Orchards of Privilege by Robert Ross - 9780821426203

Ohio University Press

Orchards of PrivilegeWater, Oranges, and Race in the Gamtoos Valley of South Africa, 17002023\nAuthor(s): Robert Ross\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Ohio University Press, United States\nImprint: Ohio University Press\nISBN-13: 9780821426203, 978-0821426203\nSynopsis\nThis study of the Gamtoos River floodplain in South Africas Eastern Cape Province traces its transformation from an eighteenth-century natural landscape of thick bush into an agricultural zone now threatened by climate change.\n The first half of the book explains how missionaries from the London Missionary Society and residents of the Hankey Mission Station introduced irrigation, turning the area into a community of small-scale farmers. Despite early failures, by 1849 they had constructed South Africas first major irrigation tunnel and aqueduct. However, conflicts between the missionaries and residents led to the loss of communal lands to privatization, which ultimately impoverished the local farmers.\n The second half.