Commemorating three decades of the Southern African association of geomorphologists

Abstract

Studies on the geomorphology of southern African have a long history extending back to the pioneering work in the early parts of the 20 Century by Dixey, Wellington and King, amongst others (see Beckedahl et al., 2002). However, it took several decades before a coordinated effort was launched to organize and formalize geomorphology locally. Following the initiatives of the First International Conference on Geomorphology at the University of Manchester in 1985, a Symposium on the Geomorphology of Southern Africa was held in the Eastern Cape at the University of Transkei (now Walter Sisulu University) in Umtata (Mthata) in 1988. The Symposium was preceded by an excursion through the then Transkei, and was followed by a two-week excursion through southern Africa. Two important publications stemmed from this meeting. The first was the symposium proceedings, entitled Geomorphological Studies in Southern Africa (Dardis & Moon, 1988) and the second, a textbook, The Geomorphology of Southern Africa (Moon & Dardis, 1988) that served for many decades as the seminal texts of southern African geomorphology. Targeting the imminent inauguration of the International Association of Geomorphology (IAG) planned for The Second International Geomorphology Conference in 1992 in Canada, the 1988 local geomorphology symposium in Mthata provided the platform to launch the Southern African Association of Geomorphologists (SAAG). In 1990 at the University of Bophuthatswana in Mafikeng (now part of the North-West University), the SAAG was launched through the acceptance of a constitution and the election of its first President, Heinz Beckedahl. After the official inauguration of the IAG in 1992, the SAAG became an affiliate member to the international association.