L’environnement au profit des plus riches ? Construction et hybridation d’un front écologique métropolitain dans la Péninsule du Cap (Afrique du Sud)

Abstract

Area lying between Table Mountain and Cape of Good Hope, the Cape Peninsula is a geosymbol of the White colonisation of South Africa. The two principal elements of this symbolism are the Mountain and the fynbos. The Whites were having a hegemonic position on the Peninsula due to apartheid laws between 1950’s and 1960’s. Here start a history and geography of white spatial monopoly on the Peninsula and on implementing strategies to retain it. Notions of eco-frontier and urban front are employed in this paper to interpret White’s mobilisation to protect Peninsula natural areas, main component of their ‘sense of place’. The Peninsula eco-frontier has been driven by Whites to create a national park in 1998. But metropolis consolidation and a new urban front of poor non-white settlers arise at the expense of the “historic residents”. Then, are investigated strategies of defence by these groups of residents, differentiated between exclusive conservation of rural heritage and more hybrid environmental projects aiming to better include all Peninsula inhabitants.

Keywords

• national park
• South Africa
• eco-frontier
• urban front
• hybridisation
• apartheid/post-apartheid