ccfj@hippo.ru.ac.za (F. Jacot Guillarmod) (05/13/91)
Taken without permission from the "Weekly Mail", Vol 7, Number 18,
May 10 - May 16 1991, Johannesburg:
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Weeding out racist plants is a problem (page 3)
By JOE GUMBI
The word kaffer/kaffir has been outlawed as being a derogatory term for
members of the African population. But its variants, such as caffra,
caffrum or caffrorum, are well entrenched as they form part of the
scientific names of over 50 indigenous South African plants.
Examples include wellknown species such as Protea caffra (sugar bush,
suikerbos), Acacia caffra (common hookthorn), Combretum caffrum (Cape
bush willow) and many more. The scientific names of these plants cannot
be changed at will.
Emsie du Plessis, Director of Education and Information at the National
Botanical Institute in Pretoria, explained: ``The formation and use of
all scientific plant names is governed by a set of rules known as the
International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) used by botanists in
all countries.'' Any attempt to change these scientific names for
non-botanical reasons would not be acknowledged by the international
botanical community which is bound by the ICBN, she added.
The word kaffir/kaffer itself, used as a common name to describe many
plants, is found in many books on South African flora. There is a Kaffir
lily, Kaffir bride, Kaffir plum, Kaffer wag 'n bietjie, Kafferdissel,
Kaffertulip and many others.
Du Plessis said: ``Although the use of scientific plant names is much
preferred, the institute acknowledges that some nature lovers, gardeners
and farmers are more comfortable with common names.
``However, common names could lead to ambiguity and are quite unsuitable
for scientific purposes: the same common name is often applied to
different species and one and the same species may have a number of
common names.''
There was no organisation or body that governed the application of
common names. Anybody may decide to call a certain plant by a certain
common name and nobody can prove him right or wrong, she said.
``The institute has no say in such matters but we do try to set an
example and influence users of common names. As far as the word
kaffir/kaffer is concerned our institute regards this as derogatory and
we do not use it - not as part of a common name nor in any other
sense.'' Du Plessis said the purpose of giving a scientific name to a
group of plants was not to indicate its characters or history but to
supply a means of referring to it and to indicate its rank in the
hierarchy of plant groupings.
The ICBN regarded considerations such as absolute grammatical
correctness, regularity or euphony of names, more or less prevailing
custom and regard for persons as relatively accessory to the scientific
naming of plants. In the case of a species, its scientific Latin name
was a binary combination consisting of the name of the genus followed by
a single specific epithet.
Du Plessis said: ``The ICBN allows the original namer of the species to
have taken this epithet from any source whatever. The ICBN requires
that the author must have effectively published this name in a proper
book or scientific periodical.''
The changing of existing scientific names was precisely regulated by the
ICBN. ``Because our knowledge of plants is not static but continually
increasing the ICBN provides for name changes in the light of new
evidence,'' Du Plessis said.
The ICBN did not allow the rejection of an existing scientific name
merely because it was "inappropriate or disagreeable or because another
is preferable.... or because it has lost its original meaning,'' Du
Plessis said.
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