Well, I had the opportunity to attend the 2012
World Economic History Conference held in the Western Cape town of Stellenbosch
in South Africa. Stellenbosch is just
outside of Capetown and is one of the oldest towns in South Africa dating back
to 1679 and today is a university town of about 130,000 people situated in the
heart of South African wine country. My
session at the WEHC was a reunion between researchers on 19th and
early 20th wealth in the British Empire that was organized by David
Green (King’s College, London) and included along with myself, Alastair Owens
(Queen Mary University, London), Jim McAloon (Victoria University of
Wellington), Martin Shanahan (University of South Australia) and Roy Hora
(Universidad de San Andre).
My stay in Stellenbosch was at the Eendracht
Hotel on tree-lined Dorp Street. The
Eendracht was originally a home that has been converted into an elegant hotel
establishment with superb accommodation and service.
Indeed, my entire stay in South Africa was marked by
excellent, friendly and attentive service.
It’s a long air trip there from Canada (Toronto to Capetown via a three
hour layover Amsterdam was 23 hours) but well worth the experience you are
going to have.
South Africa and the Western Cape region is an
incredibly beautiful and diverse land featuring vineyards, mountains and
beaches. From an economic perspective, it was remarkable how many
economic activities were clustered in the small region that I had the
opportunity to visit.
Orchards and
farming, vineyards, fishing, mining, forestry, manufacturing, resource and food
processing, education, health, tourism were all part of the economic base of
activities making it a remarkably self-sufficient region and yet with a
surprising range of exports not least of which is wine – try the unique South
African blend of Pinotage. The cultural
wealth was also amazing in terms of the vast amounts of local art on display
especially in some of the wineries.
South Africa is a land of diversity and extremes
ranging from climate and terrain to its society, which is marked by great
wealth as well as great inequality. In
terms of comparisons with my own home here in Northern Ontario, some of the
social issues such as employment, educational opportunity and housing were
reminiscent of challenges we have with First Nations though rooted in a different
historical context. The demographic
balance between the descendants of European settlement and the indigenous
populations are also quite different as the share of population originating
from European settlement is much smaller than in Canada.
As well, there were other interesting
comparisons such as the fact that while we have forest fires, the Western Cape
region also has fires during their summer (I was visiting in winter which is cool
and wet and more like autumn for someone from Canada). As well, we tend to have to bear proof our garbage
containers and camp sites in provincial parks while in South Africa the concern
is with baboons who are also on the prowl for things to eat.
South Africa was an impressive place. It was a great trip. I can’t wait to go again.
