219-82371996-04-011719110210.4102/lit.v17i1.583521Writing on the earth: Early European travellers to South AfricaM. Sienaert0L. Stiebel1Department of Afrikaans, University of Durban-WestvilleDepartment of English, University of Durban-WestvilleThe issue of land in South Africa has always been problematic. This is to be expected in a country whose history has been one of colonisation, contested borders and, in the more recent apartheid past, of legalised removals of people from the land. In recent post-colonial theory too, the notion of spatiality has proved to be significant: to write a history of a country and its people is to write a spatial history through the processes of naming, mapping, classifying and painting. Our project in this article is to explore some of the ways in which early European travellers to South Africa traced their presence in this country, and in so doing began a chapter of “writing on the earth", the ideological marks of which linger on into this century.https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/583
spellingShingle M. Sienaert
L. Stiebel
Writing on the earth: Early European travellers to South Africa
Literator
title Writing on the earth: Early European travellers to South Africa
title_full Writing on the earth: Early European travellers to South Africa
title_fullStr Writing on the earth: Early European travellers to South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Writing on the earth: Early European travellers to South Africa
title_short Writing on the earth: Early European travellers to South Africa
title_sort writing on the earth early european travellers to south africa
url https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/583
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