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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The White Camel of the Makgabeng
Authors:Smith, Benjamin W.ISNI
Van Schalkwijk, Johan A.
Year:2002
Periodical:The Journal of African History
Volume:43
Issue:2
Period:July
Pages:235-254
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:Sotho
colonial conquest
rock art
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Anthropology and Archaeology
History and Exploration
colonialism
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/4100507
Abstract:Research in the Northern Province of South Africa has revealed a surprising new rock art find: a painting of a camel. This paper investigates how and why a camel came to be painted in the remote rock art of the Makgabeng hills. Analysis of archival material allows one to attribute the painting to a Northern Sotho artist who was active in the first decade of the twentieth century. The purpose of the painting is revealed in its context: it forms part of a collection of paintings which ridicule elements of ineptitude in the ways of the new white intruders. The authors argue that this pointed humour helped the Makgabeng community to overcome some of the trauma of the displacement and violence which characterized the era of the first white settlement in northern South Africa. Notes, ref., sum.
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