(Author: Peter Houston, Vol. 76 * No. 3 * Spring 2021)
Abstract
Worldwide, anti-Black words have been used to describe flora. As a result of its strongly racist history, there is extreme sensitivity to racial differences in South Africa. The removal of racist plant names is far advanced in South Africa and more appropriate common names have come to the fore. However, the common usage of the plant name “Wandering Jew” is still widespread, despite its historical use in supporting antisemitic stereotypes. This paper explores the Wandering Jew as a plant, Christian myth and antisemitic trope and argues that South Africa follows the recent international trend of adopting alternate plant names.
Introduction
Words are not neutral. They influence and define how we see one another. Words express how we categorise those like us and label those different to us. Unpleasant words remain in use because they assert power with derogatory words being a subtle form of coercion.[1] Words express prejudices – fear or hatred of the Other, for example, with racism, sexism and antisemitism. Not surprisingly, given the power dynamics at play, disproportionately large numbers of pejorative terms abound in contemptuous reference to [historically] disempowered groups.[2]
Worldwide, anti-Black words have been used to describe flora (plants). Echinocactus polycephalus and Bertholletia excelsa (Brazil nuts) have ugly colloquial names that have only recently fallen out of usage.[3] The species name for Erythrina caffra (African coral tree) contains the Latin form of a deeply offensive racial slur and the common name in use a generation ago was even more blatantly so. Most of the problematic names that are encountered in botany were established when there was little respect for the humanity of communities that fell outside a set of exclusionary norms.[4]
Many of the most shocking words are racist terms, which have particular power in multi-racial countries such as South Africa.[5] As a result of its strongly racist history, there is extreme sensitivity to racial differences in South Africa, and terms to refer to various racial groups – official and unofficial – abound.[6]
Before the dawn of South Africa’s first multi-racial elections in 1994, Hauptfleisch listed thirty-six English common names of flora in 1993 that contained negative racial slurs.[7] He notes that as a result of name components such as Bushman (boesman), Hottentot (hotnot, hottentot), Kaffir (kaffer), khaki (kakie), coolie (koelie); meid, nigger and oumeid having at present acquired an undeniably racist register, the question arises how fauna and flora names containing such components can best be substituted by generally acceptable vernacular names.[8]
The solution has been to either refer to the Latin name, if it is not offensive, or to adopt a neutral common name. Thus, in common vernacular, k****r corn becomes sorghum, k****rlelie becomes clivia, and the k****r tree (k****rboom in Afrikaans) becomes coral tree with the Latin name Erythrina also widely used. For example, research Erythrina caffra on the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) website and the information page gives the Latin name and the common names in four South Africa languages, namely, coast coral tree (English); kuskoraalboom (Afrikaans); umsinsi (Zulu); umsintsi (Xhosa). In relation to the older offensive common name, the SANBI states, “Today the word is not used as it is an offensive slur. It was used in older botanical works, and generally indicates that the plant was found along the southeastern seaboard of South Africa.”[9] The removal of racist plant names is far advanced in South Africa and more appropriate common names have come to the fore. The same cannot be said about the common usage of the plant name “Wandering Jew”.
The Wandering Jew – the Name of Several Insidious Plants
Wandering Jew is used to describe a variety of plants worldwide. In South Africa, the name Wandering Jew is given to several plants, many of them problematic alien invasive species.
The Benghal Wandering Jew (Commelina benghalensis / tropical spiderwort) is one of “the world’s worst weeds reported in 25 different crops such as soybean, maize and sugarcane in 29 different countries.”[10] The Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) describes it as “an annual or perennial herb with fleshy creeping stems that root readily at the nodes. It is equally abundant on all soil types.”[11]
The Purple Wandering Jew (Tradescantia zebrina / cockroach grass) originates in Mexico and is described by CABI as “a succulent, trailing herbaceous plant, distinguished by its paired, silvery green leaves flushed with purple on the upper surface and purple underneath, asymmetrical at the base. It has bright pink flowers with three petals. The fruit are small capsules containing greyish-brown seeds.”[12]
This version of the Wandering Jew is popular as a garden ornamental, grown as a colorful ground cover. Yet Tradescantia zebrina is a declared invader in South Africa and must be controlled, or eradicated where possible.[13]
CABI also lists Tradescantia fluminensis (Inch plant), a plant endemic to the tropical rainforests of south-east Brazil, as Wandering Jew and describes it as “a persistent invasive weed of natural areas where it carpets the ground and prevents native regeneration.”[14] Tradescantia fluminensis is a declared invader in South Africa and must be controlled, or eradicated where possible.[15]
What is common to most of these plants called Wandering Jew is that they are alien invasive species, they are problematic, they tend to thrive in shadowy places, they need to be rooted out and exterminated before they take over. Not only is the Wandering Jew detrimental to their host environs, but in some instances cause rashes in humans and dogs.
It is decidedly odd, if not sinister, that so many different plants have come to be named Wandering Jew. Perhaps stranger still, is that in an era when there are heightened social and academic sensitivities in South Africa to the offensive nomenclature of some plants, the use of Wandering Jew is widespread and without clarification. Pick up a copy of The Gardener and it refers to Wandering Jew.[16] Look up the plant on any number of botanical and agricultural South African websites and it is still accepted usage. Contrast this with the offensive racist plant names that have been removed and when occasionally referenced, always with an explanation of its derogatory nature. But what is the offensive nature of the term Wandering Jew?
The Wandering Jew is an ancient Christian myth. It is an “antisemitic iconic projection that encodes and enforces difference using a vocabulary of attributes seen in sources ranging from medieval manuscripts to neo-Nazi blogs.”[17] The Wandering Jew is a figure condemned to wander by Jesus until his second coming for having taunted him on his way to the crucifixion.[18] Brichetto notes that “The Wandering Jew appears in a Latin chronicle from Italy in an entry for the year 1223. In this text, Ignoti monachi Cisterciensis S. Mariae de Ferraria chronica et Ryccardi de Sancto Germano chronica priora, the Wanderer is described as a Jew who has been seen in Armenia and who has been cursed to wander the earth since the Passion, when he assaulted Christ.”[19]
Early Church theologians taught that the Jews were cursed of God. The most important interpretation of this curse being the dispersion and oppression to which the Jews were subject, with the Wandering Jew coming to symbolize this belief.[20] Whatever its origins, by the thirteenth century, early versions of the myth had merged and traveled to Western Europe along with a body of Eastern oral tradition, which was catalyzed by the Crusades. [21]
The concept of the Wandering Jew has since been used for centuries to define Jews as the eternal Other.[22] It reinforces the view of Jews as the eternal Foreigner.[23] Brichetto comments that “folktales, broadsheets, poems, songs, films, operas, novels, plays, political writings, Nazi propaganda, eyewitness accounts, advertisements, and countless literary allusions attest to the fact that the Wandering Jew was a useful and flexible vehicle.”[24] The resulting body of literature and images has victimized an entire people.[25] Jewish communities have therefore been associated with and always marked as Wandering Jews, “always from elsewhere despite a presence of centuries”.[26] The diasporic Jew belonged nowhere yet was found everywhere.[27]
There have been periods of history where the Wandering Jew narrative evolved and expanded significantly. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the Christian myth of the Wandering Jew became prevalent.[28] With the rise of the printing press and on the back of Martin Luther’s Reformation, chapbooks – a type of printed street literature – were efficient disseminators of religious polemic and later even more so as disseminators of popular entertainment.[29] In 1602, an illustrated German chapbook “A Brief Description and Narrative Regarding a Jew Named Ahasverus” propelled the Wandering Jew (now somewhat mysteriously called Ahasverus) to bestseller status and underwent 86 print runs until the end of the eighteenth century.[30]
This personification of the Wandering Jew was of a whole range of negative attributes that were then projected upon the Jewish people.[31] Despite this hostility, Dan Cohn-Sherbok remarks that “Jews were not subject to any violent onslaught until modern times when the methodological elevation of the Jewish people became a central policy of the Third Reich.”[32] Yet another amplification of the concept of the Wandering Jew happened through Nazi propaganda (art and film) during World War II.
An infamous German poster entitled Der Ewige Jude[33] from 1937 advertised an exhibition by that same name, which presented “scientific” proof of the inherent inferiority of Jews.[34] The words Der Ewige Jude anchored the bottom of the picture and were the color of blood, referencing one of the most ancient and enduring antisemitic tropes, that of Blood Libel. Even the font used deliberately mimics sacred Hebrew calligraphy.[35]
The exhibition gave rise to a documentary film in 1940 also called Der Ewige Jude. A review of the documentary, published in the Nazi Party’s monthly Unser Wille und Weg, said:[36]
“The Eternal Jew is the first film that not only gives a full picture of Jewry, but provides a broad treatment of the life and effects of this parasitic race using genuine material taken from real life. It also shows why healthy peoples in every age have responded to the Jews with disgust and loathing, often enough expressing their feelings through deeds.
Just like rats, the Jews 2000 years ago moved from the Middle East to Egypt, at that time a flourishing land. Even then they had all the criminal traits they display today, even then they were the enemies of hard-working, creative peoples. In large hordes they migrated from there to the “Promised Land,” flooded the entire Mediterranean region, broke into Spain, France, and Southern Germany, then followed the German colonists as they moved into the countries of the East. Along the way they remained eternal parasites, haggling and cheating. Poland above all became the enormous reservoir from which Jewry sent its agents to every leading nation of Europe and the world”.The review continues in the same vein, exhorting people to fight back and eradicate an alien invasive species (to use and make the link with modern botanical language). The nameless author of the review concludes “We must win this battle for ourselves, for Europe, for the world. This film will be a valuable tool in that struggle.”[37] Der Ewige Jude ends with a speech by Hitler proposing “the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.”[38] Six million Jewish men, women and children were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the years 1933 – 1945.[39] This amounted to the death of 60% of European Jews or in countries like Greece and Poland it was closer to 90%.[40]
The narrative, image and influence of the Wandering Jew did not die with the end of World War II. Brichetto remarks that “the image remains a favorite of neo-Nazi websites.”[41] The legend of the Wandering Jew has resurfaced during the Covid-19 pandemic and yet again become “a metaphor for many of the baseless conspiracy claims about Jews that we see on the rise again today.”[42]
South Africa is not immune to these conspiracies as the ugly social media incident of Simone Kriel demonstrated in 2020.43] Asked if Kriel’s supporters represented the views of a growing number of South Africans, Milton Shain said, “It seems to me this is a fringe group living in the world of social media. To what extent these voices reflect wider sentiment is difficult to know. What it does show is that the insidious world of the dark net is influencing a new generation in ways inconceivable only 10 years ago. It should also not be forgotten that Holocaust denial has a long history in South Africa on the far white right, as well among sections of the Muslim community.”[44]
This long history Shain refers to involves Wandering Jew canards, conspiratorial ideas of Jews exploiting South Africa and having little commitment to the country, which can be traced back to at least 1896.[45] Antisemitism has waxed and waned in South Africa. In 1930 the Quota Act was passed which led to a dramatic decline in Jewish immigration. [46] If that was not enough, in 1936 the ruling United Party introduced stiffer educational and financial immigration requirements and in 1937 passed the Aliens Act, which effectively prevented German Jews from seeking refuge in South Africa.[47] The radical right agitated for greater restrictions and saw no place in South Africa for Jews.[48] Shain notes “The Jew as an outsider, an alien in the body politic, was increasingly perceived as an unwelcome component of South Africa society.”[49] DF Malan had astutely perceived this trend early on and had commented in an interview with Die Burger back in November 1931 that ‘it is very easy to rouse a feeling of hate towards the Jews in this country.”[50] By 1937 he had abandoned any reservations about attacking Jews for political gain.[51] In 1937 Malan pronounced that Jews were “an imperium in imperio[52] in all countries.”[53]
Antisemitism was not confined to the fringes of society. It was found in the corridors of power in government. It was found in the corridors of esteemed academic institutions such as the University of Cape Town (UCT). Professor J. Kerr Wylie, writing to Sir Carruthers Beattie (Principal of UCT) in 1936 said, “If you read the history of the Jews throughout the Middle Ages and in modern times, you see the same facts always repeating themselves. The Jews are received into a country, kindly treated, allowed to accumulate wealth, etc. Then they invariably overreach themselves.”[54] Here is the Wandering Jew trope in evidence, cursed to ever wander the world – always from elsewhere despite a presence of centuries.
Globally, the common usage of the plant name Wandering Jew is increasingly being called into question. There are multiple examples of changes in the USA in the past ten years at least. A blogger, James Nyun, in San Diego expressed his disquiet with the name:
Trying to come up with other plant names that have left me a little queasy I thought immediately about the common houseplant, Wandering Jew, Tradescantia albiflora. The former owners of my house planted some in a bed, and I’m still trying to eradicate it, twenty years later. I keep telling myself that “wandering Jew” is just a plant name and I’m not being antisemitic when I take the weeding fork to it.[55]
Stephen G. Saupe, a professor in the biology department of the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University, writes that “regrettably, plants can have racist names, too. A familiar example is Wandering Jew. Fortunately, this antisemitic name for one of our common houseplants has been replaced by spiderwort.”[56] Companies such as the House Plant Hobbyist have also picked up on the need to change after receiving feedback on the Wandering Jew:
Many people dislike the use of a common name that has a history of racism and bigotry, and would like to see us encourage the use of the scientific name or other common names, and we’ve listened. WE’RE NO LONGER ALLOWING THE USE OF THIS COMMON NAME…[57]
The trend is uncertain in the UK but changing the common name seems to be an outlier at present. The Bloombox Club online gardening company issued the following insight in 2019:
We assumed the name referred to the Israelites, cursed to ‘wander’ through the desert in search of the promised land until the last member of the original generation (Moses) dies. But further research revealed ‘Wandering Jew’ to be connected to an apocryphal myth, one that has been used to justify antisemitism since at least the 13th century.
The story goes that one of the men who taunted Jesus on his way to be crucified was cursed to walk the Earth until the Second Coming. In the context of the observable Jewish diaspora; the displacement of Jewish peoples from the Southern Levant in ancient times, and subsequent statelessness from antisemitic regimes, we are profoundly uncomfortable with using this moniker.
Unfortunately, most of the internet doesn’t seem to feel that way. Although Tradescantia zebrina has other common names, including Spiderwort and Inch Plant, ‘Wandering Jew’ seems to be the only one that’s stuck. [58]
New Zealand has also recently acknowledged the offensive history of the term, although the changing usage has come about reluctantly or so is seemingly the case, at least with the example of Massey University. A university statement, last updated in 2021, says: “Tradescantia is more correctly known as wandering Jew in New Zealand, but as this name is considered offensive to some people, it has been decided to call it tradescantia on this site. Some in New Zealand have decided to call it wandering willie, though many organisations within this country have to the name of tradescantia to get away from the offensive nature of the official name.”[59]
The Massey University statement makes reference to a blog by MJ Jackson from August 2020 called “Racism in Taxonomy: What’s in a Name?” Having first highlighted the offensive nature of racial slurs in plant names, she turns her attention to antisemitic associations. She argues: There are also plant names with offensive origins that aren’t as obvious. Tradescantia zebrina, for example, is currently called “Wandering Jew.” This name is based on a fictional character who was used to support antisemitism from the 13th century through the Nazi propaganda of WWII. “Why would we continue using that?,” you may be asking. It’s possible that the covert nature of its history has allowed the name to stick around for so long. People may unintentionally justify the name through assuming it has Biblical or geographical origins, or just by not asking questions altogether.[60]
Plant names with negative racial connotations are no longer acceptable or in use in South Africa yet Wandering Jew has seemingly not been flagged as having profoundly problematic antisemitic associations. This common name is used across all platforms, whether gardening magazines or government departments, botanical blogs or agricultural assessments. Learning from international trends as described above, there seems to be general ignorance of the terrible association of the Wandering Jew propaganda with Nazi Germany and its problematic Medieval antecedents. Worse still, it is part of antisemitic canards that endure to this day. Ignorance is not a ready defense when using other offensive terms.
To end on a personal note, my wife and I are keen gardeners. We moved into a new home in 2019 and the garden required a lot of work. It was full of alien invasive species from trees through to a problematic rambling ground cover that we were told was Wandering Jew. I can no longer use this common name in good conscience and will seek to educate others not to do so. Perhaps in time we will see publications and websites in South Africa simply add:
This name is no longer used by the horticultural world due to its historical use in supporting antisemitic stereotypes[61].
Revd Canon Peter Houston is Canon Theologian: [Anglican] Diocese of Natal.
NOTES
[1] De Klerk, V. (2011), A Nigger in the Woodpile? A Racist Incident on a South African University Campus, Journal of Languages and Culture 2(3), 41.
[2] De Klerk, A Nigger in the Woodpile? 42.
[3] Jackson, M.J. (9 August 2020), Racism in Taxonomy: What’s in a Name?, Hoyt Arboretum, https://www.hoytarboretum.org/racism-in-taxonmy-whats-in-a-name (Accessed 21 February 2021)
[4] Jackson, Racism in Taxonomy.
[5] De Klerk, A Nigger in the Woodpile? 43.
[6] Ibid.
[7] See the complete list in Hauptfleisch, D.C., Racist Language in Society and in Dictionaries: A Pragmatic Perspective, Lexikos 3 (1993), 99.
[8] Hauptfleisch, D.C., (1993), Racist Language in Society and in Dictionaries: A Pragmatic Perspective, Lexikos 3, 101.
[9] Erythrina caffra, South African National Biodiversity Institute, http://pza.sanbi.org/erythrina-caffra (Accessed 22 February 2021)
[10] Reynolds, L. & Van Den Berg, J., (February 2016), Effective control of Benghal wandering Jew, Grain SA, https://www.grainsa.co.za/effective-control-of-benghal-wandering-jew (Accessed 21 February 2021)
[11] Commelina benghalensis (Wandering Jew), Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International, https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/14977#toidentity (Accessed 21 February 2021)
[12] Tradescantia zebrina (Wandering Jew), Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/110354 (Accessed 21 February 2021)
[13] Wandering Jew, Agricultural Research Commission, https://www.arc.agric.za/arc-ppri/Fact%20Sheets%20Library/Tradescantia%20species.pdf (Accessed 23 February 2021)
[14] Tradescantia fluminensis (Wandering Jew), Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/54389 (Accessed 21 February 2021)
[15] Wandering Jew, Agricultural Research Commission, https://www.arc.agric.za/arc-ppri/Fact%20Sheets%20Library/Tradescantia%20species.pdf (Accessed 23 February 2021)
[16] See for example, Wandering Jew being listed by The Gardener as something children can slip to create and indoor garden in https://www.thegardener.co.za/the-gardener/the_gardener_categories/indoor-garden/ (Accessed 21 February 2021)
[17] Brichetto, J.L. (2006), The Wandering Image: Converting the Wandering Jew, Unpublished MA in Religion thesis, Vanderbilt University, 1.
[18] Jacobs, J., Wandering Jew, Jewish Encyclopedia, https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/968-ahasuerus-the-legend-of (Accessed 22 February 2021)
[19] Lampert-Weissig, L., (2016), The Transnational Wandering Jew and the Medieval English Nation, Literature Compass 13/12, 775.
[20] Lewis, B, (1986) Semites and Antisemites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice, London: Orion Books Ltd, 101.
[21] Lampert-Weissig, The Transnational Wandering Jew, 775.
[22] Brichetto, The Wandering Image, 2.
[23] Mosse, G.L., Towards the Final Solution, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press (1978), 115.
[24] Brichetto, The Wandering Image, 3.
[25] Brichetto, The Wandering Image, 3.
[26] Lampert-Weissig, The Transnational Wandering Jew, 779.
[27] Lampert-Weissig, The Transnational Wandering Jew, 780.
[28] Dan Cohn-Sherbok, The Crucified Jew: Twenty Centuries of Christian Anti-Semitism, London: Harper Collins Publishers (1992)76.
[29] Brichetto, The Wandering Image, 5.
[30] Brichetto, The Wandering Image, 5.
[31] Brichetto, The Wandering Image, 7.
[32] Dan Cohn-Sherbok, The Crucified Jew, 76.
[33] “Der Ewige Jude” is the German version of the English “Wandering Jew” and the French “le Juif Errant”.
[34] Brichetto, The Wandering Image, 38.
[35] Brichetto, The Wandering Image, 41.
[36] German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University, https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/ewig.htm (Accessed 21 February 2021)
[37] German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University, https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/ewig.htm (Accessed 21 February 2021)
[38] Antisemitism Explained, https://www.philaholocaustmemorial.org/antisemitism-explained/ (Accessed 22 February 2021)
[39] Yad Vashem, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/yad-vashem (Accessed 21 February 2021)
[40]The Final Solution, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/estimated-number-of-jews-killed-in-the-final-solution (Accessed 21 February 2021)
[41] Brichetto, The Wandering Image, 38
[42] Nathaniel Lloyd, In the Footsteps of the Wandering Jew: Anti-Semitic Canards in the Coronavirus Era, Historical Blindness Podcast (26 May 2020), https://www.historicalblindness.com/blogandpodcast//in-the-footsteps-of-the-wandering-jew-anti-semitic-canards-in-the-coronavirus-era (Accessed 21 February 2021)
[43] ‘Hitler was innocent’ – Pretoria fitness queen charged for comments against Jews (11 June 2020), Citizen Newspaper, https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/crime/2301384/hitler-was-innocent-pretoria-fitness-queen-charged-for-comments-against-jews/ (Accessed 22 February 2021)
[44] Feinberg, T., (25 June 2020), Antisemites Salute Simone Kriel on Social Media, South African Jewish Report, https://www.sajr.co.za/antisemites-salute-simone-kriel-on-social-media/ (Accessed 22 February 2021)
[45] Shain, M., The Foundations of Antisemitism in South Africa: Images of the Jew c. 1870 – 1930, Unpublished PhD, UCT (1990), 102.
[46] Shain, M, A Perfect Storm: Antisemitism in South Africa 1930 – 1948, Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers (2015), 17.
[47] Shain, A Perfect Storm, 3.
[48] Shain, A Perfect Storm, 4.
[49] Shain, A Perfect Storm, 45.
[50] Malan, DF, quoted in Shain, A Perfect Storm, 7.
[51] Shain, A Perfect Storm, 162.
[52] Meaning “a power within a power” or a “government within a government”, Merriam Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/imperium%20in%20imperio (Accessed 22 February 2021)
[53] Hansard (12 January 1937), quoted in Shain, A Perfect Storm, 145
[54] Wylie, JK (7 May 1936), quoted in Shain, A Perfect Storm, 99.
[55] Nyun, J., Culturally Insensitive Plant Names? (20 March 2010), http://lostinthelandscape.com/culturally-insensitive-plants-names/ (Accessed 22 February 2021)
[56] Saupe, S.G., Botanical Names, like Mascots, Need Some Revision, Special to The Times (9 January 2016), https://www.sctimes.com/story/sports/outdoors/2016/01/09/botanical-names-like-mascots-need-some-revision/76917180/ (Accessed 22 February 2021)
[57] What’s in a Name? Why We Won’t Use T. zebrina’s Common Name (18 May 2019), House Plant Hobbyist, https://www.house-plant-hobbyist.com/blog/2019/5/16/tradescantia-zebrina (Accessed 22 February 2021)
[58] Why We’re No Longer Using the Name Wandering Jew (26 June 2019), Bloombox Club, https://bloomboxclub.com/blogs/news/why-were-no-longer-using-the-name-wandering-jew
[59] Weeds Database (17 February 2021), Massey University, New Zealand, https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/colleges/college-of-sciences/clinics-and-services/weeds-database/wandering-jew.cfm (Accessed 21 February 2021)
[60] Jackson, MJ, Racism in Taxonomy: What’s in a Name?, Hoyt Arboretum, (9 August 2020) https://www.hoytarboretum.org/racism-in-taxonmy-whats-in-a-name (Accessed 21 February 2021)
[61] Small Leaf Spiderwort, Candide, https://candidegardening.com/ZA/plants/64f9f794-3170-472c-a146-05a1cfcfc0d8 (Accessed 23 February 2021)
