MyWeku

African rock art is less well known than the Stone Age painted caves of Europe, which are justly famous, partly for their great beauty but also for their great antiquity.. Though mostly less ancient, Africa’s rock arts are spectacularly abundant, with perhaps hundreds of thousands of sites across the continent. (Film buffs may remember the opening scenes of The English Patient, which features the fictional painted ‘Cave of Swimmers’.)

As well as showcasing the extraordinary artistic talents of our hunter-gatherer forebears, these historically fascinating images, in shallow caves and on exposed boulders and rock walls, are often objects of great pride in their countries of origin.

What is it, and where?

African rock art includes both paintings and petroglyphs, or rock carvings. The densest concentrations of rock art are to be seen at opposite ends of the continent, in southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe) and north Africa (Libya and the Sahara).

The artists favoured animal and human subjects, rather than buildings or landscape features. Some Saharan rock art can be dated because it features a type of extinct buffalo. In later arts, domesticated animals appear and the South African art even includes paintings of British soldiers and Dutch wagons. In all areas, there are works of amazing artistic skill.

How old is it?

Rock art is often difficult to date, because paintings usually contain too little carbon for radiocarbon dating and petroglyphs have none at all. Age estimates are available for artworks buried in caves because the layers of deposit can be dated. A Namibian cave has yielded stone slabs painted with animals and human figures, thought to be 27 000 years old but no other works of this great age are known.

In southern Africa, Stone Age hunter-gatherers buried painted stones with the dead. About 3 600 years ago they began painting on cave walls. Dates for Saharan rock art are also sparse. Some date the oldest to about 10 000 years ago but others think it began later. The oldest art here is certainly at least 5000 years old and was made when the Sahara Desert was a lush, well-watered landscape.

Why was it made?

Arguments continue over this, though experts agree that it wasn’t made for fun or decoration, or simply to record domestic life and notable events. Some argue that rock artists were shamans who painted visions that they saw in trance. Others point to links with mythology and ritual. In South Africa, the eland antelope was painted more than any other, and with great skill and care. It was the creature that the San peoples’ god loved most.

Monstrous creatures and part-human, part-animal figures in the northern and southern art also suggest links with myth. Mythical ‘rain animals’ are a known feature of the South African art, linking it to ritual. Some rock art sites may have been painted as part of initiation rituals. Much remains mysterious.

Viewing Rock Art

Energetic art lovers can see rock art in its original setting. In both the Sahara and Southern Africa there are site museums and tours into the wild, unspoilt places where the artists lived before their traditional lifeways changed or were destroyed. South Africa’s Cederberg and Drakensberg mountains offer many opportunities to see rock paintings. Visitors to Libya can view rock art en route to the ancient city of Ghat.

Seeing the handiwork of artists who lived not just centuries but millennia ago is a moving and inspiring experience that no African traveler – actual or armchair – will ever forget.