Trouble on the Tarka: The History of Bandit Groups on the Cape Colony’s Eastern Border and the Archive of Their Rock Art

Abstract

Since Europeans first attempted to settle the region of the Tarka river valley in today’s Eastern Cape, South Africa, during the late eighteenth century they were opposed by Indigenous groups. The disruptive nature of the colonial project meant that people from different ethnicities sought safety together and launched a wave of attacks, characterized by stock theft against the settlers. This resistance often came with such a degree of success that the settlers were forced to flee the area and retreat within the colony. The different members of these raiding groups would have had a variety of reasons to turn to banditry. These included the loss of hunting, gathering, and pastoral land, mistreatment by their colonial employers and attacks by colonial forces on their kin – indeed many were survivors of these assaults. That some of these groups included people of San descent is evident in the appearance of fine-line rock art in the region dating to this time period. However, the images are not of the traditional shaded polychrome variety. Instead they are of an unshaded “poster-style” and also include rough brush work and finger painting, a likely reflection of the mixed nature of these groups. Indeed, the lack of conventions in depicting subject matter, like horses, is likely testament to the painters’ diverse backgrounds. These paintings show scenes that appear to be concerned with the raiding of livestock. Rather than being the mere depictions of raids, they are likely bound up within a suite of beliefs relating to protection and rain control that multiethnic bandit groups drew upon to assist them with their clandestine activities.