Writing the Ancestral River. Jacklyn Cock
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(Date of photograph unknown. Cory Library/Africa Media Online).
13. Throughout the 1840s the harbour was used by sailing ships, usually small schooners and cutters. Their cargoes were partially offloaded into small boats before they attempted to enter the river. Locally built lighters were used to unload larger vessels anchored out at sea (Date of photograph unknown. Cory Library/Africa Media Online).
14. The Albany Steam Navigation Company, owned by William Cock, operated the Sir John St Aubyn, an iron steamship for cargo and passengers that made its first journey from Cape Town to Port Frances (later Port Alfred) in record time (3½ days) in July 1842 (Painting by Edith Cock, 1840s. Cock Family Archive).
15. Steamship moored in the Kowie River. The harbour development increased trade between the port, Cape Town, England and Mauritius. Ships took cargoes of sheep, butter, beans, grain, hide and tallow to Mauritius and brought back sugar. The harbour was busiest in the 1870s with 101 ships entering in 1876 (Date of photograph unknown. Western Cape Archives, AG 4651).
16. View of the Kowie River by Thomas Bowler, from the flagpole in front of William Cock’s house, according to a family member. The view shows the dredger at work in the river (Hand-coloured engraving from original artwork by Thomas Bowler, 1864. Cory Library/Africa Media Online).
17. An artist (probably Thomas Bowler) sits on the East Bank and sketches boats in the harbour. William Cock’s residence, Richmond House, is visible on the top of the hill in the distance (Artist and date unknown. Western Cape Archives, L 1545).
18. Letitia Harriet Cock (1852–1951) as a young woman. She was William Cock’s eldest granddaughter and the author’s great-aunt. She recalled being given the honour, at the age of 8, of christening the town of Port Alfred when its name was changed from Port Frances in 1860 (Date of photograph unknown. Cock Family Archive).
19. Letitia Harriet Cock in later life. Her reminiscences of frontier life and memories of her grandfather William Cock were a valuable source of oral testimony for the author (Date of photograph unknown. Cock Family Archive).
20. Letitia Harriet Cock with the author. Despite the 90-year age gap, Harriet and the author had an extraordinarily close relationship (1940s) (Cock Family Archive).
21. Early photograph looking across the Kowie River to the East Bank and the Indian Ocean beyond. The area is now covered by the Royal Alfred Marina (Date of photograph unknown. Cory Library/Africa Media Online).
22. The mouth of the Kowie River and the East Bank (left) as they looked in the 1960s before the wetland was destroyed by the marina development in 1989 (Postcard by Protea Colour Prints (Pty) Ltd).
23. The Kowie River mouth showing the canalisation of the river between two piers stretching out into the ocean (Photograph: David Stott).
24. The dunes on the East Bank. To the left of the picture is where silt from the dredging of the marina canals and the estuary is dumped. This affects the natural wave action and migration of the sand dunes (Photograph: David Larsen/Africa Media Online).
25. River view looking upstream, with both banks covered by indigenous vegetation (Date of photograph unknown, possibly early 20th century. Western Cape Archives, E2773).
26. The same view as figure 25 above, in 2017, showing the upmarket housing development, Riverview Waterfront Estate, which destroyed the natural vegetation and blocked public access along the river bank (Photograph: David Stott).
27. Aerial photograph of the town of Port Alfred in the 1960s before the marina development (Postcard by Art Publishers (Pty) Ltd, Umbilo, Durban. Photograph: B. K. Bjornsen).
28. There are currently plans for the construction of another ‘high density waterfront marina’, Centenary Park, at the bend of the river, on the far right. This will damage the river irreparably (Photograph: David Stott).
29. Overview of the Royal Alfred Marina developed at the mouth of the Kowie River in 1989 by a private developer (Photograph: David Stott).
30. Looking across towards the East Bank. The marina destroyed a wetland, privatised a public asset, and causes ongoing silting in the Kowie River (Photograph: Joanna Rice).
31. The marina consists of 355 upmarket houses each with its own waterfront. They are mostly holiday homes for wealthy upcountry visitors (Photograph: David Stott).
32. Nemato township, Port Alfred. An 8 km walk to the town centre, this is home to thousands of Africans living with high rates of poverty, unemployment, hunger, and uneven and irregular provision of municipal services (Photograph: David Larsen/Africa Media Online).
A rare white line
Before human intervention, the lower Kowie estuary consisted of a number of channels and sandbanks that migrated across the floodplain. In such estuaries the interaction between sea and river creates unique and dynamic ecosystems. Estuaries are a type of wetland, the planet’s most productive ecosystems. Wetlands and other estuary-associated habitats perform important services. Water draining the catchment area carries sediments and pollutants, which are filtered out or trapped by marginal vegetation and salt marshes. Coastal plants (like salt marshes) represent a significant contribution to carbon sequestration, popularly known as blue carbon.15
Estuaries ‘support critical habitats such as salt marshes, intertidal mud and sandbanks, and eel grass beds which are used by many species for foraging and as nursery areas’.16 Not only fish, but also many species of mammal, bird, fish, crustaceans, insects and other wildlife forms depend on estuaries to survive, eat, reproduce, migrate and live permanently. They are especially important nursery areas for many fish species, such as White Steenbras, Dusky Kob and Spotted Grunter. According to Professor Alan Whitfield, a total of 155 fish species are dependent on South African estuaries: 42 species breed in