Dear friends and fellow South Africans,
Imagine a world in which the Human Immunodeficiency Virus no longer exists. We achieved it with Smallpox, which was declared vanquished in 1980. But that was the first of only two devastating viral diseases ever to have been wiped off the face of the earth. The other was Rinderpest.
Rinderpest, or Cattle Plague, first appeared in South Africa in 1896. Within a few years, it had killed some two and a half million head of cattle. It wiped out 90% of the cattle throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, and many of the domestic oxen used for ploughing. It also decimated the giraffe, buffalo, eland, kudu and wildebeest populations. After a fight spanning several centuries, Rinderpest was finally declared eradicated in May last year.
But the plague changed South African history, for it unleashed poverty among black communities whose lives were centered around livestock farming. As rural communities became impoverished, people were forced to migrate to the cities to seek a livelihood, and the mines saw an increased labour force. This left deserted rural land at risk. The Natal colony, for instance, saw the opportunity to delimit vacated land.
The transport system was also severely affected due to its reliance on ox-wagons, driving up prices of goods. Meat and milk practically disappeared from the market and communities turned either to crop farming or migrant labour. Rinderpest had an impact on South Africa's land policies, labour policies, social structure, economy and agricultural focus.
I was recently invited to consider whether cattle farming has ever returned to optimal levels in our rural communities, or whether the devastating blow of Rinderpest changed the notion of subsistence farming irrevocably away from cattle towards crops alone.