ABSTRACT
Bushmen played an active role in the ecological devastation. Many professional hunters and traders armed Bushmen and encouraged them to hunt for ivory and ostrich feathers. In 1893 there was a minor revival in trade because of the ostrich feather boom, and Bushmen were, at least in the southern Kalahari, major suppliers of the feathers and not above weighting the loads of feathers with some iron or rocks to obtain a better price. The role of Bushmen in the cardinal episode of contemporary right-wing Afrikaner mythology is central. Bushmen were not only directly responsible for the collapse of Upingtonia, but, indeed, Will Worthington Jordan wanted to establish his pocket republic there because of the rich copper diggings that they controlled and admirably exploited. In October 1885, the trekboers announced the formation of the Republic of Upingtonia, named, on Jordan's insistence, after the prime minister of the Cape in an effort to ensure its support for the precarious republic.
