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wealth of its plant species , as well as the extraordinary diversity of wildlife , attracted sustained attention . By the early twentieth century , the discovery of ancient fossils , stone implements and hominin remains suggested that the country may have constituted a
“ cradle ” of modern human evolution .
South Africa was not a core zone of invention . But it was , at key moments , a significant incubator and testing ground of innovation . Application could be as important as discovery . In the nineteenth century , improved breeds and new agricultural technology , including dams , wells , fodder and fencing , underpinned exports of wool and ostrich feathers . Devastating new rifles helped to change the balance of power in favour of colonial regimes .
In the twentieth century , the mineral revolution necessitated developments in applied geology and the chemistry of gold extraction . The scientific imagination was also more exploratory in curiosity-driven fields such as astronomy , palaeontology , and wildlife conservation .
Our text also builds on many individual stories .
James Barry , who came to the Cape in the 1810s , was probably the first formally trained woman doctor in Britain . She made a significant contribution to modernising Cape Town ’ s early medical institutions . She also performed one of the first successful Caesarean operations in the British empire , for an ancestor of the man who became the first Afrikaner nationalist Prime Minister . It was in commemoration of this operation that he carried the unusual name
James Barry Munnik Hertzog .
Elsewhere in South Africa , rich mineral resources gave impetus to a sequence of discoveries . Hans Merensky , son of a German missionary , was sent to train as a geologist in Prussia . Returning to South Africa , he played a major role in identifying coastal diamond deposits , as well as platinum , and phosphates . Platinum-group minerals have outstripped gold in their value . Merensky invested his wealth in a farm , Westfalia , which became an important site for scientific work in improving avocado pears .
Thinking creatively
South Africa gave birth both to Afrikaner and African nationalism , which affected the trajectory of scientific endeavour . White South Africans were also carriers of a darker tradition – the attempts to
justify racial segregation in scientific terms . In the relatively brief era of African nationalist rule after 1994 , the state has espoused more universalist goals and the segregationist drive to account for racial difference has yielded to an emphasis on common humankind .
We explore the circulation of ideas , recognising that many originate in the north but are not trapped in the social context of their origin . Scientific ideas are potentially universal and can be appropriated and modified everywhere .
Today , it is clear that scientific work in multiple sites with diverse backing is important for South Africa to address its socio-economic and environmental problems . There are signs that its scientists are up to the challenge : after all , it was in South Africa that the Omicron variant of COVID was first identified . Scientists were sufficiently inserted in global networks to identify this variant and sufficiently open to publicising it .
Figure 2 . The Scientific Imagination in South Africa , 1700 to the Present , is published by Cambridge University Press ( 2021 )
The scientific imagination needs to be nurtured in the country , along with the capacity to think creatively about history and society .
51 Grassroots Vol 22 No 1 March 2022