The seeds of black growth are being sown
The seeds of black growth are being sown
The seeds of black growth are being sown: Nokwanda Makunga attended her first botanical conference with her father, Oswald Makunga, who is thought to be South Africa’s first black botanist. She recalls doing research in her father’s lab as a youngster with her father, who specialized in the Iridaceae (iris) family, where he would encourage her to count seeds. During the 1950s, he studied at the University of Fort Hare, which was the first university to educate black people at tertiary degree level in university in South Africa seeds of black growth are being sown .
Makunga, a professor of plant biotechnology at Stellenbosch University, explains how she uses medicinal plants from the larger Cape Floristic Region to live up to her name “Kwanda,” which means “growth” in isiXhosa.
“Both of my parents were fascinated by plants, and they encouraged me to pursue my aspirations and select my life and career path,” she adds.
Makunga is one of the 12 original members of Black Botanists Week, an online movement created by Tanisha Williams, a botanist and plant ecologist in the United States, to promote, encourage, and create a safe environment for black people, indigenous peoples, and people of color who love plants.
This week’s Black Botanists Week has its origins in Black Birders Week, a social media effort to increase the visibility of black birders that took off after a racist incident involving birdwatcher Christian Cooper in Central Park in the United States last year. Amy Cooper, a white woman, had labeled him “dangerous” and had called the cops on him because he was black.
Black Botanists Week, according to Makunga, aims to inspire others who may not choose botany as a career option because “they may not know that people like me are engaged in this type of study.”
She believes that representation is important. “Young people need to see people who look like them in order to recognize themselves in them. If I may use a botanical analogy, for this particular cause that is one method we will be able to grow fresh timber.
“There’s also the perception, which I believe is based on implicit bias or stereotyping, that black people don’t appreciate nature or don’t comprehend conservation.
“However, we have coexisted with nature for generations. Traditional ecological knowledge is associated with substantial knowledge and abilities, but this is not usually reflected in academic settings.”
According to Makunga, exclusion is not necessarily blatant, but rather systematic. “And it is those same mechanisms that we need to reform in order to become a society that is much more open to all kinds of people who are interested in nature and plant sciences in general.”
Black botanists with formal training are still in the minority in South Africa, especially at historically white academic institutions. She was the first black female academic botanist in her department, for example, among a staff of around 20 persons. “However, the numbers are increasing, particularly among the younger generation,” Makunga says.
Black Botanists Week aims to bring the hidden faces and voices of black individuals who share a love for plants and nature and work with plants — both past and present — to light.
Black Botanists Week strives to bring the hidden faces and voices of black individuals who share a love for plants and nature and work with plants — past and present — to light.
Makunga is irritated by “parachute science,” she claims. “This is where you’ll find experts from the north – white researchers — coming to study African plants. They may have field assistants and engage with guides and other African scientists, but when they return, there is no recognition of the same people who assisted them in their report.
“Yes, we have biodiversity, but we may not have the economic power to participate in certain types of studies that might be published in these journals,” she says. “However, African scientists are producing work that is on par with that produced in other parts of the world.”
Itumeleng Moroenyane, a member of the Black Botanists Week team, recalls how lonely he felt when studying botany at the University of Cape Town in the early 2000s.
“Being the only black queer person in the department at the time, it was really isolating,” says Moroenyane, whose research focuses on improving agricultural crop resilience to drought and climate change and reducing the reliance on pesticides.
“It was entirely due to a lack of representation from people who were similar to me. It’s difficult to feel like you belong at the table when you’re in an environment where you don’t see individuals who look like you.
“Seeing others who are similar to you succeeding and doing fantastic things inspires you. You discover that as the only black student in a research group, your opinions are not valued.
Moroenyane, who recently completed his PhD, backs up this claim with his master’s thesis, which looked at how soil bacteria in fynbos drove ecological diversification.
“Subsequently, much of the work does not mention my work, or the insights or innovation of my work. There was a research that was almost identical to the one I conducted. It’s as if there’s a barrier in South Africa where white academics refuse to acknowledge black academics,” he says. “Black botanists are subjected to these micro-aggressions.”
Despite these systemic impediments, Black Botanists Week, he argues, is about shifting these narratives. “One of the things I appreciate about this project is that we’re spotlighting the incredible job that black botanists are doing in the face of these obstacles.”
Makunga continues, “Nature works as a diversified variety of communities.” “Another key component that we need to foster inside the botanical realm is that we should be working together as varied, inclusive units that encourage the growth of each and every one of our partners.
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