Andrew Duminy

This book was published in 2012 and at the time of publication caused considerable controversy about the many inaccuracies , major and minor , factual and typographical , scientific and historical scattered throughout the book . There was a concerted effort by some geo - cartographical scholars to damn the book , prevent reviews and issue a 15 page plus document identifying all the errors in a list which was not meant for publication or wide circulation . I have seldom come across a case where fellow writers and academics are so vehement in condemnation of an author's work and so fulsome in their condemnation . One wonders why the close documentation of errors and mistakes . Are the authors of a negative stream trying to protect the general public and most particularly children from being fed mis information ? . They claim fiction becomes fact . I consider that such criticism should be published , sent to the author or publisher and openly debated . Not fed to a private group via an e mail correspondence , which even some three years after publication still surprises . One wonders about the boundary definitions of disciplines, who regards who as expert and what happens when an outsider moves from his own discipline into that which is the considered preserve of others . Maybe protecting turf is important too . However writing about maps is also a technical subject and if tackled from the scientific angle . Of course the scientist will immediately cavil and say there is no other way to do maps.

I think that maps , globes and cartography can be presented in ways which are accessible to the public and that writing about the science of cartography can left to the rarified monographs and journals . Considering that this book brings the subject , which perhaps previously was accessible only in specialist journals, plus the fact that there are very few books on the subject ( see Oscar Norwich or RV Tooley ) to a wider reading public it should be welcomed . I think the problem with this book lies in the author making just too many scientific errors for the experts .

What can one say about the book itself ? It is written by an historian , who in search of the story and subsequent biography of his ancestor , Francois Renier Duminy , became interested in maps and mapping of Southern Africa . Duminy spent five years in search of these maps and their cartographers. He writes in this instance as an amateur and regrettably his position as a former professor of history a former good South African university is to his disadvantage , at least in the eyes of many critics.

The book beautifully produced but is an odd shape , slightly larger than A4 laid sideways . It superbly reproduces a number of maps of South Africa , with coloured illustrations, and places these maps in an historical and biographical context . I am impressed by the selection of maps and the location of portraits of the cartographers . The history of maps carries us through from decorative, gorgeous but peculiar and inaccurate world maps of the 15 th century, through Portuguese exploration to European conquest and settlement and conflicts with black societies. The final chapter is on the work of Henry Fourcade and Trevor Wadley in advancing mapping in the late 19th and. 20th century . Global Positioning Systems which I now use when I travel across remote mountain goat tracks in Turkey or over rock strewn mountain passes in Montenegro is given a quick paragraph on the final page.

Maps are a fascinating subject. This book is a coffee table book for the interested reader , and the text perhaps fills 20 per cent of the total pages. 40 of the 126 pages solely show historical maps , in addition to almost every other page showing a map or two or three . The historical commentary is very general and one is not looking for an authoritative history in a few pages of 700 years of history . The quality of the map scans is excellent but the small size of the page means one needs a magnifying glass to pick up details . I am keener to study the maps . Unfortunately there are no footnotes showing the sources of information or archives consulted . This is a major omission . The bibliography comes in a section called Further Reading and it would appear that these sources have been used to write the 12 chapters . It is difficult to discern the balance between archival research and reliance on secondary sources . An addendum of the chronological list of maps , dates and their cartographers would have added to the reference value of the book.

Perhaps the author should not have tried to give a history of the science behind the maps but rather used the maps to show how societies developed maps as historical guides and how maps were used as tools for a number of purposes through eras of conquest , for controls over assets , colonial land acquisition , land sales , military incursion and sometimes simply to find one's way. In a recent exhibition at the Wits Arts Museum maps are allied to the markings of a society . Maps were as great a weapon as the gun or the horse or the wheel . Maps are also works of art and maps are always collectable and more accessible and affordable than even modern art works This book gives one the opportunity to examine these many maps from so many perspectives and sets a collectable agenda.

I recommend this book if you are keen on African maps and the history of cartography . Get this book if you collect South African maps . It is a natural sequential addition to Tooley and Norwich and all sources listed in the further reading guide . It also led me to wish to locate and read the works specifically by Professor Elri Liebenberg who is an historical cartographic specialist . I believe she has recently published a book and Duminy pays tribute to her earlier work .

Every effort of scholarship and endeavor is to be welcomed . Research and writing leads to more questions , challenges and queries and so encourages others to rise to the occasion and to expand and renew the circle of research . There is one unfortunate claim on the fly leaf of the dust wrapper to the effect that "this book will long remain a standard work of its kind " , perhaps it's is that comment that upset the critics as they worked towards their own standard work . One book can quickly be overtaken as the authoritative work within months . As the reader and collector of maps and books about cartography , let's welcome all books in the field .… (mehr)