THE ROCK ART OF RESISTANCE:

An equestrian raider on horseback with a musket and stolen domestic stock. The zoomorph on top right is interpreted as a “rain-animal” magically summoned to wash away the tracks. Photograph Sam Challis and Brent Sinclain-Thompson.

Students of rock art have long been entranced by the wonderful realistic rock art of the prehistoric inhabitants of South Africa. Scholarly curiosity in South African and African rock art has prompted the creation of organizations such as TARA (Trust for African Rock Art) and the Bradshaw Foundation. It prompted President Nelson Mandella to state that “Africa’s rock art is the common heritage of all Africans, but it is more than that. It is the common heritage of humanity.” 

My personal introduction to African rock art was Carson Ritchie’s Rock Art of Africa. Ritchie said “At one end of the time scale, they (the creators of African rock art) had been in touch with the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean. At the other, they had been exterminated by black and white invaders of Africa, the last of them disappearing less than a hundred years ago.” (Ritchie 1979:23) Although Ritchie’s explanations are quite racist by today’s standards his volume did a creditable job in presenting the range and breadth of African rock art.

The rock art tradition of the peoples of Africa is often assumed to have ended with the disruption caused in the 17^th century by the invasion of European colonials and the subjugation and enslavement of native inhabitants of the various African colonies. But we have now learned, with the studies of a team from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg led by Sam Challis and Brent Sinclair-Thomson that at least one form of rock art continued under the regimes of the white invaders.

Borderland region painting with horses and guns. Photograph Sam Challis and Brent Sinclain-Thompson.

“With the founding of the Cape Colony in 1652, European colonists were forbidden from enslaving the indigenous Khoe, San and African farmers. They had to look elsewhere for a labour force. And so slaves, captured and sold as property, were unwilling migrants to the Cape, transported – at great expense – from European colonies like Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, the East Indies (now Indonesia), India and Sri Lanka. Far cheaper was the illegal trade in indigenous slaves that grew in the borderlands of the colony. Khoe-San people were forced into servitude as colonists took both land and livestock. Together with immigrant slaves they were the labour force for the colonial project.” (Callis and Sinclair-Thomson 2021)

Borderlands painting of ostriches and baboons. Photograph Sam Challis and Brent Sinclain-Thompson.

These slaves were not, however, willing workers and not all accepted their fate. “Desertion was their most common form of rebellion. Runaway slaves escaped into the borderlands and mounted a stiff resistance to the colonial advance from the 1700s until the mid-1800s. In most cases the fugitives joined forces with the skelmbasters (mixed outlaws), who themselves were descended from San-, Khoe- and isiNtu-speaking Africans (hunter-gatherers, herders and farmers).” (Callis and Sinclair-Thomson 2021)

Armed equestrian. Photograph Sam Challis and Brent Sinclain-Thompson.

“Thus, we find recorded examples of mixed bandit groups hiding out in mountain rock shelters within striking distance of colonial farms. Using guerrilla-style warfare they raided livestock and guns. In their refuge, they made rock art, images within their own belief systems that relate to escape and retaliation. These sites can be reliably dated, because they include rock art images of horses and guns. In our most recent study of rock art in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, we see that this art also provides us with the raiders’ perspective. Our fieldwork enables us to view something of the slave and indigenous resistance from outside the texts of the colonial record.” (Callis and Sinclair-Thomson 2021)

Black horse with reins, baboons below him. Photograph Sam Challis and Brent Sinclain-Thompson.

Well, of course on man’s bandit is another man’s escaped slave and, as they are both human, they felt the urge to tell their story and left an art record like all the other creators of rock art.

 NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the references listed below.

REFERENCE:

Challis, Sam, and Brent Sinclair-Thomson, 2021, South Africa’s Bandit Slaves and the Rock Art of Resistance, 20 August  2021, The Conversation Africa, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Ritchie, Carson I. A., 1979, Rock Art of Africa, A. S. Barnes and Co., New York.