Student Number : 8534741 -
PhD thesis -
School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies -
Faculty of Science / During the 19th century the present Makapan Valley World Heritage site was a place
of repeated refuge from the conflicts arising from shifting authority, acquisition and
loss of power, and competition over the control of resources in the northern regions
of Republic of South Africa. During 1854 growing resistance amongst the northern
AmaNdebele against the frontier of colonial expansion erupted in the murder of a
number of trekboers who were encroaching on their territory. Historic Cave, one of
the caves in the Valley, became written into the Afrikaner Nationalist narratives of
the 20th century as the place where the Boers avenged the treacherous murder of
their fellow trekkers, by suppressing the savage forces of chief Mugombane and his
Kekana chiefdom. The events surrounding the siege and the scale of the massacre
became blurred in the playing out of these political agendas, while the Kekana oral
histories remained silent on the matter.
The excavation of Historic Cave, prompted by the contradictions in the historical
narrative and the silence in the oral record, provided a means to detect the
boundary between what happened and what was said to have happened. This
thesis presents the results of a survey of the Valley, the excavation of Historic Cave
and the analysis of the remains of the siege of 1854. The archaeological survey and
excavation indicates that a number of scurmishes took place in the valley, but that
Historic Cave was occupied only on one occasion for any length of time, during the
siege of 1854. The lime enriched deposits and dry conditions within the cave have
allowed for the exceptional preservation of plant, animal and human remains. This
enduring evidence chronicled the activities and steps taken by the Kekana to
survive. The spatial layout of the cave together with cultural remains echo the
structure and hierarchy of the society trapped within it, which like many African
societies of this time comprised a heterogeneous ‘royal’ core and other ‘foreign’
subordinate groups. Evidence for divination reflects the final attempts to divine the
cause of misfortune and protect the group against maleficent forces. However, it is
argued that the social and religious forces that operated to keep the chiefdom
together may have begun to loosen under the pressure of the siege, especially as
the polluting forces of death became stronger and the group began to succumb.
The remains of young and old people, and the desiccated bodies of a child and a
young woman speak of untold suffering and provide a glimpse of the horror within the cave. From this it is reasoned that following the devastation of the siege the core
of the chiefdom was challenged; the chief was ‘dealt with’ and the political power
base shifted. The real reason for the ‘silence’ then lies at the point of rupture, at the
stage when the surviving statesmen contrived a suitable account of ensuing events
to give the new chief legitimacy and the lineage continuity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/2020 |
| Date | 16 February 2007 |
| Creators | Esterhuysen, Amanda Beth |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 48295 bytes, 4199168 bytes, 325200 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
Page generated in 0.0278 seconds