Horses and Human History in South Africa
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Sandra Swart. Riding High: Horses, Humans and History in South Africa. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2010. xiv + 344 pp. $34.95, paper, ISBN 978-1-86814-514-0. Reviewed by Nancy Jacobs Published on H-Environment (September, 2011) Commissioned by Dolly Jørgensen (University of Stavanger) It was only after the end of apartheid that ing Dr. Johnson, and is skilled at wordplay. Non‐ South African intellectuals were free to think specialists who value good history can read this about animals.[1] Still, Sandra Swart, the author book for a pleasant ride into South Africa’s past. of Riding High, takes some pains to justify the sub‐ The motivation behind the book is to correct ject of her book. A study of horses, she admits, the invisibility of horses in historical understand‐ might readily be seen as “the self-indulgent pre‐ ings. “Horses mattered” is the foundation of the serve of the feminine, middle class and white” (p. argument, but it is not a straightforward asser‐ 8). The ensuing book proves that such a response tion; “mattering,” even for a beast, is not a func‐ would constitute presentist narrow-mindedness. tion of biophysical character, but determined Horse history tells a lot about the diverse classes, through negotiation. In my reading, the six cen‐ races, and genders in South Africa’s past. Riding tral chapters are divided into three sections, with High enhances our understandings of central pro‐ different emphases on the ways horses mattered. cesses and events in South African history be‐ Chapters 2 and 3 lay out a basic argument about cause it is specialized, but never narrow or pe‐ utility, emphasizing how much horses mattered in ripheral. To trace the equine thread over hun‐ the Cape Colony before 1850. We gain a deeper dreds of years, Swart engages with many subspe‐ understanding of horses in war, transportation, cialties of South African historiography, including and racing. Chapters 4 and 5 take a more unex‐ environment, technology, warfare, racial science, pected approach. Here, we are shown the limita‐ agriculture, and consumption. In its proficient en‐ tions on the power and significance of horses, gagement with such a wide range of topics, the even as we consider the surest cases for the im‐ book provides an admirable model. It is also well portance of horses in South Africa’s past: nine‐ written. Swart has an eye for the ironic image and teenth-century Lesotho and the South Africa War. the ridiculous moment, has a penchant for quot‐ We leave those chapters with the understanding H-Net Reviews that the history of horses is not dependent on ing connections with thinking about human races, their efficacy for powerful humans. Chapters 6 largely limiting the analogies to those made in the and 7 continue the story in the twentieth century, sources. Even so, discussions about horse breed‐ when the importance of horses in transportation, ing spoke volumes about understandings of gen‐ agriculture, or war declined. But even as they be‐ der and type among all mammals; the interest in came less utilitarian, they bore weighty meaning pedigree is evocative of eugenics. Ironically, the and mattered in new ways. result of all this attention to breeding was that the The book begins with the arrival of Euro‐ general hardiness of Cape horses declined; the peans and horses at the Cape in the mid-seven‐ well-bred horses were not the well-adapted ones. teenth century. Chapter 1 describes the horse as a The next two chapters turn and complicate member of the portmanteau biota aiding the bio‐ the argument by lingering on the limitations of logical expansion of Europe (although many horses as physical beings and cultural symbols. ponies were imported from the Dutch colony in These central chapters are a high point of the Indonesia, rather than from Europe itself). Be‐ book, delivering mature, intellectually honest, cause of disease, especially African horse sick‐ and unanticipated (by me at least) analyses. It is ness, horses did not thrive. Local conditions se‐ uncontroversial to assert the importance of hors‐ lected for a homely, sturdy, small animal that es among the mounted Basotho, republican com‐ could not compete with draft oxen in agriculture mandos, and imperial regiments. But, here, Swart or long-distance transportation. But they were in‐ pulls the reader back from assumption; they did tegral to that primary South African institution, not always matter as we might have expected. the commando. In the story of the horse at the Earlier chapters followed African adoption of Cape, Swart underlines that ecological imperial‐ horses as a minor theme, but chapter 4 takes ism was, like other sorts of imperialism, a matter Lesotho, the only “wholly mounted” African poli‐ of power. The fragile power of the horse in South ty, as its subject. This chapter tempers common Africa (it never went feral) gave it a different role knowledge in two significant ways: frst, the histo‐ from that on the American frontier: “horses did ry of the horse in Lesotho counters the exclusive not represent freedom or wildness to the white association of the imported biotic portmanteau settlers, instead they represented civilisation ... with imperialist causes. Among the Basotho, the both symbolically and physically” (p. 36). horse also enabled resistance against European Horses also mattered within “civilized” Cape imperialist expansion. The second point is on the society, as described in the second chapter. Thor‐ cultural significance of horses in Lesotho. Basotho oughbred racing became popular during the early ponies were critical to military defense and inter‐ decades of British rule and horses mattered fnan‐ nal economics. But the notion that the Basotho cially, politically, and symbolically. Horse breed‐ uniquely define themselves through horse owner‐ ing was important enough an economic sector to ship came from outside observers. The Basotho contribute to the downfall of Governor Charles themselves have consistently testified to the pri‐ Somerset. But more than being fast, horses could macy of cattle as esteemed objects. Owning and be fashionable, if they had the pedigree. The Cape trading horses allowed them to accumulate more gentry’s approach to thoroughbred breeding pro‐ cattle. In following this strategy, they were a lot vides a telling window into thinking about inher‐ like their neighbors, with the difference that their ited difference and, by extension, about human mountain environment gave them an edge race. Swart works carefully with evidence on the against equine diseases. discourse of breeding. She is cautious about mak‐ 2 H-Net Reviews The chapter on the South Africa War is simi‐ the mid-twentieth century, horse imports took an‐ lar in that it reins in conventional wisdom about other turn, as many wealthy Afrikaner farmers the ways that horses mattered. It emphasizes the acquired American Saddlehorses. To execute the mortality, rather than the power, of horses. This Saddler’s distinctive gaits, horses and riders un‐ chapter counts the beasts, where they came from, derwent expensive training that was displayed in and what happened to them: hundreds of thou‐ competitively judged shows. Swart draws on sands of mounts were marshaled by the British Thorsten Veblen to describe the Saddlehorse as an for their army, with a mortality of two-thirds. object of conspicuous consumption. The American More than three hundred thousand horses are es‐ horse was a modern, costly, international horse, timated to have died. Nearly everything about be‐ and not everyone bought in. A localist competitor ing a warhorse was deadly: the disease environ‐ show breed, the Boerperd, which was purported ment; the lack of food; poor husbandry; and of to have origins in historic South African horses, course, the shells and bullets. But even as horses also emerged in this period. Actually, since South died in droves, the public began to see them as in‐ African horses had taken shape through waves of dividual creatures, thanks in part to the 1877 pub‐ successive imports and creolization, boosters had lication of Black Beauty. The extraordinary mor‐ to make a choice about what kind of horse to tality combined with sentimentality to create a reify, so several different “authentically” South powerful moment and Swart tracks a change in African horses emerged, were named, and were human-horse relations to the war. As casualties, managed as breeds. The connection with Afrikan‐ equines could be memorialized along with ordi‐ er identity politics was evident in Boerperd stan‐ nary soldiers. As effective war machines, they dards, shows, names, and fnances. Afrikaners were increasingly doubted. Not least, the huge made up most aficionados of both the Boerperd numbers of imported horses who had not yet died and the Saddlehorse, and both breeds were ob‐ at the end of the war changed the genetic mix of jects of display rather than utility, but the Boer‐ South Africa horses yet again. perd offered an egalitarian and nostalgic object of Together the frst four chapters lay the pa‐ desire for an ethnically self-conscious consumer. rameters of how horses mattered before the twen‐ By offering a fresh understanding of Afrikaner tieth century, when commandos were disbanded identity, this chapter is a model for post- and engines began to replace animals in trans‐ apartheid, post-struggle historiography. portation and traction. Chapter 6 describes the de‐ In this book, Swart admirably proves her clining economic value of horses, even as boosters point that the horse is a legitimate historical sub‐ sought state support for horse farming. As horses ject. But what kind of subject? Perhaps they are so declined in number and utility, they took on an‐ easily integrated into existing narratives because other life in nostalgic Afrikaans literature. With they often appear as something closer to technolo‐ its glory days on the republican frontier and in its gies than to sentient beings.