![Southafrica468bushman](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Southafrica468bushman.jpg)
The
San, or Bushmen, are indigenous people in
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...
particularly in what is now
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
and
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
. Their ancient rock paintings and
carving
Carving is the act of using tools to shape something from a material by scraping away portions of that material. The technique can be applied to any material that is solid enough to hold a form even when pieces have been removed from it, and ...
s (collectively called
rock art
In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...
) are found in caves and on
rock shelter
A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long, rock shelters are almost alway ...
s. The artwork depicts non-human beings, hunters, and half-human half-animal hybrids. The half-human hybrids are believed to be medicine men or healers involved in a healing dance.”
[Gall, Sandy. "The Bushmen of the Kalahari." Ecologist 33.7 (2003): 28-31.] A painting discovered at
Blombos Cave is thought to be the oldest known instance of human art, dating to around 73,000 years ago.
Gall writes, “The
Laurens van der Post
Sir Laurens Jan van der Post, (13 December 1906 – 15 December 1996) was a South African Afrikaner writer, farmer, soldier, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer and conservationist. He was noted for his interest in Jun ...
panel at
Tsodilo
The Tsodilo Hills are a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS), consisting of rock art, rock shelters, depressions, and caves in southern Africa. It gained its WHS listing in 2001 because of its unique religious and spiritual significance to local peo ...
is one of the most famous rock paintings.” High on this rock face in Botswana is the image of a “magnificent red
eland bull” painted, according to Van der Post, “only as a Bushman who had a deep identification with the eland could have painted him.” Also on this rock face is a female giraffe that is motionless, as if alarmed by a predator. Several other images of animals are depicted there too, along with the flesh blood-red handprints that are the signature of the unknown artist.
The
Drakensberg
The Drakensberg (Afrikaans: Drakensberge, Zulu: uKhahlambha, Sotho: Maluti) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, which encloses the central Southern African plateau. The Great Escarpment reaches its greatest elevation – within th ...
and
Lesotho
Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...
is particularly well known for its San rock art.
Tsodilo was recognised as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
in 2001; not all the art covered by this is by San people or their ancestors.
Learning from rock art
According to Thomas Dowson, “a lot of rock art is actually in symbols and metaphors.” For example, eland bulls, meant marriage, and curing or the trance dance. Rock art gives us a glimpse of the San's history, and how they lived their lives.
[Dowson, Thomas A. “Reading Art, Writing History:Rock Art and Social Change in Southern Africa.” 25.3 (1994): 332-345.]
San also used rock art to record things that happened in their lives. Several instances of rock art have been found that resemble wagons and colonists. Dowson notes that, “The people who brought in the wagons and so forth thus became, whether they realized it or not, part of the social production of southern African rock art. They added a new dimension.
Dorothea Bleek
Dorothea Frances Bleek (later Dorothy F. Bleek; born 26 March 1873, Mowbray, Cape Town – died 27 June 1948, Newlands, Cape Town) was a South African-born German anthropologist and philologist known for her research on the Bushmen (the San peopl ...
, writer of the article “Beliefs and Customs of the
/Xam Bushmen”, published 1933, says the San also recorded “rain dance animals”. When they did rain dances they would go into a trance to “capture” one of these animals. In their trance they would kill it, and its blood and milk became the rain. As depicted in the rock art, the rain dance animals they “saw” usually resembled a hippopotamus or antelope, and were sometimes surrounded by fish according to Dowson.
We can also learn more about how the San lived through their rock art. In the following depiction, the people are all in a dancing stance, and the women are all clapping. So, according to Dowson, it is believed to be one of their healing or trance dances. Everyone is the same; one is not more elaborate or more detailed than another. This shows that though the healers held special powers, they were not thought of as higher or better. Healing was not for becoming a more prominent and powerful person, it was for the good of the entire community.
H. C. Woodhouse, author of the book ''Archaeology in Southern Africa'', says historical sources have also said that the San often disguised themselves as animals so they could get close enough to grazing herds to shoot them. The head of the buck was an important part of this disguise, and was also used in dancing and miming of the actions of animals. The large number of buckheaded figures in paintings is proof that the San did this.
[Woodhouse, H.C. “Rock Paintings of Southern Africa.” African Arts. 2.3 (1969): 47.]
Later San rock art began to illustrate contact with European settlers. A famous example is of a sailing ship, known as the Porterville Galleon (found 150 kilometres inland in the Skurweberg Mountains near the town of
Porterville). The picture is thought to represent a Dutch ship and have been created in the mid-17th Century. Later examples of colonial subject matter include women wearing European-style dresses, men with guns, and wagons and carts made during the 19th Century.
Production of rock art
Woodhouse also says the San used different coloured stone to do the drawings. He says, “They usually used red rock, which they ground until it was fine, and then mixed it with fat.” They then rubbed this on the rock to form the pictures. This paint that they used withstands the rain and weather for very long periods of time. The San then, according to
Phillip V. Tobias
Phillip Vallentine Tobias (14 October 1925 – 7 June 2012) was a South African palaeoanthropologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He was best known for his work at South Africa's hominid fossil ...
, an Honorary Professor of Palaeoanthropology at the
Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research
The Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI) is a paleontological, paleoanthropological and archeological research institute operated through the Faculty of Science of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Previously kn ...
, used this paint in four different styles. These four style techniques are “monochromes, animal outlines in thick red lines, thinly outlined figures, and white stylized figures.” A.R. Willcox, writer of the article “Australian and South African Rock-Art Compared”, published 1959, says the tool they used to do these paintings was “a brush made from animal’s hair or a single small feather.” This may be one reason for the great fineness and delicacy of their painting.
I. and J. Rudner, writers of the journal “Who Were the Artists? Archaeological Notes from South West Africa”, published 1959, say the form that the San use is often referred to as a Dynamic School. “It has a lot of action and color, and reached its climax in the shaded eland pictures.” It is usually associated with the San.
According to Woodhouse, clues are given as to who worked on the rock art by the subjects that are chosen. There are many pictures of the Eland, Reybuck, Hartebeest and Lion, and also of San and fighting.
However, there are few depictions of plants. Wilcox notes that, “plants usually fell in the domain of women, so it is presumed that the authors of these paintings were men.”
Digitization and conservation
The South African Rock Art Digital Archive (SARADA) contains over 250,000 images, tracings, and historical documents of ancient African rock art. In addition to making images of the art accessible to a much wider swath of the public, the project help protects art from the physical damage that comes from regular in-person visits.
See also
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San healing practices
In the culture of the San (also known as Ju/'oansi, !Kung, or Bushmen), an indigenous people of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Angola, healers administer a wide range of practices, from oral remedies containing plant and animal material, ...
*
San religion
The San religion is the traditional religion and mythology of the San people. It is poorly attested due to their interactions with Christianity.
Gods and mythical figures
;ǀXam
The ǀXam prayed to the Sun and Moon. Many myths are ascribed t ...
Paintings
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Driekops Eiland Driekops Eiland (also called Driekopseiland) is a rock engraving or petroglyph site in the bed of the Riet River close to the town of Plooysburg, near Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa.
The engravings
There are more than 3500 individual en ...
* ''
The White Lady''
Painting sites
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Apollo 11 Cave
The Apollo 11 Cave is an archeological site in the ǁKaras Region of south-western Namibia, approximately southwest of Keetmanshoop. The name given to the surrounding area and presumably the cave by the Nama people was "Goachanas".John Mason, " ...
*
Drakensberg
The Drakensberg (Afrikaans: Drakensberge, Zulu: uKhahlambha, Sotho: Maluti) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, which encloses the central Southern African plateau. The Great Escarpment reaches its greatest elevation – within th ...
*
Tsodilo Hills
The Tsodilo Hills are a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS), consisting of rock art, rock shelters, depressions, and caves in southern Africa. It gained its WHS listing in 2001 because of its unique religious and spiritual significance to local peo ...
, World Heritage site in Botswana
*
Twyfelfontein
Twyfelfontein (Afrikaans: ''uncertain spring''), officially known as ǀUi-ǁAis ( Damara/Nama: ''jumping waterhole''), is a site of ancient rock engravings in the Kunene Region of north-western Namibia. It consists of a spring in a valley flanked ...
, World Heritage site in Namibia
*
Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre
Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre is a rock engraving site with visitor centre on land owned by the !Xun and Khwe San situated about 16 km from Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa. It is a declared Provincial Heritage Site managed by the N ...
External links
The Digital Bleek and Lloyd
Further reading
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Notes
{{Reflist
Botswana culture
Namibian culture
Rock art in Africa
San people