Colonial Era Paintings in the Rock Art of the South-Western Cape: Some Preliminary Observations

Abstract

Rock paintings which include images of colonial material culture occur in the south-western Cape as elsewhere in southern Africa. Previous studies ofthe south-western Cape material have been descriptive and the imagery treated as colonial only in a very general sense. This paper attempts to situate colonial era rock art of the south-western Cape within a broad chronological framework of local rock painting and colonial history. It is argued that, unlike colo? nial era painting in some ofthe eastern parts ofthe country, the south-western Cape images were produced fairly late in the history ofthe local colonial frontier. A number of pieces of evidence lead us to infer non-literal levels of meaning for these paintings. Important precolonial elements are present and the paintings are thus presumed not to be merely de? scriptive of events that passed in the region. A substantial understanding of these aspects of the paintings, however, awaits more detailed study.