Friday, October 17, 2008

History of tsetse fly control in the Okavango Delta

Recently received in HOORC's Library, University of Botswana historian Dr Maitseo Bolaane's Tsetse and trypanosomosis control in the Okavango Delta, c. 1930s - 1970s looks at the relationship among tsetse fly control, the cattle industry and game policy in northern Botswana over five decades. The "bumpy road of trial and error" to control the pest described in the paper included destruction of game, selective bush clearing, and spraying of insecticides. The paper notes that, while there seems to have been little attempt to incorporate indigenous knowledge about tsetse fly on the part of colonial administrators, in Botswana Africans made sustained efforts to observe the fly environment and to experiment with its control. The paper was published in the South African Historical Journal in 2007: you can find it in HOORC's Library.

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