SOUTH AFRICAN GEOMORPHOLOGY: CRITICAL CHOICES FOR THE FUTURE

Abstract

The paper traces the major themes in southern African geomorphology from its early roots in both geography and geology at the start of the twentieth century through to the present. The development of the sub-discipline is considered on the basis of four epochs, namely: the early period up to the 1940's, the 1940's and 1950's, the period from the 1960's through to 1985, and the period since the First International Geomorphology Congress in Manchester (1985) and the first international conference on the geomorphology of southern Africa in Umtata (1988) through to the present. The trends in southern African geomorphology, based on a review of some one thousand five hundred journal articles and eleven conference proceedings from both the local Geomorphology Association and the Geographical Society are reviewed. These trends are then contrasted with developments within the discipline as a whole as represented by the more than three thousand abstracts contained in the proceedings of the international congresses on geomorphology between 1985 and 2000. Finally, the extent to which modern geomorphology is of significance in South Africa at present is considered.