This article concerns the birth and death of the proposed Survey Law of 1874 in the South African Republic (Transvaal), a law that promised to 'correct' flawed or fraudulent knowledge with an ongoing triangulation and a general survey of lands that would locate and map all aspects of geography for the state. Such knowledge was essential to the rising class of technocrats that had taken over government bureaus in Pretoria in 1872 and who sought to stabilise and then grow the finances of the republic to support the modernisation of its administration of land as well as its other functions. To this end, a network of technical consultants with knowledge across the subcontinent---and occasionally beyond---worked to draft a law and make the case. Despite the manifest failings of existing systems of land inspection and wide agreement on the desirability of a detailed survey in governmental and scientific circles, however, other forces opposed a formal survey of lands on grounds of cost, principle and possibly self-interest. The result was a failure to pass the draft law or even consider its technical merits. This failure speaks strongly to the need to consider the political and social contexts and conflicts around technical networks and discourses as being relevant to their operation and their outcomes.
WISER Seminar Papers
- WISER's TRUST seminar is hosted on-line every Monday afternoon from 16:00 - 17:00 SA time during the teaching semester. Forthcoming seminars are available here, and past events are detailed in our archive.
- Please register on Zoom in advance of the meeting on this link.
- Participants should please read the paper (below) prior to the seminar; it will typically be available by the Friday preceding the seminar.
In this semester, the Trust seminar will explore questions of credit and debt on the African continent. In contrast with the argument that trust and confidence are synonymous (most evident in the Edelman Trust Barometer and the reporting around it), some of the most convincing scholarship argues for the direct association of trust with credit. Other researchers, studying informal African institutions, have found credit everywhere on this continent, but little that can be associated with trust. Some state institutions (like SACCOs in Kenya) and simpler penalties, like efficient bankruptcy laws, seem also to be instrumental in shaping the politics of credit. One key driver of credit systems is a secondary market, which depends in part on institutions and information that derive from (and support) fiduciaries. These are especially important in the contemporary tensions between firm-based and individualised credit systems. The seminar series this semester will explore some of these dynamics, examining how they have shaped the cultures and politics of debt and credit from the precolonial to the contemporary period.
Presented by : Lyndsey Frederick Braun
16 Sep 2026 - 4:00pm
WISER Research Theme: