Overview

During the colonization of Africa, European colonists set about creating game reserves in Africa, convinced that they would find in Africa a nature that no longer existed in Europe. After independence, and with the help of UNESCO and the WWF, African leaders continued to 'protect' the same nature, a nature that the whole world wanted to be pristine, wild and without humans – a timeless Garden of Eden. The consequences of this story are well known: millions of Africans were expelled from the land on which they had lived for generations. But how did this happen? Who organized this continuity between the colonial era and the era of independence? Guillaume Blanc answers these questions by immersing himself at the heart of a strange global ecological mission, launched in 1961: the 'African Special Project'. He tells the story of this project by bringing to life four worlds: the world of gentleman experts who saw Africa as the world's last natural refuge; the world of East African colonists who were retraining as international experts; the world of African leaders who sought to control their peoples while satisfying the demands of their Western partners; and finally, the world of local farmers and their families living on the land who were forced to adapt or abandon their homes. These men do not speak of the same nature, but step by step, their worlds draw closer together until they meet – and this is where violence erupts. This impressive book lays bare the violence inherent in the creation of African game reserves and national parks and documents a hidden dimension of colonialism and its legacies.

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9781509568697

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Reviews

""Using diverse archival sources and offering rare attention to overlooked voices, Saving African Nature traces how experts, states, and rural communities shaped conservation in East Africa. It provides a powerful, multi-pronged analysis of the enduring power imbalances behind the region's purportedly pristine places."" Raf de Bont, Maastritcht University ""In Saving African Nature, Blanc exhaustively records the elitism, Malthusianism, and control that underlie the conservation mission in Africa. In stunning detail, he reveals the roots of this persistent violence in the unshakable period of its earliest development. The research is meticulous, the storytelling, artful, and the conclusions, profound and disturbing."" Paul Robbins, University of Wisconsin-Madison ""Guillaume Blanc offers a comprehensive micro-history of African environmentalism, giving a voice to each of the actors involved… In this he succeeds: his approach provides a better understanding of the politics of nature in Africa and helps us to make sense of what this postcolonial moment is all about."" L'Histoire ""Guillaume Blanc shows how African nature has been and remains the subject of a myth, that of a universal and timeless Eden – a myth that has been reinforced by colonization, expulsion and exclusion."" Ballast

""Guillaume Blanc offers a comprehensive micro-history of African environmentalism, giving a voice to each of the actors involved… In this he succeeds: his approach provides a better understanding of the politics of nature in Africa and helps us to make sense of what this postcolonial moment is all about."" L'Histoire ""Guillaume Blanc shows how African nature has been and remains the subject of a myth, that of a universal and timeless Eden – a myth that has been reinforced by colonization, expulsion and exclusion."" Ballast

Author Information

Guillaume Blanc is Professor in Contemporary History at Sciences Po Bordeaux.

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