Southern African Humanities

Nets or not? Identifying LSA rock paintings of reticulate forms in the Kouga Mountains, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Jeremy Hollmann — 2024-11-18

The corpus of southern African Later Stone Age (LSA) rock art (or San/Bushman/hunter-gatherer art) follows broad conventions across the subcontinent. San/Bushman ethnography is used to identify recurrent themes and metaphors, such as hunting, dance, powerful animals, death and transformation. In certain cases, however, painted subjects receive scant mention in the ethnography. Is it possible to identify these without misunderstanding their implicit meanings? Paintings of reticulate forms in the Kouga Mountains of the Eastern Cape reawaken this debate in southern African rock art research. Although it is less secure to infer practices and items of material culture based almost entirely on their depiction in rock art, it is argued here that some inferences are safer than others. The reticulate forms and their overall painted context comprise a narrative based on hunting practices that involve the use of nets in which to capture animals. However, the paintings are not illustrations of hunting techniques: they are informed by the same tropes and concerns that have been detected in southern African LSA rock art more generally. It is to be expected that depictions of other subjects and practices not mentioned in any ethnographic records will embody a wealth of associations.

Notes on George Stow’s copy of the Mo’koma (dance of blood) depictions copied from Namahali Shelter, Maloti-Drakensberg

Jeremy Hollmann — 2024-11-18

We reintroduce and discuss a painted copy of 16 figures that George Stow recreated from what we refer to as Namahali Shelter. This shelter is located in a part of the Maloti-Drakensberg that is difficult to reach and has not been relocated since Stow’s visit. His comments link the figures, their activities and material culture to the Mo’koma dance described by Arbousset as one of the most important among the San people. Stow’s notes on the figures, the painted copy and the accompanying pencil sketches have not been presented as a cohesive record before. We introduce our own preliminary descriptive notes and interpretations, drawing from current understanding of the San world view. We demonstrate that the depictions from Namahali Shelter are exceptionally rich in conceptual elements that inform their narrative component, allowing us to recognise the interweaving of the ‘real’ with the ‘nonreal’ of some of the elements of the dance. We provide original insight into the possible role of women in healing and out-of-body travel in trance, the use of material culture (such as batons and bored stones), as well as concepts of fighting and death, in the performance of the Mo’koma dance. Our reading remains tentative until Namahali Shelter can be relocated and the original paintings recorded in their complete context.

Local ceramics of Ngoni settlers in southern Tanzania

Thomas Biginagwa — 2024-11-28

This analysis of the archaeological ceramics from the earliest Ngoni settlements of Mbinga-Mharule and Ndirima in southern Tanzania aims to determine the cross-cultural influence of Ngoni immigrants in their contact with local ethnic groups. The analysis seeks to establish whether Ngoni immigrants from South Africa during the Mfecane introduced distinct ceramic traditions that the autochthonous groups adopted or vice versa. Attributes analysed were fabric and temper, surface treatments, vessel forms, rim profiles, lip-end styles, and decoration types and their placement on the vessels. The ceramics were compared with those reported from nearby contemporaneous non- ngoni settlements and distant sites in abutting regions of Lake Nyasa. The results suggest that the Ngoni influence on the ceramics of local ethnic groups in southern Tanzania was insignificant. Instead, the Ngoni appear to have adopted the ceramic styles of autochthonous groups, but with adjustments, since they opted for large pots, largely for producing traditional brews. These findings offer some lessons essential in understanding the cultural impacts of other ethnic migrations in the past, present and future.

Destruction and opportunism: firearms, violence and banditry among Khoe-San in the early 19th-century Cape Colony

Brent Sinclair-Thomson — 2024-11-28

The conflicts along the colonial Cape frontier in the late 18th and early 19th centuries saw mixed groups of Khoe-San descent forming bandit communities to both resist the colony and to improve their own stations in life. Members within these communities often banded together after fleeing their positions as subservient workers in the colony, either on settlerowned
farms or in the military. Firearms had a significant impact on these communities. In some cases, like that of the bandit leader Draghonder, they sought to enact revenge and resistance towards their former masters. Draghonder’s attacks, however, ultimately led to a response from the colony. This response included a heavily armed commando and Khoe-San military unit, and resulted in the destruction of the bandit community. In other cases, such as that of the bandit leader Abraham Kruger, the bandits acquired firearms and turned on groups who were not able to defend themselves, including smaller Khoe-San communities. Kruger and his community sought to enrich themselves by preying on others. While they effectively used their guns for opportunistic measures, these opportunities ultimately came at the price of the destruction of other indigenous communities.