Host Plants, Butterflies & Neoliberal Spaces: Environmental Subjectivities & the Challenges of Conservation Ecotourism in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa by Achirri C. Ismael A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology) in the University of Michigan 2017 Doctoral Committee: Professor Kelly Askew, Co-Chair Associate Professor Rebecca Hardin, Co-Chair Associate Professor Omolade Adunbi Professor Elisha Renne Associate Professor Elizabeth F.S. Roberts © 2017 Achirri C. Ismael [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8867-471X All rights reserved. Acknowledgements Firstly, thanks to my project collaborators, Baba Phungula, Brother Musa Zikhali, Mr. Rasta Mlambo and Sabelo Mhlongo who gave me time-space, patience and generosity to enable this project. Thanks for making sure that I felt at home at Manukelana-Dukuduku and for being a source of great comfort during the April 2015 crisis in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Your frequent interventions on my behalf and strong bonds of friendship were very pivotal to this project. I equally appreciate the space and insights that Americo Bonkewitzz gave me into butterfly conservation. Prince KaMsabe Tsaka initially acquainted me with the Isiphaphalazi Butterfly Project and negotiated for me to continue fieldwork at MacBanana Butterfly Dome in Margate, South Coast. Thanks for lodging me at Margate. You’re a wonderful companion. Thanks to Bongmusa Biella and to the proprietor of the Mac Banana Project and Butterfly Dome for giving me access and space to carry out my work. I also appreciate the assistance and collaboration of Sabelo Mthembu and Vukani at Tembe Butterfly Dome, Maputaland. Thanks for lodging me at the research facility. The manager of Bhekhula Sand Forest lodged me after I got lost in the wilderness of Maputaland (Tembe Elephant Park) and almost initially spent the night inside the butterfly dome for security. That stitch saved me. My deepest gratitude to my advisor and mentors Kelly Askew and Rebecca Hardin for standing by me throughout my program, always supporting, nudging and nurturing me in all the aspects that implicate my progress. Being and working with you over the years continues to be a very transformative personal and academic experience that I cannot spell out in a single paragraph. For that reason, I would keep this short for now. I also acknowledge the support, warm friendship and inspiring critique of Omolade Adunbi who doubled as my GSI mentor and coordinating Professor in Introduction to Environmental Politics. Working with you broadened my academic and professional perspectives and gave me an increased sense of purpose. Thank you Liz for advising me years ago when I was in a ii dilemma about my research topic. You advised that I take up a topic that I wouldn’t cease thinking or talking no matter how rough it gets, a topic that I could stick with through thick and thin. Your advice helped me stay the course during the challenges of pre-field and fieldwork. I want to thank Elisha for always been there to help me with questions arising from my work. Knowing that you were always there waiting to read my work, spurred me to write. I also appreciate various salient pieces of advice that Arun Agrawal alongside Rebecca gave me, as my Graduate Student Research Assistant Coordinators and as coordinators of the Development, Sustainable Livelihoods, and Conservation graduate workshops. DESULICO was critical to making me feel very at home in terms of how to think of environmental processes and to deepen one’s knowledge on a topic. I won’t forget one piece of critical advice that Arun gave me - if you really want to know a topic in-depth, write a paper on the subject. Thanks to my classmates, office colleagues and friends in the School of Natural Resources and Environment: Jennifer Johnson, Baruani Mshale, Daniel Miller and Menan Jangu for your great and inspiring company over the years. And thanks as well to Carolyn Dekker for always motivating me with literary insights and framings of environmental issues. Stuart Kirsch contributed to framing the written project at the pre-writing phase, oriented the opening section as well as encouraged me to give room to my writing style. Judy Irvine suggested that I focus on the implications of neoliberalism to local social relations. I decided to reserve that part for ultimate papers and the book project. Other members of the Anthropology Program that influenced my writing and thinking processes at different stages include Ruth Behar, Alaina Lemon, Mathew Hull, Eric Mueggler, Robert Whallon and Professor Maxwell Owusu. I won’t forget all the generous help that Cate McCraw, the Graduate Program Coordinator for Anthropology, has lent to my progress. I acknowledge the constant encouragement of my colleagues Stuart Strange, Ujin Kim and Joshua Sepharo. Thanks to my fellow Ethnolab 2015 colleagues, and in particular, Smadar Brack, Lavrentia Karamaniola, Jin Li, Debora Jones, Meghanne Barker, Leigh Saris, Jeffrey Albanese, Erica Feldman, Bruno Renero-Hannan and Christine Sargent for your guidance and support through my first write-up semester. This research was made possible by several years of Rackham Graduate Fellowship and a grant from the African Studies Center. The Department of Anthropology and Rackham Graduate School also assisted me with funding that enabled three months of preliminary research in iii 2009. Without the above, there would have been no project to talk about. Bill and Pulera Ndi of Tuskegee, Alabama, whom I count as family, stood by me throughout my field research and writing phase in various capacities. I cannot underestimate pressure from Bill to ensure that I complete this project. The understanding and support of my wife, Karolina Achirri (nee Wojciechowska) has been critical to my completing fieldwork and this project. I cannot fully appreciate your presence, patience, sustained warmth and positive support. You’ve been truly exceptional. Thanks as well to your faculty and colleagues at the Second Language Studies PhD Program, Michigan State University, for always welcoming us and encouraging me as I wrote my project in East Lansing. I thank my mom, Esther Bi, who never ceases to pray for me and cannot wait to see me complete this project and come home for a break. Ultimately, for having kept me safe and seen me through some very life-threatening situations and for giving me all the above faculty, colleagues, family, friends, institutions, and resources, I give thanks to Yehovah, Unkhulunkhulu, or God the Creator. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements ii List of pictures viii List of maps x Collaborators or Cast of Actors xi Abstract xvi Neoliberalism, Estuaries, and Environmental Entanglements 1 “Fieldwork” in a Wetland: Knowledge Production vs. Institutional Legitimacies 2 Post-Colonial Nature Conservation & the Persistence of Colonial Regimes 6 Understanding Place: Kinship from Unexpected Quarters 7 Communities of Actors in St Lucia Estuary (what of non-human species?) 12 Wetlands & Conceptual Approaches in the Anthropology of Conservation & Development 15 Watching Butterflies: From a Pastime to a Research Topic 21 Establishing Rapport, Biopolitics and a Garden of Conspiracies 29 Saving Dukuduku Forest: The Manukelana Indigenous Nursery and Art Project 31 The Future Park as a Contested Landscape 38 Introduction: Estuarine Communities and Place Histories 42 Modernist Zoning: Process of Deterritorialization and Reterritorialization 43 The Turning Tide: Nature Conservancy in Northern Zululand under Attack since the late 1980s 52 The Uses of Forestry in St Lucia Estuary 62 Framing Environmental Action 63 Hypothesis 66 Understanding “Third Natures” at the Edges of Protected Area Conservancies 67 Significance of this Project 70 Chapter Outlines 71 Chapter One: Research Methods and Conceptual Approaches 75 Field Negotiations, Open-ended Adjustments 75 v Putting Theory on a Backburner 78 Following Actors and Actants: Watching Nature Emerge 81 Bricolage, Improvisation, Affective Knowledge and Learning 90 Filming Butterflies 92 At the Butterfly Project: Writing Memos and Keeping a “Nature” Diary 99 Walking: Following Actors, Actants, and Narratives 100 From Methods to Theory: Understanding the Manukelana Project as a Complex and Unfolding “Assemblage” 103 The Notion of Community 110 Liminality, Affect, and Social Action 113 Chapter Two: ‘Gardening for Conservation’: The Emergence of Manukelana Art and Indigenous Nursery Project as an Affective and a Productive Space 121 “Rollout Neoliberalism” and the Challenge to State-Managed Conservancies: Awkward Alliances for Environmental Change 126 Indigenous Forestry and the Woodcraft Tradition in Northern Zululand 131 Group Formation: Dukuduku Forest as a Peripheral Zone and a Labor Pool 137 Registering the Org: Activating Diverse Forms of Social Capital 153 Restoring the Landscape: Reclaiming Land from Afforestation 170 Sharing Labor, Stories, Lives and Ideologies 171 Indigenous Host Plants, Caterpillars, and Butterflies 183 Manukelana and the Legacy of Forest Restoration and Urban Greening in Khula and Dukuduku 191 Thinking Alternatively: Manukelana as a Limimal and Affective Landscape 197 Chapter Three: Ontologies of Human-Plant Connectivity: Articulating Plant Names, Agency and Landscapes 201 Alien Kinships 202 Landscapes of Trauma 205 Indigenous Plants Without Local Names 216 Indigenous Plants and Their Names: Curiosities or Outdated Folklore? 219 The Spiritual Value of Plants and Trees 224 Articulating Human-Plant