Monkagedi Gaotlhobogwe
17 November 2008
With its more than 4,500 San rock paintings and countless myths, Tsodilo Hills is a rich source of early human development art.
To some, Tsodilo is a magical place with a natural spring or sacred well that renews the soul and cleanses the human spirit, yielding blessings, and all that is good. The legend still goes that the spring is so sacred that if one does not revere the gods while there, he or she is doomed to certain death. They say not long ago, a religious person died there recently because he did not honour the gods.
Yet to others touring Tsodilo Hills is an adventure to be cherished-an adventure because it is a place so far, far away, located at the edge of the country. Adventurous citizens in the not distant past would carve their names on the Tsodilo Hill's gigantic baobab tree, as tall as the female hill itself. The baobab tree is in scripted with names of adventure seekers, who want to be remembered as having set foot there.
Site manager at Tsodilo Hills and also senior curator, Sewelo Fani speaks of visitors who come from as far as Argentina, the United States of America (US), Germany and other parts of the world to get away from it all. "They talk of recharge and discharge of energy," explained Fani as he conducted a recent tour of the hills.
Fani's specialty, among others, is to interpret the rock paintings to the visitor. He says he has learnt the art from fellow rock painting gurus who travel around the world. He may not be a priest but Fani has observed that what hid interpretation of the paintings, some people can have spiritual effect. He says as he explains some of these rock paintings to the visitors from afar, they reach a point whereby they begin to cry, and shake as if possessed by some super natural force. They would later tell him that they had been discharging and recharging energy.
However, the spirit legend of Tsodilo is perhaps best captured by a former Bechuanaland Protectorate district commissioner, Laurens van der Post. In his book, the Lost World of the Kalahari, Van der Post describes how his party ignored the advice of their local guide, who warned against killing in the surrounds of the hills, hunting warthog and steenbok on their way.
When they reached the hills, their cameras jammed repeatedly, their tape recorders failed, and they were repeatedly attacked by swarms of bees. These occurrences ceased only when they made a written apology to the spirits of the place.
It is not just the visitors from far away continents who use the Tsodilo rock paintings for spiritual purposes, according to Fani. The San also in the early 90's frequented the hills to pray to the eland rock paintings especially. Fani says a religious San leader, would take a stone, and start making prayers as he continuously bit the eland painting, chanting his prayers, before he falls into a trance.
But a recent tour to the world heritage site was not as spiritual. It was rather artistic and adventurous, with cameras clicking at the sight of any amazing rock shape, or a popular spot on the hill, such as the famous Van der Post Panel, where he is said to have been attacked by swarms of bees, leading to his equipment damaging. Some would jump and scream at the site of a rock painting, so others can take notice.
For the really adventurous, the hills are challenging to climb. Fani says his visitors can do 200m of climbing especially those who want to see the famous professor Sheila Coulsson's Rhino cave, where the researcher found the artwork of the god of the Hills in a cave. Coulson's discovery, which has received publicity world wide, shows that human ancestors in Africa engaged in ritual practice 70,000 years ago - 30,000 years earlier than the oldest finds in Europe. The sensational discovery at Tsodilo strengthens Africa's position as the cradle of modern man.
Our party did not have the stamina and time to go and see the python god discovered by Professor Coulson, but at least we climbed to the beginning of the Rhino cave, where we saw two panels of animal paintings, although the exercise left me in particular with a torn pair of trousers!
At the top there, (where we did not reach), people talk of one amazing painting depicting initiation ceremony. Fani describes the painting as the dancing penis, because a seemingly naked man with an erect penis is shown dancing.
One does not have to climb at all to enjoy the Tsodilo paintings, which can also be seen as one stands at the foot of the hill.
One startling sight is at the Van der Post panel, where natural rock formations paint a map of the world with all its entire continents clearly visible. The map of Africa is so big and clear, leaving one to wonder at the amazing works of nature.
Tsodilo Hills are never desolate, with visitors coming from all walks of life. Religious groups seek renewal of the souls at the sacred well, while the space around the Tsodilo Hills Museum is often alive with European or US visitors who pitch their tents there.
As we drove to the spiritual Hills, safari vehicles transporting tourists could be seen heading there. Driving out of the hills, we also saw yet another safari vehicle coming in. An American researcher has also been busy there compiling material for her PhD on the myths of Tsodilo Hills.
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