Escape and abscond: the use of ostrich potency by nineteenth-century rock artists in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

ABSTRACT

Ostriches are depicted at rock art sites that appear to be associated with raiding dating to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Taking into account the well-attested spiritual beliefs that relate to rock art made by past San hunter-gatherer populations and the understanding that the art does not depict scenes of daily life, it is highly unlikely that the artists were painting scenes of actual raids that somehow involved ostriches. An examination of broader Khoe-San beliefs concerning ostriches demonstrates instead that the depiction of these animals within a raiding context makes sense. This paper examines the historical significance of the Great Fish River region, as the former boundary of the Cape Colony and the location of frequent banditry, exemplified by stock-theft carried out by mixed groups of ‘Bushman’ bandits — comprising San, Khoekhoen, runaway slaves and military deserters — against European settlers. When such raids targeted European settlers, punitive expeditions were undertaken by commandos that included members of military regiments which themselves consisted of Khoe-San members. It was common for such individuals to desert their regiments and join up with the very bandits whom they were expected to combat, the reasons for which are examined in detail. An investigation of San and Khoekhoe beliefs about ostriches, both past and present, reveals a reverence for this bird as an animal of great strength that is able to escape dangerous situations by means of its powerful legs. This paper suggests that these raiders painted ostriches because they were purposefully drawing on ostrich potency to enable their own escape from military service as well as from pursuing commandos after stock raids.

RÉSUMÉ

On trouve des représentations d’autruches sur des sites d’art rupestre de la province du Cap oriental d’Afrique du Sud qui sont apparemment associés à des raids et qui datent de la fin du dix-huitième et du début du dix-neuvième siècle. Au vu des croyances spirituelles bien attestées liées à l’art rupestre réalisé par d’anciennes populations de chasseurs-cueilleurs San, et du fait que cet art ne représente pas des scènes de vie quotidienne, il semble très peu probable que les scènes dont il est question ici représentent des raids impliquant d’une façon ou d’une autre la présence réelle d’autruches. Un examen des croyances Khoe-San plus larges concernant les autruches suggère plutôt que la représentation de ces animaux dans le contexte de raids a un sens. Cet article examine l’importance historique de la région de Great Fish River, en tant qu’ancienne frontière de la colonie du Cap et lieu de banditisme fréquent, illustré par le vol du bétail des colons européens par des groupes mixtes de bandits ‘Bushman’ comprenant San, Khoekhoen, esclaves en fuite et déserteurs militaires. Lorsque de tels raids visaient des colons européens, des expéditions punitives étaient entreprises par des commandos qui comprenaient des membres de régiments militaires, eux-mêmes composés d’individus Khoe-San. Il était courant que de tels individus désertent leurs régiments et rejoignent les bandits mêmes qu'ils étaient censés combattre; les raisons pour cela sont ici examinées en détail. Une enquête sur les croyances passées et présentes des San et des Khoekhoen concernant les autruches révèle une révérence pour cet oiseau, considéré comme un animal d’une grande force capable d’échapper à des situations dangereuses grâce à ses pattes puissantes. Nous suggérons que les meneurs de ces raids peignirent des autruches délibérément pour évoquer la puissance de l’animal et leur permettre d’échapper au service militaire et aux commandos les poursuivant après les raids de bétail.

KEYWORDS:

• ostrich
• rock art
• bandits
• commando
• Khoe-San
• colonialism
• South Africa

Notes

1 Pastoralists who arrived in South Africa around 1000 years ago (Sadr 2015).

2 I follow Hollmann (2007) and Morris (2008) in applying this term to rock art that may have been created by either Khoekhoe or San artists or both. I follow Besten (2011) in applying it to people in the colonial period who likely had both San and Khoekhoe ancestry as a result of protracted contact between hunter-gatherers and pastoralists.

3 The slightly unusual name ‘Pandoer’ derives from the term applied to soldiers, especially those of Croatian and Serbian origin, fighting in the armies of the Habsburg Empire against the Ottoman Turks in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Norton 2015).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brent Sinclair-Thomson

Brent Sinclair-Thomson is a Jean Curry Memorial Fellow at the Royal Armouries Museum. His research at the Armouries focuses on the use of firearms by Khoe-San peoples during the colonial era. He completed his PhD at the Rock Art Research Institute University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. His thesis focused on rock art produced by multi-ethnic groups of bandits in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.