Zulu Journal

Zulu Journal: Field Notes of a Naturalist in South Africa by Raymond B. Cowles is a lyrical mosaic of memory and field observation, charting a lifetime’s engagement with the landscapes of Natal and Zululand. Drawing on two major research trips (1925–27, 1953) and recollections of a missionary childhood at Adams and Umzumbe stations, Cowles weaves together natural history, ethnographic encounters, and personal narrative. Rather than a strict diary, the book offers “winnowings” from field notes and recollections, crafted to capture the moods of season and place. The steep gradient from Drakensberg peaks to the Indian Ocean provides the ecological framework, where sharp shifts in climate and fauna occur over just a few miles. From kraal-scattered reserves to crown lands, farms, and game preserves, Cowles situates his apprenticeship as a naturalist—moving from slingshot to rifle to camera—within a South African environment both abundant and already under pressure. What distinguishes the work is Cowles’s attention to small vertebrates, reptiles, and amphibians rather than the big game that dominated colonial writing. A childhood discovery of Nile monitor lizard eggs incubating in termite mounds, later developed into a Ph.D. note, becomes emblematic of Africa’s capacity for everyday scientific surprise. Alongside such moments, he recounts family missionary history, the hazards of Durban’s early harbor, and the decline of elephants, crocodiles, and other species, as new threats such as schistosomiasis spread. The narrative consistently balances affectionate evocation of Zulu landscapes with the colonial vantage point of its author, producing a text that is both immersive and reflective. By its conclusion, Zulu Journal moves from memory to warning: population surges, medical advances, and industrial extraction are accelerating the depletion of renewable and nonrenewable resources alike. Cowles frames his conservation ethic bluntly—better the quick death by predator or hunter than slow starvation—while acknowledging the shrinking window for studying “unspoiled nature.” At once personal record and ecological meditation, the book invites readers to consider natural history not only as science but as lived, sensory engagement with a rapidly changing world. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1959.