‘Colonialism impacted Africa's animals — it disrupted traditions of respectful distance'

Time of India

6 hours ago

Nancy J. Jacobs
is Professor of History at Brown University. Speaking to
Srijana Mitra Das
at Times Evoke , she discusses animals in times of capture — and freedom:
What is the core of your research?
My work is at the intersection of social and environmental history. I was trained as a South Africanist in the 1980s-90s. The most powerful form of history then was social history. However, this had very little to say about the environment, people's relationships with plants, animals, soil, rain — and what disrupted those ties. So, I began working on these areas. In my last project, I've tried to centre non-human actors who are more than just instruments in human history — they are subjects of their own history.
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Costco Shoppers Say This Wrinkle Cream Is "Actually Worth It"
The Skincare Magazine
Undo
ONCE I WAS FREE... Native to equatorial
Africa
, the African grey parrot is famously intelligent — but its charm harms its two species, the birds taken from the wild to be caged 'performing' pets ( and iStock)
Did political processes like imperialism, resource extraction and
Apartheid
impact non-humans?
Yes. Like the medieval stage in Europe, there is an entire colonial era in African history. During this, animals also came under the colonial state and became its subjects. The book '
Segregated Species
' by Jules Skotnes-Brown talks about the racialisation of black subjects and how their relationships with non-human species came under this strain too. How the colonial state dealt with animals cannot be separated from how it thought of Africans. The book highlights, for instance, what was considered a 'pest' — that sounded a lot like how black people were framed in Apartheid discourse.
In my work, I've found birds are less subject to the impositions of colonisers because they are so global — it's a lot easier for them to get away. But there was this other huge development in Africa, the intrusion of capitalism, which impacted them — species like the African grey parrot became a commodity for such markets. That goes lockstep with resource extraction for outsiders' profit — the history of Africa's relationship with Europe is the extraction of wealth, going back to the tragedy of enslaved people. While African labour power was extracted, so were minerals, food crops, industrial commodities like rubber and wood, plants — and animals. These extractions then impacted human interactions with the environment, producing feedback effects on the quality of life, etc.
LET'S TALK! With 11 parakeet species, vibrant parrots appear often in India's cultural fabric ( and iStock)
Can you tell us about the African grey parrot?
I'm writing a global history of it. The status of the African grey parrot worldwide makes it an important subject. Europe is the only continent on
Earth
without native parrots — the first such birds Europeans encountered were from India, who returned with
Alexander the Great
. These birds who could talk blew their minds — Europeans became parrot-mad.
In the 15 th and 16 th centuries, they travelled to Africa, the
Indian Ocean
and the Americas and found parrots in all these places — they were amazed. Am Italian map made in 1502, the 'Cantino Planisphere', shows Africa, Brazil and different species of parrots. The African grey parrot is widely considered the most intelligent of these birds, best at vocalising and even better at mimicking than macaws. The African grey is packed with intelligence and character — its reputation grew and this charismatic bird was taken from Africa and transported worldwide.
CAN I FLY? Many of the macaw's 19 species are 'pets' from South America in distant East Asia ( and iStock)
In 'The Tame and the Wild',
Marcy Norton
argues that prejudiced older historians felt the Americas had lagged behind the supposed achievements of Europe in not having domesticated many wild animals — a reason trotted out was the supposed 'inferiority' of indigenous Americans.
Norton
argues it was not that native Americans couldn't domesticate animals — they chose not to. They had a different set of relationships with animals — she shows how indigenous communities in Brazil and the Caribbean made friends with animals and treated them as family. Unlike domesticated animals in Europe, they couldn't be eaten — they became true companions. Norton celebrates this as a choice by indigenous communities, not a deficiency.
I turned to Africa to explore its traditions — certainly, domesticated animals existed widely. However, I couldn't find evidence of friendships between people and animals — going by the evidence, pre-colonial Africans were not taming birds, making pets and living with them. Instead, there was a respectful distance maintained between species — parrots watched people, people watched them. Yet, they lived in different planes. I used the concept of 'conviviality' — it seemed parrots and people lived in Africa in proximate conviviality, close to each other, sharing space but not intersecting much.
When Europeans arrived, they were very scornful at Africans for not keeping parrots as pets. Yet, proximate conviviality is a good model for how to live with wildlife — respectful distance can be a positive way when you consider how all over the world, people have wiped out so much fauna. Megafauna in
North America
was decimated but Africa has large mammals and they have managed to live together with people — why? Perhaps Africa has traditions of respectful cohabitation which appear to define how humans lived with parrots as well.
This way of life was disrupted when global capitalism arrived and Africa became a supplier of resources to the world — people elsewhere wanted parrots and particularly the smartest African greys. They became commodities and were taken away. With capitalism's expansion, there's been more specialisation in these birds' sales — tragically, both the two species of African grey parrots are now endangered. They've disappeared from many parts of west and central Africa.
What are 'herding birds'?
There are traditions about birds all over Africa. One such species is the drongo which eats insects and hangs around cattle. In eastern and southern Africa, people talk about them not just as eating insects though but 'herding' cattle. Yet, why and how would that happen?
WATCHING YOU: Some birds in Africa are said to 'herd' cattle
( and iStock)
As I studied this, I found in indigenous knowledge, no-one actually thinks birds are particularly good at cattle-herding — but for some herders, it was useful to point to them and say, 'Oh look, they're here to work' because then, they could get some relief. As the birds were always around — some apparently even whistled to the cattle, as per herd boys — the latter sometimes saw them as co-workers and could sneak off for a nap, leaving the birds supposedly in charge. The birds had reasons to be around animals and people — the latter recognised this, saw them as allies and used their ways to make their own lives a little easier. That explains the funny stories around birds 'herding' cattle — this is animal agency. Often, it can change human attitudes.