ROCKS IN AFRICA

ROCKS IN AFRICA

Rock in Africa are associated with hunter-gatherers is perhaps the most widely distributed rock art tradition in southern Africa, with numerous known examples in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, but also with examples found in Botswana and Mozambique. This tradition comprises paintings and engravings, with both techniques featuring images of animals and people. The type and composition varies from region to region. For example, rock art sites of the southern Drakensberg and Maloti mountains in South Africa and Lesotho contain a higher proportion of images of eland antelope, while those in Namibia in turn feature more giraffes. There are also regional variations in style and colour: in some sites and areas paintings are polychrome (multi-coloured) while in others they are not.

Differences also occur in composition between painting and engraving sites, with paintings more likely to feature multiple images on a single surface, often interacting with one another, while engraving sites more often include isolated images on individual rocks and boulders. However, there are commonalities in both imagery and style, with paintings throughout southern Africa often including depictions of people, particularly in procession and carrying items such as bows and arrows. Also heavily featured in both paintings and engravings are animals, in particular large ungulates which are often naturalistically depicted, sometimes in great detail. Additionally, images may include people and animals which appear to have the features of several species and are harder to identify. Some hunter-gatherer type paintings are described as ‘fine-line’ paintings because of the delicacy of their rendering with a thin brush.

Hunter-gatherer rock paintings are found in particular concentrations in the Drakensberg-Maloti and Cape Fold Mountains in South Africa and Lesotho, the Brandberg and Erongo Mountains in Namibia and the Matobo Hills in Zimbabwe, while engraving sites are found throughout the interior, often near water courses.

A different form of rock painting from the hunter-gatherer type, found mainly in the north-eastern portion of southern Africa is that of the ‘late whites’. Paintings in this tradition are so-called because they are usually associated with Bantu language-speaking Iron Age farming communities who entered the area from the north from around 2,000 years ago and many of these images are thought to have been painted later than some of the older hunter-gatherer paintings. ‘Late white’ paintings take many forms, but have generally been applied with a finger rather than a brush, and as the name suggests, are largely white in colour. These images represent animals, people and geometric shapes, often in quite schematic forms, in contrast to the generally more naturalistic depictions of the hunter-gatherer art.

Sometimes ‘late white’ art images relate to dateable events or depict objects and scenes which could only have taken place following European settlement, such as trains. Other forms of southern African rock art also depict European people and objects. These include images from the Western Cape in South Africa of a sailing ship, estimated to date from after the mid-17th century, as well as painted and engraved imagery from throughout South Africa showing people on horseback with firearms. Such images are sometimes termed ‘contact art’ as their subject matter demonstrates that they follow the period of first contact between European and indigenous people.

The first known reports of African rock art outside of the continent appear to come from the Bishop of Mozambique, who in 1721 reported sightings of paintings on rocks to the Royal Academy of History in Lisbon. Following this, reports, copies and publications of rock art from throughout modern South Africa were made with increasing frequency by officials and explorers. From the mid-19th century onwards, rock art from present-day Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana began to be documented, and during the first few decades of the twentieth century global public interest in the art was piqued by a series of illustrated publications.