Sigubudu: Paintings of people with guns in the northern uKhahlamba-Drakensberg
Sigubudu: Paintings of people with guns in the northern uKhahlamba-Drakensberg
Sigubudu: Paintings of people with guns in the northern uKhahlamba-Drakensberg
Rock Art Network
Sigubudu: Paintings of people with guns in the northern uKhahlamba-Drakensberg
22 July 2024

Aron Mazel
Newcastle University and University of the Witwatersrand

This article was originally published as part of KwaZulu-Natal Museum's 120 year celebrations. Staff and guest curators chose one object or item per year of the Museum's existence to highlight to the public.
https://www.nmsa.org.za/8-featured/675-120-years-in-120-objects-1922.html

KwaZulu-Natal Museum 120 Years in 120 Objects
The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg mountains contain over 40 000 individually painted rock art images, mostly made by San hunter-gatherers, but also by African farmers and possibly Khoesan herders. The paintings were mainly made during precolonial times, but some were created during the colonial period. There are, for example, people with European style clothing, people shooting guns, horses, and waggons. All the colonial period images occur in the southern and central uKhahlamba-Drakensberg except for the paintings of people with guns at the site of Sigubudu 1, in Royal Natal National Park, in the northern uKhahlamba-Drakensberg.

In 1979, Aron Mazel described and photographed the intriguing Sigubudu 1 paintings of people with guns for the museum (Pictures 1 - 3). The first picture, here, shows paintings of people with guns as photographed in 1979. The second picture is an enhanced version of the photograph. The third is a drawing based on the original and enhanced images. We can see three seated people with guns and another two guns to their right. Two other humans are near the people and guns, one of whom might be carrying a child.

Map of southern Africa showing the places mentioned in the text
1 Photograph of Sigubudu 1 paintings of people and guns. Scale in centimetres
© Aron Mazel, 1979
Map of southern Africa showing the places mentioned in the text
2 Enhanced version of Picture 1 using D-stretch
© George Nash, 2023
Article by Melanie Gosling in the Natal Mercury, 28 October 1980
3 Drawing of the paintings by Ann Macdonald based on the original and enhanced images

Who made these paintings and why? Hunter-gatherers, sometimes accompanied by African farmers, responded to the increased settlement of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg mountains and surrounding areas by European colonists and African farmers by raiding their cattle, horses, and other livestock. The raiders occasionally carried guns.  Historian John Wright (1971) listed 64 raids between 1845 - 1872.  Most raids occurred in the central and southern uKhahlamba-Drakensberg but five took place in the north. It is possible that the Sigubudu 1 paintings were connected to one of these northern raids, or they could simply represent hunter-gatherers in the area with guns.

The public can visit Sigubudu 1:
https://amafainstitute.org.za/rock-art-kzn/

References

Wright, J. 1971. Bushman Raiders of the Drakensberg 1840-1870. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.

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