Archive for the ‘Reference’ Category
by Amy on Mar 9th, 2012
William Saunderson-Meyer recently spoke to Andrew Duminy, author of Mapping South Africa, about the storytelling power of maps. Duminy says that maps can give one a sense of belonging, and aid in the geographical and historical “mapping” of identity:
At their most mundane, maps are simply two-dimensional renderings of our surroundings, tools to help us find our way from A to B with the greatest efficiency. But as anyone who has ever pored over a map for no other reason than curiosity will attest, there is another, more emotive, aspect to them. Maps are part of our sense of place, of how we slot into a wider world, starting right from childhood. Just cast your mind back to the tingling sense of possibility evoked by the map in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island — or was I just having an embarrassingly severe attack of romanticism? I asked Professor Emeritus Andrew Duminy, author of Mapping South Africa: A Historical Survey of South African Maps and Charts (Jacana), released in December.
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by Amy on Mar 2nd, 2012
Jenny Crwys-Williams dedicated her latest book show to two books about travel and exploration: veteran photographer Obie Oberholzer’s Diesel and Dust and Andrew Duminy’s historical treat, Mapping South Africa: A Historical Survey of South African Maps and Charts.
Listen to a podcast of the interview with the authors:
Andrew Duminy and Obie Oberholzer:
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by Amy on Jan 31st, 2012
Andrew Duminy considers himself a “interested amateur” when it comes to maps and cartography. He told The North Coast Courier that while doing research for his Master’s thesis on the history of the Eastern Cape frontier, he became aware that there were few books on marine and land surveying easily understandable to the layman.
So, Duminy wrote Mapping South Africa for “interested amateurs” such as himself, avoiding technical and academic jargon:
Many books written about cartography are often hard to understand and approach the subject from an expert’s view commonly including technical and academic jargon.
However, Ballito resident and Professor Emeritus Andrew Duminy’s new book Mapping South Africa: A Historical Survey of South African Maps and Charts seeks to tell the story behind the maps in order to explain the changes that took place as far as accuracy and detail are concerned.
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by Amy on Jan 27th, 2012
The Witness‘ Stephen Coan recently spoke to Andrew Duminy, author of Mapping South Africa: A Historical Survey of South African Maps and Charts, about his long-held fascination with maps. Duminy says that, what sets him apart from a cartographer – someone interested in “who drew the map” – is his primary interest in the “story behind the map”:
“Maps are a way of looking at history,” says Andrew Duminy. “Paging through this book you are paging through South Africa’s history.”
Those pages belong to Mapping South Africa — A Historical Survey of South African Maps and Charts authored by Duminy, professor emeritus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, biographer of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick and author of several studies and books on the Cape Frontier and KwaZulu-Natal.
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by Amy on Jan 4th, 2012
Gavin Foster recently spoke to historian Andrew Duminy about his pioneering new book, Mapping South Africa, which charts the history of map-making in South Africa while uncovering many rare maps that, until now, have been largely unavailable to the public.
Duminy emphasises the importance of technology in writing the book, saying that his four-year project would have been impossible without the use of scanners and the internet:
“The Dutch didn’t bother with the Cape coast. They occupied Table Bay but avoided the rest as much as they could by sailing south and skirting the African continent.” This was largely because they lacked the means to accurately map the treacherous coastline.
Then, in 1752 there was a rapid transformation when a French navigator and sea captain called Mannevillette drew a detailed chart after conducting a running survey along the coast.
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by Amy on Dec 15th, 2011
Yesterday evening saw a convivial audience gather at Adams Books Musgrave Centre for the launch of Andrew Duminy’s Mapping South Africa: A Historical Survey of South African Maps and Charts, the bookshop’s final launch for the year.
Following an introduction by Adams Books’ Peter Adams, Duminy began by confessing that he is a “map freak”. Duminy, who worked on Mapping South Africa for over five years, expressed his belief that doing research on a subject he so loves, may have “prolonged his life”. According to Duminy, the purpose of the book is to try to explain the story of the how South Africa was mapped. Yet, during his exploration into the topic, Duminy was often led astray by the many fascinating stories and inventions he discovered – only some of which were directly relevant.
Duminy spoke briefly about some of the maps in the book that are of particular interested to him. One of these is Sir James Carmichael Smythe’s map of the 19th century Cape, which also forms the cover of the book. With regards to this exquisite historical artifact, Duminy expressed his wonder at the “intricate, clear, amazing artistic ability of the map drawers of that time.”
He further whetted the audience’s appetite by explaining some of the processes behind map-making, briefly clarifying the difference between the plain table mapping process and trigonometric mapping using theodolites. However, as no discussion about maps in the 21st century can be complete without a mention of Google, Duminy remarked on the massive changes that have taken place in map-making – including GPS systems and the rise of Google Earth – as well as how and why maps have become more accurate.
Duminy concluded by extending his thanks to his wife, Linda, for her help in editing the book. He also thanked Jacana’s Russell Martin for making the book a “beautiful one, by straightening things out, and making it readable, as well as employing a top book designer in Cape Town who insisted on making high quality map reproductions”. He mentioned Afriterra as one website particularly noteworthy for those interested in maps, describing those who run it as a “group of enthusiasts and volunteers”.
Following a lively Q&A session, Duminy concluded the launch on the uplifting note that, if writing Mapping South Africa hasn’t added actual years to his life, it has certainly enriched it.
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by Amy on Dec 15th, 2011
Jacana Media invites you to join Andrew Duminy at Bargain Books Ballito on Thursday, 22 December, where he will be signing copies of his book, Mapping South Africa: A Historical Survey of South African Maps and Charts.
See you there!
Event Details
- Date: Thursday, 22 December 2011
- Time: 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
- Venue: Bargain Books Ballito,
Ballito Junction,
Ballito | Map
- RSVP: Janine, ballito@bargainbooks.co.za,
032 946 3622
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by Amy on Dec 12th, 2011
Jacana Media and Adams Books are delighted to invite you to the launch of Mapping South Africa: A Historical Survey of South African Maps and Charts by Andrew Duminy.
The launch will take place this Wednesday, 14 December, at Adams Books Musgrave Centre.
See you there!
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by Amy on Oct 31st, 2011
Mapping South Africa will be welcomed as a landmark in providing the first survey of the fascinating story of maps and mapmaking in the subcontinent. Beginning with the Portuguese voyages of exploration in the late 15th century, the book explores the attempts of the Dutch and then of the British to chart and lay claim to the vast and expanding landscape of the Cape Colony.
A subsequent chapter deals in particular with maps of the Eastern Cape, where a series of frontier wars over almost a hundred years led to an outpouring of cartography. In colonial Natal and the Boer Republics of the Transvaal and Free State, cartography was driven, on the other hand, by the dictates of colonisation and land exploitation. New heights in the mapping of South Africa were reached as a result of the Anglo-Boer War and of laborious trigonometrical survey work that began at this time. It set new standards that would be extended and consolidated after Union in 1910.
Throughout the book the author reveals an appreciation of the close relation between science, exploration and cartography and gives due prominence to the role played by individuals as well as institutions in producing maps of increasing accuracy and detail.
Mapping South Africa will long remain a standard work of its kind, appreciated for its informative text and for the beautiful reproductions it contains of some 85 maps.
Contents
1. Latitude, longitude and the measurement of time and distance
2. Early explorers, maps and charts, 1652–1780
3. The last years of Dutch rule at the Cape, 1780–1795
4. The British take over the Cape
5. The Great African Survey
6. The Eastern Cape frontier
7. Exploring the interior of southern Africa
8. Colonial Natal
9. The Transvaal and Orange Free State
10. The Geodetic Surveys and the arc of the 30th meridian
11. The Anglo-Boer War and after
12. New ideas: Fourcade and Wadley
About the author
Andrew Duminy is a Professor Emeritus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. His publications include a biography of Sir Percy FitzPatrick and several studies on the history of the Cape Frontier and of KwaZulu-Natal. His most recent work is a biography of his ancestor, the French mariner Francois Renier Duminy.
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by Amy on Jun 17th, 2011
Introducing the latest of the Jacana Pocket Guides, San Rock Art by JD Lewis-Williams:
San rock paintings are scattered over the entire area of southern Africa and present us with one of the greatest cultural treasures of humankind. It is estimated that some 15,000 rock art sites are known and possibly as many await discovery. But how are we to make sense of their images often baffling in their complexity and strangeness? Taking as his starting point the magnificent Linton panel in the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town, David Lewis-Williams shows how it can shed light on San Rock art in general and lead us to the heart of the San thought-world.
About the author
David (JD) Lewis-Williams is a Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Rock Art Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. His recent books include the award-winning The Mind in the Cave (Thames & Hudson, 2002) and Inside the Neolithic Mind, co-authored with David Pearce (Thames & Hudson, 2005).
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