Are Trout South African?

Are trout as South African as braaivleis, biltong and Mrs Balls chutney? Duncan Brown, academic, literary critic, author and fisherman, explores questions about the complex community of humans, fauna and flora that make up South Africa.

‘South Africanness’ usually refers to human identity, or at least to something with a valued place in our national history. In asking whether a fish species that was introduced as part of the process of colonial occupation could be called ‘South African’, Are Trout South African? uses discussions on trout, their history, the literature about them, scientific work on what is considered ‘indigenous’ or ‘alien’, as well as the author’s moving personal stories of fishing to provide an engaging and accessible exploration of a contested physical and cultural terrain.

Are Trout South African? will be of interest to anyone who is engaged with notions of how people belong or claim to belong, how people interact with landscapes, animals, plants or fish species, how our histories and family relationships may form around shared pursuits such as fishing and, of course, what pleasures, complexities and contradictions there are in the activity of flyfishing for trout in South Africa.