Category: Analysis

Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Jaco Greeff, Professor in Genetics, University of Pretoria

Television nature programmes and scientific papers tend to celebrate the perfection of evolved traits. But the father of evolution through natural selection, Charles Darwin, warned that evolution would produce quirks and “blunders” that reflect a lineage’s history.

Our recent study from the Kruger National Park in South Africa shows how true this is. Our team of behavioural ecologists found that the behaviour of certain fig wasps, long considered textbook examples of precise adaptation, is far from perfect.

Previous research on fig wasps, but also other parasitoid wasps in general, has focused almost exclusively on design perfection. The aim of our work was to investigate a case where we expected to see “imperfections” due to necessary compromises and the legacy of history.

Our study focused on Ceratosolen arabicus, a tiny wasp (about 2.5mm long) that pollinates sycamore figs. We will call them “pollinators” for simplicity.

For years, researchers have admired how pollinating fig wasps such as C. arabicus adjust the percentage of their offspring that are male (their sex ratios) with near mathematical precision to maximise their reproductive success.

But a previous study suggested that when a pollinator shares a fig with another species of wasp it might incorrectly “adjust” its sex ratio as if it was with a female of its own species.

For our research, we allowed the pollinator to lay eggs on its own or together with a gall wasp (Sycophaga sycomori) or a cuckoo wasp (Ceratosolen galili). These species, like the pollinators, crawl into figs to lay their eggs and may elicit the incorrect response.

We then used a statistical approach to determine how well various hypotheses explained the variation in the data. The hypotheses we tested were:

• that the pollinators’ sex ratio remained unchanged by the presence of the other species

• various degrees of effects, for example, that each of the species affects the sex ratio differently.

We found that the other two species of wasps do indeed interfere with the pollinators’ neat sex ratio production mechanism. Pollinators lose up to 5% of their potential grandchildren when they share a fig with a gall wasp, and 12% when they share it with a cuckoo wasp.

Still, the pollinators have survived for millions of years and are not expected to go extinct because of this loss of grandchildren.

Given such a “flaw” in a trait that seemed perfect, biologists should expect to see many “design errors” in life if we look for them. We have to be open to that possibility so that we see what’s actually there and not what we expect to see.

How things work

In each fig, one or a few pollinator mothers lay all their eggs. The mother or mothers’ offspring hatch inside the fig and mate inside. When the mother or mothers’ offspring mature, they mate within the fig, meaning brothers routinely mate with sisters. This means brothers will compete among each other for mating opportunities. In contrast, mated females leave their “birth” fig and disperse to start the cycle anew. But importantly, females compete with unrelated females to find new figs to lay their eggs in.

Therefore, a lone mother should produce just enough sons, about 10% of her total brood, to ensure all her daughters get mated. The rest can be daughters.

The wasps have a simple trick to control the sex ratio directly: unfertilised eggs become sons, while fertilised ones become daughters.

When two mothers lay eggs in the same fig, each must produce more sons, around 25%, because now their sons have to compete with those of the other mother. But if a mother shares a fig with another species, this logic does not apply because competition for mates and mating opportunities for her sons do not change. Therefore, her sex ratio should stay the same as if she were alone.

But it does not.

Pollinator mothers use two simple mechanisms to adjust their sex ratio in response to the presence of other pollinators, but these mechanisms are also triggered by other species.

Let us explain the first mechanism using a gin and tonic analogy.

Imagine a bartender making a G&T: first, he pours a tot of gin (sons) and then fills the rest of the glass with tonic (daughters). Now, imagine two bartenders unknowingly making a G&T in one glass. They both add a tot of gin and then top up with tonic. The result is a stronger drink with more gin.

Pollinator mothers do something similar. They tend to lay male eggs first, and then gradually switch to laying females. We call this the ladies-last effect. But when other species like the cuckoo wasp are present, this pattern still changes the sex ratio because the second species shrinks the glass’s total size. As a consequence the pollinator ends up laying fewer daughters. This can be seen in the figure moving from right to left along the x-axis.

The second mechanism works differently but leads to the same problematic outcome. It relies on an active adjustment of the sex ratio. Although the G&T analogy breaks down, this is like each bartender adding more than a tot of gin when he realises there is a second bartender mixing a drink in the glass.

Similarly, when a pollinator detects another pollinator, she increases the number of sons. But when another species is present, she still behaves as if she is competing with her own kind, increasing her number of sons, as can be seen in the figure moving upwards along the y-axis.

Since both mechanisms continue operating inappropriately when other species are present, the sex ratios become erroneously skewed. Specifically, the sex ratio of a single mother shifts from 10% sons when she is alone, to 16% when she is with a gall wasp, and to 26% when she is with the cuckoo wasp. It should have remained at 10%.

All that glitters is not gold

As an isiZulu proverb says: “Ikiwane elihle ligcwala izibungu”, literally translated to: “The nicest-looking fig is usually full of worms.” Pollinator sex ratio adjustment has been touted as a prime example of how perfectly natural selection can optimise the design of biological systems. But this is an oversimplification.

In reality, the history of a trait and compromises between a trait’s various functions can direct evolution to imperfect solutions. For instance, here evolution did not “design” separate “solutions” for with-own-species and with-other-species scenarios.

Instead, evolution seems to have optimised it for the average condition, an imperfect, but workable, compromise. The cost in number of grandchildren due to this compromise is astronomical because pollinators in the Kruger National Park frequently share a fig with another pollinator, galler or a cuckoo wasp.

Such trade-offs are likely common in nature. Evolution tends not to redesign from scratch; rather, it tinkers with what is already there. As a result, we often get solutions that work well enough, rather than perfectly.

So next time you marvel at a natural wonder, remember: the story is rarely one of flawless design. It is a story of imperfect compromises, shaped by what evolution could do with what it had. And that story is far richer and more real than any Hollywood ending.

Jaco Greeff received funding from the National Research Foundation. Any opinion, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and therefore the NRF does not accept any liability in regard thereto.

– ref. Nature’s not perfect: fig wasps try to balance sex ratios for survival but they can get it wrong – https://theconversation.com/natures-not-perfect-fig-wasps-try-to-balance-sex-ratios-for-survival-but-they-can-get-it-wrong-260852

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria

All that’s left of a famous settlement called the Old Location in Windhoek, Namibia, is a graveyard and a monument to remember the residents who were killed while protesting their forced removal in 1959.

But a new open source book documents how the spirit and culture that drove resistance are kept alive by those who lived there.

After the Old Location massacre the national liberation movement Swapo would be founded to fight for independence.

The Windhoek Old Location tells the residents’ stories with historical images by Dieter Hinrichs and words by Henning Melber. We asked Melber more about the site.

---

What is a township and can you give us a brief history of this one?

Townships were established in southern African settler colonial societies by white minority regimes. They created reserves for ethnic groups classified as “tribes” to separate whites from other local communities in cities and towns.

In Namibia, the Old Location was the main residential area for Africans in the capital, Windhoek. The settlement was established from 1903 during German colonial rule. After the first world war German colonies were handed over to allied powers and South Africa was entrusted with the administration of its neighbour, turning it into a province-like entity.

Following South Africa’s apartheid doctrine, Black Namibians were physically separated by ethnic classification. The Old Location was then just called a Location. Residents were from various local ethnic communities, living together peacefully and sharing a common identity in daily life.

But since the late 1950s the residents were relocated to a new, ethnically subdivided township that had been demarcated further from the capital’s “white” city centre where many worked as underpaid labourers. The so-called Coloureds and Rehoboth Basters would then be separated and moved to a new suburb, Khomasdal.

When the Location’s “Native Advisory Board” was asked for a name for the new destination, it suggested Katutura. Through ignorance of the meaning of this Otjiherero word (“A place where we do not stay”), the proposal was adopted.

Towards the end of 1959, boycotts and demonstrations in protest of the forced removal were organised, mostly by women. On 10 December some 13 people were killed and many more injured in a clash with the police. The day is remembered as Human Rights Day/Namibian Women’s Day.

Residents who refused to move were deported to reserves. All homes were demolished. This destruction followed South Africa’s policy to raze established communities to establish white suburbs. The Location was closed in August 1968.

A year earlier, in August 1967, the first clash between South African soldiers and armed fighters of the liberation movement Swapo took place in the north of the country. The trauma of the forced removals from the Old Location was a turning point for a liberation struggle that would last until independence in 1990.

What role does memory play in telling this story?

The Old Location’s history has so far been preserved mainly in archives and people’s memories. We wanted it to be available in the public sphere. The book documents resilience and the determination to resist apartheid. It also highlights the unique social interaction in the Old Location.

It includes many personal memories. Bience Gawanas, chancellor of the University of Warwick, was born in the Old Location in 1956. Her father was a motor mechanic who owned a shop and filling station. He opposed the forced removal. In her preface she stresses the need

to tell our stories to bring back the values of humanity and community in our lives…

Uazuvara Katjivena, who published his grandmother’s story of the German genocide in Namibia, emphasises in his postscript:

Documenting aspects of what happened then and the lives we had under apartheid … are an important reminder that we did not surrender.

The voices of former residents recall a community nurtured by a spirit of extended family and solidarity. Zedekia Ngavirue, the Location’s first social worker, was involved in the resistance. Years later he said:

It was, indeed, when we owned little that we were prepared to make the greatest sacrifices.

For many, the Old Location was a place of security and harmony. Daniel Humavindu remembers:

The Old Location created a great family in which residents looked out for each other.

According to former resident Petrina Rina Tira Biwa:

The segregation we experienced when we moved to Katutura was not there.

“On Saturdays,” stressed educator and activist Ottilie Abrahams, “you are at the football field. Everybody used to go there, like a religion.”

And former resident Anna Campbell remembers two of the Location’s most famous bands, Johannes Mareko’s and Laydon’s:

It was safe to attend the dances. We also had films.

Why are the photos so important?

The book’s photos offer an authentic face and they capture the atmosphere of the time. They were taken mainly in 1959 and 1960 by young German photographer Dieter Hinrichs. After training in Germany he took a temporary job in a Windhoek photo studio. In his spare time he took the photos that today offer a rare glimpse into Black social realities of the time.

They show ordinary daily life and cultural activities. Dancing competitions were a weekend entertainment. Church events created togetherness. Every year the Location’s Coon Carnival would invade the Windhoek inner city.

Alongside these photos are others of the loss and pain that characterised the move to Katutura. In contrast, family portraits staged in the atelier of the local photo shop reclaim individual pride and dignity.

Aerial views contrast the motley Old Location with the soulless drawing board design of Katutura. The photo gallery in the book reveals humanity, an essential antidote to the dehumanisation of apartheid.

What happened after the bulldozers?

Katutura became a kind of open-air prison, where access was controlled and people were under constant observation. But they did not capitulate. Their struggle took new forms.

Katutura became the operational base for organised underground activities of the resistance. The Swapo Youth League was constituted there.

---

Read more:
Namibia celebrates independence heroes, but glosses over a painful history

---

Those forced to live at “a place where we do not stay” entered new forms of social interaction. A thriving music scene blending local township tunes with pop culture kept alive the spirit of the Old Location. But much of its genuine social fabric faded.

What do you hope readers will take away?

That history matters. That the heroic narrative of a patriotic national historiography under a former liberation movement as government is not the whole story.

The often-nameless heroines and heroes deserve recognition. History hasn’t got just one truth to offer. Memories are mixed and even contested. Accounts of ordinary living conditions must be part of history.

So, the book attempts to restore a significant element of the struggle for liberation in formation. But also remembers the many forms of oppression under apartheid. It’s important to us that the book is in the public domain.

I hope the book can motivate a younger generation of Namibian scholars and activists to explore the country’s culture of resistance. Those still alive to remember get fewer.

Henning Melber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Windhoek’s Old Location was a place of pain, but also joy – new book – https://theconversation.com/windhoeks-old-location-was-a-place-of-pain-but-also-joy-new-book-266151

Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Brooks Marmon, Post-doctoral Scholar, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, The Ohio State University

Edson Sithole was born in what was then Southern Rhodesia in 1935. He was the first black person in southern Africa to obtain a Doctor of Laws degree. He was the second black person in the country (which became Zimbabwe in 1980) to qualify as a lawyer, and co-founded Rhodesia’s African Bar Association in 1973.

Sithole was an anti-colonial nationalist. He was “disappeared” alongside his secretary, Miriam Mhlanga, in downtown Salisbury (present-day Harare) 50 years ago. Brooks Marmon, a historian of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, has compiled and edited a forthcoming collection of Sithole’s writings, speeches and interviews.

Who was Edson Sithole? Why does he matter in Zimbabwe’s history?

He was one of the most prominent pan-African nationalists who had not gone into exile, a major legal and intellectual force behind multiple Zimbabwean liberation movements.

Despite his important intellectual and organisational contributions to Zimbabwe’s independence struggle, he is best remembered today for the sensational nature of his elimination from the political scene. He left the Rhodesian press club at a downtown hotel in Salisbury on 15 October 1975, and was never seen again.

The 50th anniversary of Sithole’s elimination is an apt time to recover his political voice. Sithole was a prolific writer but much of his work appeared in periodicals that were banned and silenced by settler authorities.

What’s new in this collection?

The contributions in the book highlight four themes: Sithole’s views on pan-Africanism; his experience as a political prisoner; his views on intra-nationalist factionalism; and his search for a settlement with white Rhodesians.

Sithole’s voice is supplemented by my own biographical account of his political life.

Given Zimbabwe’s struggles with political pluralism, the section on factionalism is especially illuminating. A recurring theme is Sithole’s rivalry with one of the leading protagonists of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, Joshua Nkomo. Coupled with Sithole’s overlooked membership in several breakaway liberation movements, a holistic view of his independent character emerges.

This was particularly notable in an era in which an absolute commitment to unity was a key facet of the defining ideology of the struggle, pan-Africanism.

What role did he play in the liberation struggle?

Sithole was an executive member of four Zimbabwean liberation movements. In 1964 he became the publicity secretary of Zanu-PF, Zimbabwe’s current ruling party, then known as the Zimbabwe African National Union. He was that party’s chief spokesperson 60 years ago this November when the colony’s small white minority unilaterally declared its independence from Britain.

The last decade of Sithole’s life was spent trying to end this rebellion and usher in genuine independence under majority rule.

When the Conservative British government appeared poised to reach a settlement favourable to continued white domination, Sithole co-founded the African National Council (ANC) in December 1971. Its opposition to the tentative accord forced the British government to abandon that effort to reconcile with their settler “kith and kin” in Rhodesia.

White minority rule dragged on for eight more years and thousands lost their lives in the struggle to affect a change, including Sithole.

Sithole’s intellectual profile was particularly impressive as he spent more than half of his adult life as a political prisoner. He was first detained in 1959 at the age of 23. He completed a master’s degree in law from the University of London via correspondence during that first stint of restriction. During a second period of imprisonment, he completed most of his work toward a Doctor of Laws from the University of South Africa.

Why was 1974 such a pivotal year?

In April 1974, the hardline Estado Novo regime in Portugal was overthrown in a military coup. It soon became clear that Portugal would dismantle its colonial empire, including Mozambique and Angola.

This development transformed the political scene in southern Africa. White Rhodesia was deprived of a major European ally and a secure border on its eastern flank. At the end of that year, all four of Zimbabwe’s major liberation movements united under the banner of the African National Council in Zambia.

For some of the most prominent Zimbabwean nationalists, such as Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, the Portuguese revolution resulted in their release from prison, culminating in their ascent to political power in independent Zimbabwe in early 1980.

Sithole, however, experienced no fruits of détente. Instead he became enmeshed in a political struggle with both the settler state and his erstwhile nationalist colleagues.

In early June 1975, intra African National Council violence erupted between factions loyal to its head, Abel Muzorewa, whom Sithole backed, and Nkomo, a long-time foe of Sithole, who had headed the Zimbabwe African People’s Union.

Nearly a dozen people were killed and Sithole was manhandled by Nkomo loyalists.

Near the end of the month, Sithole released a document which claimed that Nkomo and prime minister Ian Smith had reached a secret deal to elevate Nkomo to the head of the African National Council. Days later, Sithole developed severe stomach cramps. He declared that the settler state had poisoned him, an allegation backed by a Zambian doctor who treated him.

Tensions increased. The last month of Sithole’s life was consumed by attempts to derail any possible attempt by Nkomo and the Zapu element in the African National Council to reach an accord with the Rhodesian state.

What’s known about his abduction?

On Sithole’s last day as an independent man – 15 October 1975 – he held a press conference which accused the settler state of favouring Nkomo, whose faction had recently been allowed to hold a massive open-air meeting.

Two detectives visited Sithole at his office that afternoon and took a statement.

That evening, he made the short drive to the Ambassador Hotel in his blue BMW for drinks at the Quill Club.

Sithole left the hotel around 7pm, where a witness outside saw him met by two white and two black men who identified themselves as belonging to Rhodesia’s Special Branch. They escorted Sithole and his secretary into a grey Mazda van, a make typically associated with the renegade state’s security apparatus.

International media accounts identified Detective Inspector Winston Hart and Detective Section Officer George Mitchell as the two white men. As recently as April 2023, an interview with Hart about his service in Rhodesia popped up on YouTube.

Sithole was never seen again, although persistent rumours claimed that he had been seen in various government detention centres.

Sithole was just one of tens of thousands of individuals who died during Zimbabwe’s independence struggle.

Unlike South Africa, Zimbabwe did not embrace any formal transitional justice mechanism following independence. After Mugabe was voted into power, he announced:

We will be interested to get some evidence as to what happened to Dr. Sithole. (16 March 1980 issue of the Zimbabwean Sunday Mail)

Nothing substantial ever came out of the inquiry.

Brooks Marmon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Edson Sithole: new book uncovers the work of a thinker, lawyer and Zimbabwean freedom fighter who ‘disappeared’ – https://theconversation.com/edson-sithole-new-book-uncovers-the-work-of-a-thinker-lawyer-and-zimbabwean-freedom-fighter-who-disappeared-265765