San rock art

The San, or Bushmen, are indigenous people in Southern Africa particularly in what is now South Africa and Botswana. Their ancient rock paintings and carvings (collectively called rock art) are found in caves and on rock shelters. 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 writes, “The Laurens van der Post panel at Tsodilo 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 and Lesotho is particularly well known for its San rock art. Tsodilo was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001; not all the art covered by this is by San people or their ancestors.

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.

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, 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.

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Wikipedia