LHSA Legends

Legends of Landscape

Who are the Legends of Landscape and what makes them a Legend? This is a challenging question to answer. In the three broad areas of Landscape - Natural, Cultural and Designed/Desirable - we might first think of Landscape Architects like Joane Pim or Ann Sutton. We also might think of famous horticultural writers like Nancy Gardiner or Prof Kristo Pienaar.

When we consider the Natural Landscape we might think of some controversial figures like Oom Paul Kruger for whom the Kruger National Park is named, or Cecil John Rhodes who conserved and consolidated much of Table Mountain in his Groote Schuur Estate, and saved it from development.

Who are our best African Landscape Legends? Is it the world famous Bushmen or San - names and proper spellings are very controversial today - who lived a life in complete harmony with nature for untold thousands of years right across the continent? Or is it the unknown Mambos of the medieval Zimbabwe Culture Kingdoms that are the region's most famous and most prized architectural geniuses, likewise balancing design and nature in their own unique style?

Which Cultural Landscapes are most prized today, and to whom? Is it the world renowned Winelands of the Southwestern Cape, an imported European culture that has transformed the unique Fynbos landscapes of the world's smallest Botanical Kingdom? To whom are these viticultural masterpieces responsible, the French Huguenots or today's farmers? And should we acknowledge Jan van Riebeeck or Jan Boom for the culture of gardening begun in the Dutch style in the Company Gardens of the Dutch East India Company (VOC)?

What about the Khoekhoen of the SW Cape, who migrated here from the Okavango Delta up to two thousand years ago, and created a new civilisation of livestock herding and living off the land, information combining the ancient Bushmen knowledge of plants and landscape that has come down to us as veldkos and the unique names that are the language of the Karoo and Cape.

Up north, the Nguni and Sotho, the Tswana and Tsonga, Shona and so many more, have given the landscape its place names long before the Europeans arrived. These people and languages are also legendary, from the Munhumutapas and Modjadji Rain Queens, Ntsoanatsatsi and Modimolle, Mosi-oa-tunya, Hoerikwagga and Tsitsikamma.

These are all our Landscape Legends and Heroines.