The Green Peacemaker

Making the link between sustainable development, democracy and peace as explained by the late Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai is not common amongst environmentalists! In fact, over the years that this series of Eco-impi interviews has run, that link has never been obvious and most of our interviewees were, by and large “pure” environmentalists with a well-balanced approach to the ways of the world but with a very strong focus in protecting the environment and inspiring change towards a better understanding of the environment. This makes our interviewee in this edition, Crispin Hemson, somewhat unique and for this reason it was fascinating to engage with him to understand how he has combined his passion for the environment with his life’s mission to develop teaching methods that help develop leaders that promote nonviolence.

Crispin has a long track record of environmental involvement, origins of which lay in his response to nature around him during his childhood in Kloof and later in Botha’s Hill. This was further nurtured through his long-standing and ongoing involvement in Pigeon Valley during which time he also served with WESSA as the treasurer for the Durban Branch. Crispin’s “day job” however has and continues to be in the field of leadership development with a strong focus on non-violence as reflected in his current role as Director for the International Centre of Nonviolence at the Durban University of Technology. Increasingly Crispin has sought to develop leadership processes that merge a healthy environment with a healthy society. The historical baggage of colonialism and years of repression through the apartheid system has not made the road an easy one to navigate!

Crispin and his twin brother Jonathan were born in 1947 in what is today one of Durban’s popular “night-club” spots, Florida Road, and that alone provides ample scope for reflection on the rate of environmental and societal change that has taken place in the past fifty years! The formal schooling at Kloof Primary, Kearsney College, University of Natal (now UKZN) bolstered by a teacher’s diploma from Cambridge University provided the base on which Crispin somewhat uncertainly moved into the field of education where, at first, he considered himself to be a poor teacher until, in his words: “I began to realise that teachers – in all kinds of settings, not just schools – can create conditions through which people can emerge who have passion, imagination and innovation.”

His first teaching post at Weston Agricultural College was not an ideal start to his teaching career, where his relatively liberal approach was not in synchrony with the ethos of the school. Subsequent posts at Mooi River, Queensburgh and Greytown continued the trend of confrontation with “the system”. Crispin recalls one occasion, just after arriving at Greytown in 1972, where he was expected to cane learners for some misdemeanour. His refusal to do so caused such rumpus that one learner himself pleaded to be caned so that the whole saga would be forgotten, and they could move on! A couple of years ago, a senior colleague from Durban University of Technology (DUT) invited Crispin to his 60th birthday party. At the party, the host told his friends of this incident, and of being that learner and of the presence of the teacher who caused all the trouble!

When asked what had contributed to moulding his beliefs Crispin replied, “I think, to growing debates within what was otherwise a very typical White middle-class family and also the seriousness that my mother in particular gave the issue of personal integrity. My mother was a very forceful person with strong opinions that either ignited or clashed with our own. Both my parents valued education highly. My father left school at 12 and had to study on his own. My older brother was an American Field Service student in 1963, to rural Minnesota, and returned with remarkably radical views on society! The three boys were all together at university and my older brother and I were in student politics at the time of growing rebellion globally and resistance to apartheid. I interacted with people like Steve Biko and Alan Paton, and was particularly friendly with Rick Turner*.”

After teaching, Crispin worked as a writer of booklets for a Catholic youth movement, then worked briefly with NGOs working against apartheid. He was elected to the Durban City Council in 1978 and served there 10 years, but in 1983 he started an academic career with the University of Natal, in adult education and later as Head of the School of Education.

In 1991, Crispin and his twin brother moved to an area which was close to the University and they purposely selected a home near to Pigeon Valley Nature Reserve as both enjoyed the close contact with nature. This move was to spark a long-term involvement with Pigeon Valley which endures to this day through Crispin’s role in the Friends of Pigeon Valley, a support group for the nature reserve. The hands-on involvement itself was sparked by an interaction with one of the reserve rangers who stated, ‘This reserve is finished. The Ipomoea indica is taking over’, to which Crispin replied, ‘Do you mind if I take it out?’ The ranger nodded agreement and Crispin charged into the bush, rather literally and with many scars to prove it.

Pigeon Valley is a tiny (11ha) treasure trove of biodiversity, left largely in its original indigenous condition but inevitably impacted on by the rapid expansion of the City of Durban. It is totally surrounded by suburbia, sewerage, noise, misbehaving humans as well as tarred roads and paving with the resulting stormwater which rips through the reserve during even the most modest rainstorms. Despite the survival challenges facing the reserve, it has a bird list of over 165 bird species, has 108 locally indigenous tree species and countless understory plants and even a small grassland. The reserve has been a happy botanical learning ground for well known environmentalists Richard Boon and Geoff Nichols . It has a healthy population (‘too many’ says Crispin) of Red Duiker and is also well known for two major tree rarities, the Natal Elm (Celtis mildbraedii) and the Natal Tree Loquat (Oxyanthus pyriformis), an endangered bird, the Spotted Ground Thrush, and rare plants such as the creeper Telosma africana.

On a gentle stroll through Pigeon Valley, it was obvious to note the sense of place and the closeness to the heart with which Crispin holds the reserve and all it has to offer, casually pointing out a young Natal Elm or a Spotted Ground Thrush and referring to them almost as though they were part of his extended family! I asked Crispin some questions on his relationship with the reserve and again his answers explain the long-term love and commitment not only to the reserve but to nature itself:

What are the highlights of your involvement in Pigeon Valley?

“A specific moment was when I was pulling out alien plants just inside the fence and a man, I thought might be a vagrant was coming up the road. I greeted him and he said, ‘Are you the person who sees the Crowned Eagle in Pigeon Valley?’ He said he had found a copy of the Berea Mail and read about it. 


Another nice moment was when a visitor stopped me and said, ‘Do you get the Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher?’ I said, ‘Not for a long time.’ I walked down the track and saw a movement at the broken dam. It was a female Blue-mantled! One of the few birds I ever developed a relationship with. I would spish near it and it would come close and stop so I could take photos. 
A different kind of highlight has been when I bring in a group of people who have never spent time in such settings; I have asked them just to notice and listen and they have been so responsive.”

What gives you the biggest satisfaction when you walk at Pigeon Valley?


“Undoubtedly, looking at major sections and not being able to see one alien plant invading it!”

What is your favourite spot at Pigeon Valley and why?

“I think the birdbath where I have frequently seen Buff-spotted Flufftails.”

What are the challenges facing a small reserve like Pigeon Valley?


“The negative effects come from excessive stormwater – all that paving – sewage, excessive noise and of course people misusing the reserve, like trying to bring in dogs. Managing these requires the municipality to play its part. The poor quality of the fencing is a problem, and it is too far from the roads, creating problems of dumping and security. Stray dogs got into the reserve recently and attacked duikers – unfortunately, this remains a concern. People tend to think that crime is the most major challenge. It is of course a problem, but the things that disturb me more are different forms of damage to the habitat. I am in the reserve a great deal and very rarely have had to deal with any criminal activity.”

How difficult is it to keep going in the face of urbanisation and its negative impacts on the environment?

“What sustains me is that people are really positive about my work. Certainly, more people across urban society understand the significance of the environment.”

The reserve can also spring some surprises as Crispin noted, “One adrenalin raising experience was coming across a Black Mamba while taking a stroll in the reserve. At my first sighting, it sped away in alarm. Subsequently I saw it several times and we looked at each other for a long time. One day I was on a track, looking around and talking on my phone, then turned back towards a tree with a bird bath below. I suddenly realised that the Mamba was crossing the track diagonally just in front of me, without alarm or urgency. A brief shock, then it was so interesting.”

The reserve can also provide moments of deep satisfaction as Crispin explained, “One of the nicest was taking my friends’ little girls, Nathi (4) and Luthando (3), to Pigeon Valley, at their insistence, and getting them to sit looking at the bird bath, with no hope that I could keep them quiet enough. Immediately, two juvenile Buff-spotted Flufftails arrived at the birdbath – the only time I have ever seen that!

Another was working with someone else underneath a thicket, in thorny and cramped conditions, when a mammal walked through, stopped, stared at us a bit, and ambled on. Later I realised it was a Water Mongoose. We have had a few episodes of youngsters with dogs hunting. The one time I got a report of this and drove around the area looking for the group – then returned home and found that the young guy doing alien clearing work had somehow rounded them up and brought them and their dogs to my house, so I could speak to them!”

Crispin’s involvement on environmental issues has not been limited to Pigeon Valley and he also draws from others for inspiration; “I admire the activism of people like Greta Thunberg. I do like that she is not your typical ‘charismatic’ leader but speaks to reality. Margaret Burger (WESSA and Umgeni Estuary Conservancy) is a person whose perspective and experience I value greatly. She really ‘walks the talk’ when it comes to the environment and Richard Boon, now in Melbourne, is a constant source of support.”

In the broader context Crispin was involved in some of the early work to put the environment, for the first time, on the agenda for the City Council. Crispin explained, “When I was on the then Durban City Council in the early 1980s, I was instrumental in working with the late Keith Cooper to set up the city’s first Environmental Committee. That led to a major shift within the city; officials who had environmental commitment found that they were useful to the senior managers and great policies began to develop. That step had major implications for the city’s environmental commitment.”

As Crispin’s academic career developed in parallel to his passion for the environment it was somewhat inevitable that he started to merge the lessons from both fields into a common theme. His thinking is reflected in the following comments when asked to explain how the environment can be used to address social justice issues, “It has not been easy always to make the link between what we see as environmental issues – like conservation of wildlife – and social issues, such as inequality and poverty. In part that is because of the mental split we have made between humans and nature. The reality of climate change highlights that danger of this thinking. I use the natural environment as a way for people to connect differently to whatever is around them. Taking students there (to Pigeon Valley), I find that they are often amazed at the experience they are having that they just did not know was awaiting them. It creates the possibility for the growth of imagination about what is possible in life and a sense of priority about what most matters to us as humans.”

He further explained the satisfaction that this can produce, “My pleasure at seeing how positively people who have never been exposed to areas of rich natural diversity respond to it. The growing awareness of how we cannot have a fully just society unless it is a society that supports the full range of life.”

But there are downsides as well, “The difficulty of reconciling environmental and social issues is evident now; there are many environmental activists in South Africa, but the split between those who are poor and those who are wealthy is evident. On a leadership programme we run at DUT, one young woman spoke of challenging toxic dumping into a local stream and being threatened; she is in physical danger for challenging local political and commercial interests. In contrast, middle class people who have strong environmental awareness and commitment have lifestyles that are far removed from these pressures. Social and economic inequality directly threaten the effectiveness of our environmental work, making it hard to get a unified response.

Against both groups, there are politicians who do not understand that wealth in the end comes from nature. So much ‘wealth’ is just extracting a value from natural resources, creating new costs and damage. We need environmentalists to imagine solutions that protect life in all its forms – this requires addressing the economy and human well-being as well as the conservation of other forms of life.”

Given the South African historical context, Crispin’s European ancestry (which he is currently researching) and the fact that the bulk of his academic work involves Black Africans there are clearly a number of potential bridges to cross in understanding the different perspectives of how the environment and society are perceived by different segments of our society and how these impact on each other. Crispin’s response. “My family’s arrival here (in South Africa) was not itself an act of colonisation but was a direct result of it – my father came to work on radar installations during the Second World War. Some people think colonisation brought good things to Africa, as if that is the only way we can get new technology or knowledge systems. I do not agree. Colonialism in Africa has installed and perpetuated the belief that ‘development’ consists of the unrestrained exploitation of nature and the increasingly systematic subjugation of people. It was driven by the greed for resources; grassland and forest gave way to sugar cane and timber plantations, uncontrolled mining poisoned local environments, all to make people elsewhere – and a minority here – rich. This was a process of direct and structural violence to people and to nature generally. Do people not notice that these patterns are still there in the looting of countries by the newer elites? What we think of as ‘development’ was poisoned by this history.

More personally, we as White people inherit a legacy and the relationships it put in place and have a specific responsibility to undermine that legacy. One of the things that have driven my thinking as an educator is a commitment to affirm the thinking of Black people, as that capacity was systematically denied through our history. Recently, I began to ask what it was that we as White people gave up on in perpetuating our role in society – what sense of hope and possibility did we lose in continuing our isolation, the ridiculous ideas of superiority? What Black people see as arrogance may really be our capitulation, of giving up our sense of a truly good life. A specific example is a lack of imagination about the environment; do we really think this can be reduced to holding on to the very limited protected areas? Why do we not see the priority as mobilising masses of people to find ways of humans living in harmony with the rest of nature?

As someone whose academic and community work addresses violence and the possibility of peace, we need to recognise how these violent legacies continue; how democracy alone is insufficient to end the long transmission of violence and trauma, and that it will continue to impact in terms of violent crime and hopelessness. Our challenge as environmentalists and citizens is to confront these forces with imagination and hope.

I am concerned that the most pressing issues of survival, of having a society that is productive, just and in harmony with nature, are left to politicians with little environmental commitment. I would like to see environmentalists leading the way on issues like land, on inequality, on health, rather than reacting to what others do.”

Crispin believes that one of the keys to changing leadership is to educate young environmentalists, he commented that “After all children learn directly from the environment!”

Crispin’s strong views are supported by a holistic view of life as explained in his response to questions on what other issues he perceived as important.

“I think people should have projects in life that are meaningful, that may change with time, and that bring great satisfaction – and should recognise them. My son had no father growing up but is a great dad to his little son. I pointed out that he should see being an excellent parent as one of his life projects. For me, looking after my mother and aunt, caring for Pigeon Valley and mentoring have been life projects that brought me joy.

One great satisfaction in life was becoming a mentor, though hardly ever formally designated as such, and seeing some of those I mentored succeed at a level higher than my own. I casually said to an incoming student at the then University of Natal, who had had a very troubled and harsh history, that he could become Dean of Education. He did, at the earliest age on record, and has done exceedingly well. Oddly, perhaps, I have mentored people trying to set up small businesses, with mixed success. I do understand the dynamics well – people think that this is not about emotions and about trust, but it absolutely is.”

Looking ahead, Crispin’s goals are to complete a doctorate on how to educate educators in addressing violence and injustice, in particular, how to make education a truly safe space within a society so unsafe for so many people. He would also like to produce two books, one on his experience of caring for his mother and aunt in their old age, and one based on what he writes about Pigeon Valley as a monthly column for the Berea Mail. Allowed enough time Crispin has an eye towards an autobiography, “I encountered such significant people in my life”. Noting down those experiences would provide a valuable record for future generations.

As with all our interviewees the question on the long-term prospects for our planet in the face of the challenges of Climate Change, ongoing wars and the depletion of the planets natural resources was raised. Crispin’s reply, “I have no idea if things will go well or not. What gives me hope is realising that people have the capacity to think and to respond with imagination.”

That statement of inherent hope and optimism is a sincere trait and a demonstration of what is needed to guide us through difficult times, and we acknowledge Crispin as another true member of the Eco-Impi**.

Notes

Rick Turner*

Rick Turner was a South African academic and anti-apartheid activist who was murdered in 1978, possibly by the South African security forces.

Eco-Impi**

An Impi is defined as “an armed band of Zulu warriors involved in urban or rural conflict”. In our context we refer to an Eco-Impi as those conservationists armed with knowledge and experience who are fighting to help protect our biodiversity and have made a significant impact in our area.