Writing the Ancestral River. Jacklyn Cock
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Fred Tyson saw a leopard on the banks of the Kowie where it winds through a very wild and hilly landscape. He said that otters were once more plentiful on his Langholm farm, but they ‘used to steal chickens and so the workers killed them’.37 In many places there are signs of bushpigs rooting quite deeply, and warthogs digging through the rich earth. The marks of bushbuck and kudu are everywhere, and the delicate footprints of the secretive blue duiker are unmistakable.
All of these animals are also found in nearby river valleys like the Kariega, the Kasouga, the Fish, the Bushmans and the Kap. The name Kasouga for the river between Port Alfred and Kenton-on-Sea is of Gonaqua Khoikhoi origin and is believed to mean ‘full of leopards’. Leopards are secretive and nocturnal so they are very seldom seen. They are now protected, but a large one weighing 76 kg was ‘accidentally’ shot along the Kowie River in 1996. Mike Powell, the manager of the Waters Meeting Nature Reserve, wrote of a leopard he named Rocky who ‘has been leaving spoor all over the reserve and often in neighbouring farms. He/she is thought to have probably been responsible for at least three sheep kills.’38 A keen conservationist, Powell liked to think of Rocky the leopard as well as the Eastern Cape Rocky (the freshwater fish threatened with extinction that is found in the Kowie River) as two key indicator species. He established a fund in the name of Rocky to save this leopard and others, and to provide compensation to farmers whose stock has been killed by them.
There used to be a total of 36 different fish species in the Kowie estuary. Recreational rather than subsistence fishing is still widely practised, though. In 2004 the annual yield of fish from the estuary was relatively low, being only some 16,240 fish or 5.99 tons. Recreational anglers caught 69 per cent of the catch, mainly three species, Cape Stumpnose, Spotted Grunter and Dusky Kob. Estuary-dependent marine migrant species dominate most of the catch from the Kowie estuary. These are species which breed at sea and enter the estuary as juveniles to feed and grow. The protection of critical habitats on the estuary has often been recommended. According to a marine scientist, ‘in terms of catch numbers Cape Stumpnose is the most important fish species on the estuary and to protect them the conservation of zostera (Cape sea grass) beds should be given priority. Serious threats to the zostera beds include siltation of the estuary.’39
Today there are only five indigenous freshwater fish species in the river systems between the Bushmans and the Great Fish rivers, according to Jim Cambray. He mentioned the Chubbyhead Barb as well as the Goldie Barb as occurring in the Kowie River. The part of the river running through Langholm farm contains many freshwater mullet, locally called ‘springers’. According to both Jim Cambray and local resident Ronnie Slaughter, a local form of fishing for mullet has been developed using a Spanish reed for a rod, a porcupine quill for a float, and termites (white ants) as bait.
Some years ago the ecological community recorded on the Kowie estuary included 11 species of frogs, 24 species of reptiles, 93 species of birds and 31 species of mammals. There are also terrapins or turtles and eels which breed in the ocean off Madagascar. The young, leaf-like eels (known as leptocephali) float on the currents along the African coast. They turn into small eels, which you can see through, and so are known as ‘glass eels’. They enter the rivers mainly on summer nights on high spring tides when the river is flowing strongly. These anguillid eels use the estuaries as a conduit between the sea and the river. They swim upstream during migration and return along the same path on their way to the marine environment where spawning occurs. Their journey inspired two different ecologists writing at different times, at opposite ends of the world and unknown to each other, Rachel Carson and Jim Cambray.
The Kowie catchment area is exceptionally rich in birdlife, with more than 400 species having been recorded since 1960 in the Eastern Cape, 5 km inland from the shoreline as well as on the shore itself. According to Biff Todd, between 1973 and 1982, 93 species of water-associated birds were recorded in the Kowie and Bathurst districts, including 35 species of waders, which frequent the mud flats of the estuary exposed at low tide.40 In the forested riverbanks one may glimpse the dramatic black-and-yellow plumage of the Forest Weaver, and hear the liquid notes of the Black-headed Oriole, as well as the plaintive voice of the Grey-headed Bush Shrike and the tantalising hoot of the shy and exquisite Narina Trogon. Black-headed Herons stand patiently fishing in the shallows, only revealing their massive wings in ponderous flight. While the cry of the African Fish Eagle used to be more common than it is now, one may still experience a dramatic river sighting as, with distinctive shining white breast, curved beak and big wingspan, one drops, crashing feet first into the water, throwing up a curtain of spray, and then flying off with a silver fish in its talons.
The Kowie River also hosts several migrant waders from the northern hemisphere, like the Greenshank. Other winter visitors include small groups of Black Storks and occasionally Ospreys. Cape and White-breasted Cormorants are common, as are various kinds of terns. All five varieties of kingfisher have been seen on the river, with the Pied, the most common, hovering in perfect balance, the Giant watchful from a branch overhanging the water, and the Half-collared and Malachite providing flashes of turquoise. The Brown-hooded Kingfisher is a striking-looking bird with its spear-like scarlet beak and azure coloration of its tail. It is a dryland kingfisher, and large grasshoppers and locusts are among its favourite food items.
In the early morning the forested banks of the Kowie are alive with birdsong. There are occasional glimpses of the shy African Finfoot gliding along low in the water and sunbirds feeding on the aloes during the winter months. Yellow Weavers breed in the reedbeds of the upper reaches and flocks of Egyptian Geese feed in the lands adjacent to the riverbanks.
The thick river vegetation shelters more retiring species such as the Black-headed Night Heron and Black Ducks. Martial Eagles still occur in the area, and for years the large, untidy nest of a Crowned Eagle was visible from the viewing site at the top of the horseshoe in the Kowie Forest Reserve. Crowned Eagles practise what has been termed ‘the Cain and Abel syndrome’ whereby firstborn chicks kill their younger siblings. We are not sure why, especially as African Fish Eagles rear two or three chicks in harmony. On the banks of the Lushington River, near its confluence with the Kowie, there used to be a large, domed nest of the ‘lightning bird’ or Hamerkop, which is said, in Xhosa tradition, to bring good luck. The Giant Eagle Owl has also been seen and the exquisite little Barred Owl, long thought to be extinct in the area, was recently sighted. Little Egrets, Grey Herons and Water Thick-knees (dikkop) loiter in the shallows and the large sandbanks provide nesting for swifts, while Cape, Reed and White-breasted Cormorants are visible on perches along the riverbanks soaking up the sun and preening. The salt marshes are frequented by spoonbills, plovers and Yellow-billed Ducks. At the river mouth African Black Oystercatchers pick their way among the mussel beds at low tide, with the turnstones and plovers. Several varieties of tern frequent this spot, including the Arctic Tern, which covers the globe in its migratory patterns, and far out to sea one may see Cape Gannets plunge-diving.
Near the river mouth there used to be a salt marsh, a type of wetland known locally as the ‘flats’, fringing the estuarine water surface. These mud flats, or salt marshes, looked like those on the west bank of the Fish and Keiskamma rivers, rich-smelling with beautiful shades of pink and green fleshy plants. The whole area contained a diverse population of worms, prawns, crabs and fish as well as wading birds – particularly the Palaearctic migrants – during low tides. The adjacent lagoon contained large kob and in the evening one could watch Spotted Grunter feeding with their tails waving vertically in the air, breaking the still, grey surface.
This wetland was sometimes described as a ‘dead swamp’ by locals. Its loss during the construction of the marina is part of a larger pattern of destruction. It is estimated that by 1996 more than half of all South Africa’s wetlands had already been destroyed or otherwise lost. The main threats are not only artificial breaching for marina developments, but water abstraction and dam construction, which obviously reduce the amount and seasonal patterns of fresh water flowing into an estuary, as well as eutrophication caused by the run-off of nutrients from agriculture, septic tanks, malfunctioning sewage treatment plants and habitat loss. The crucial question is whether the Kowie is enough of what T.S. Eliot called a ‘strong brown god’41 to withstand these threats.
The social history of the river
Historians now generally define