Culna Articles

Culna Articles

‘Taxi please!’: Mites catching a ride

BY Lizel Hugo-Coetzee June 29, 2020

Figure 1. Beetle (family: Passalidae) with three different species of mites (indicated by A, B, C) attached. (See Ermilov & Frolov 2019b.)

Mites may be found worldwide in almost any habitat imagined, from arctic tundra to hot deserts, from marine habitats to forests. Collectively, they also eat an extraordinarily wide variety of food. However, when the habitat becomes too crowded, or the specific food source has run out, they have to disperse to the next optimal space. Sometimes it is as easy as walking to the next spot, but sometimes the next food source is quite a distance away, and being so small and wingless, walking is just impractical.

Culna Articles

#BlackLivesMatter: What does it mean for South Africa?

BY Derek du Bruyn June 18, 2020

On Sunday, 14 June 2020, a group of South Africans gathered at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg to add their voices to the global #BlackLivesMatter movement. The gathering, which took the form of a vigil, was not only meant to show solidarity with black people in the USA and their anger at the violent deaths of black people at the hands of police officers, but also to raise awareness of issues that matter to South Africans.

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Birds of the Oliewenhuis koppies

BY Dawie H. de Swardt June 12, 2020

Image credit: Malachite Sunbird, Nectarinia famosa, male Derek Keats

Over 90 bird species have been recorded at the Oliewenhuis koppie and gardens, making it a bird lover’s paradise. The Oliewenhuis Art Museum is situated on Grant’s Hill in Bloemfontein and is surrounded by 12 acres of natural vegetation. The Oliewenhuis koppie stretches right up to the boundary fence on top of the hill. It has four well marked walking trails through the unspoilt natural surroundings.

Culna Articles

“Of bread, freedom and preventing ‘food pandemics’” – Oscar Mpetha and Liz Abrahams and the early struggle of South African food and canning workers

BY Hendrik Snyders May 5, 2020

Introduction

In a recent assessment around the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations Organisation (UNO) noted that the ‘pandemic is impacting global food systems, disrupting regional agricultural value chains, and posing risks to household food security’. It also stressed the need to ‘ensure the safety and well-being of staff and beneficiaries’.[1] ReliefWeb, a humanitarian information service provided by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), further observed that lockdowns and other control measures including restricting access to income-earning activities, aimed at curbing the spread of the virus, has both ‘increased the magnitude and severity of acute food insecurity’ around the world.[2]

Collections Management - Humanities

Victorian fairings – evocative, funny or just plain silly?

BY Sudre Havenga May 4, 2020

In England between 1850 and 1914 you would have probably been the proud owner of a little china figure after a visit to the fair. They were given away as prizes at the fairground and were mostly small porcelain ornaments. The word fairing (‘fayring’ or ‘fairin’ in old English) is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘a present given at or brought from a fair’ and it comes from the Latin ‘féria’ meaning a holiday.