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THE WHITE CAMEL OF THE MAKGABENG

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2002

BENJAMIN W. SMITH  and
JOHAN A. VAN SCHALKWYK
BENJAMIN W. SMITH
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand
JOHAN A. VAN SCHALKWYK
Affiliation:
National Cultural History Museum, Pretoria
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Abstract

Research in the Northern Province of South Africa has revealed a most surprising new rock art find: a painting of a camel. This paper investigates how and why a camel came to be painted in the remote rock art of the Makgabeng hills. Analysis of archival material allows one to attribute the painting to a Northern Sotho artist who was active in the first decade of the twentieth century. The purpose of the painting is revealed in its context; it forms part of a collection of paintings which ridicule elements of ineptness in the ways of the new white intruders. We argue that this pointed humour helped the Makgabeng community to overcome some of the trauma of the displacement and violence which characterized the era of the first white settlement in northern South Africa.

Keywords

South Africaarchaeologycolonialarts
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , July 2002 , pp. 235 - 254
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This paper is a result of a programme of collaboration between researchers at the Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, and the National Cultural History Museum in Pretoria. We thank these two organizations for supporting the joint research. The Rock Art Research Institute is funded by the National Research Foundation and the Research Office of the University of the Witwatersrand. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and may not reflect the views of the parent organizations or funders. We thank David Lewis-Williams, Geoffrey Blundell, Paul den Hoed, Jeremy Hollmann, Siyakha Mguni, Jamie Hampson and Sam Challis for their comments on drafts of this paper. Menno Klapwijk drew our attention to some of the historic photographs reproduced here and we thank him for this valuable input. We thank the National Archives of Zimbabwe for their permission to reproduce the photograph of Flint's camels. Most importantly, we thank the traditional leaders who have supported and assisted us in this research, in particular Elias Raseruthe and the late Collin Maleboho.