A Short History of South Africa

Gail Nattrass

• Publisher: Jonathan Ball
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781868427840
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire de l'Afrique

In A Short History of South Africa, Gail Nattrass, historian and educator, presents the reader with a brief, general account of South Africa's history, from the very beginning to the present day, from the first evidence of hominid existence, early settlement pre- and post-European arrival and the warfare through the 18th and 19th centuries that lead to the eventual establishment of modern South Africa.

This readable and thorough account, illustrated with maps and photographs, is a culmination of a lifetime of researching and teaching the broad spectrum of South African history, collecting stories, taking students on tours around the country, and working with distinguished historians.

Nattrass's passion for her subject shines through, whether she is elucidating the reader on early humans in the cradle of humankind, or the tumultuous twentieth-century processes that shaped the democracy that is South Africa today. A must for all those interested in South Africa, within the country and abroad.

Chapter 1

How it all began

Early humans

The story of South Africa may be as old as that of man himself. Archaeo­logical research suggests that southern Africa may well have been the birthplace of the first hominids (humanlike creatures) millions of years ago. The conditions in Africa are generally favourable: the continent comprises almost a quarter of the earth’s habitable land surface, and almost three quarters of that lies between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, a large, warm area conducive to evolutionary change.

MAP 4

Some of Africa’s early hominid sites.

KEY

Lothagam and Kanapoi: located south-west of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya

Lake Turkana: formerly known as Lake Rudolf; located in the Kenyan Rift Valley

Oldupai Gorge: located in Tanzania

Makapansgat: located north-east of Mokopane (formerly Potgietersrus) in Limpopo

Sterkfontein, Kromdraai, Swartkrans, Gladysvale: located in the Muldersdrift area close to Krugersdorp, about 40-50km north-west of Johannesburg

Taung: small town located north of Kimberley in the North West

Hominid fossils are extremely rare. There are only a few places on earth where they have been found. Among them are Ethiopia in east Africa, where the famous fossils dubbed ‘Lucy’ and ‘Ardi’ were discovered, and South Africa. Some of the oldest and most important hominid sites in the world have been found in caves at Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai and Gladysvale, all about 40 to 50 kilometres from Johannesburg, and Makapansgat, about 22 kilometres north-east of Mokopane (formerly Potgietersrus) in Limpopo. Hominids moved around in these areas some 3 million years ago.

The first hominid fossil discovery of major significance took place in 1924, when the almost complete remains of a skull estimated to be between 2 and 3 million years old were found in a limestone quarry near Taung, north of Kimberley in North West. The word ‘tau’ means ‘place of the lion’ and was named after Tau, chief of the Tswana-speaking BaTaung tribe.

The skull was that of a child creature from the transition period when the hominid line split between man and ape. It had a full set of small canine teeth, quite unlike those of apes. The brain cavity was small, but the base of the cranium showed that the head must have been fairly well balanced on a virtually upright spine. It was undoubtedly a species intermediate between apes and man, the ‘missing link’1 that had eluded scientists from all over the world. Professor Raymond Dart of the University of the Witwatersrand, who examined the skull, named it Australopithecus africanus, although it has come to be called simply the ‘Taung Child’. The discovery has been heralded as one of the 20 most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century.

MAP 5

The area of the Sterkfontein Caves, Gladysvale and Maropeng.

Other significant finds followed, including the discovery in 1947 of another Australopithecus africanus skull – this time an adult – at Sterkfontein. The skull was almost perfectly preserved and came to be known as Mrs Ples. Archaeologists then began to concentrate their efforts on the caves nearby, and in 1994 a hominid skeleton estimated to be at least 3.5 million years old was found. The significant discovery was made by palaeoanthropologist Ron Clarke, assisted by Stephen Motsumi and Nkwane Molefe of the University of the Witwatersrand. The skeleton had a complete hand, arm and leg, as well as a complete set of adult teeth. The big toe still diverged markedly from the other toes and was capable of the grasping movements of apes, but it also showed features of the human foot and was suitable for two-legged gait. Dubbed ‘Little Foot’, this human creature would have walked upright and spent a lot of time in trees. The foot bones are the oldest and most complete set from a member of the Australopithecus hominid family ever found.

The skeleton has never been completely excavated, and parts of it are still entrapped in the Sterkfontein Caves. When interviewed about his work, Ron Clarke explained that in palaeoanthropology, it takes years to excavate something as important as this, and that no one knows what may still lie hidden in the rocks at this and other sites.2

At the time that Little Foot died, the Sterkfontein Caves would have been in the middle of a tropical forest with huge trees. Bones fossilised by lime in the caves have been found of lion-sized sabre-toothed cats, large monkeys, and long-legged hunting hyenas. Little Foot might have fallen to its death in these caves while trying to escape from these predators. For millions of years it lay there, becoming fossilised as time passed. Now it is in the process of being brought into our modern world.3

In 1999, the area around the Sterkfontein Caves was declared a World Heritage Site and became referred to as the Cradle of Humankind. In December 2005, a state-of-the-art visitors’ centre called Maropeng was opened on the site, where visitors can trace the story of humankind and see models of how their ancestors looked. In Tswana, the main indigenous language in this part of South Africa, the word ‘maropeng’ means ‘returning to the place of origin’.

In April 2010, palaeoanthropologist Lee Berger and his son, Matthew, found another fossil in the Sterkfontein Caves area, which they named Australopithecus sediba, and which they believe may be a direct ancestor of Homo erectus. They estimate it would have been about 1.3 metres tall. Five years later, in September 2015, another dramatic announcement was made. In a remote, previously hidden chamber at Sterkfontein, a significantly large number of fossils had been found of a previously unknown branch of the human tree. At least 15 individuals were identified, ranging in age from newborn, to toddler, to adult. The fact that they were all found together – and that there were no signs of claw marks, bites or the nearby presence of predators or scavengers – suggested that this was a burial chamber, and that this branch of hominids had buried their dead.

Lee Berger and a team of scientists from Wits University and the National Geographic society had spent two years working in what was described as some of the most difficult and dangerous conditions ever encountered in the search for human origins. The six main excavators had to be small enough to crawl through a 17.5 centimetre crack in a rock into the cave chamber where the fossil remains were found. The adult hominids were small (about 1.5 metres tall), thin creatures who walked on two legs with humanlike size 7 feet, and humanlike hands. They have been named Homo naledi, which means ‘star’ in the Sotho language.4

Francis Thackeray of the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University debates the fact that the Homo naledi fossils were in a hidden burial chamber. He says there is evidence of lichen on the bones, which could not have grown without daylight, and suggests that maybe a family of these hominids was in the cave when the roof collapsed. Lee Berger’s theory nevertheless remains firm, and the discovery has been heralded as a great moment for science because it indicates the level of human consciousness that had been reached: the concept of mortality. Rituals surrounding death are one of the characteristics that distinguish humans from other animals. The news that this branch of hominids had buried their dead captured human imagination all over the world and in April 2016 Lee Berger was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of the year. Both Thackeray and Berger have enormous respect for each other, despite their differing opinions.5

It has been speculated that it is not just the transitional stage in the evolution to modern man but also the final stage – that of Homo sapiens – that originated in South Africa and other parts of the African continent about 100 000 years ago. Fossil finds at Border Cave at Ingwavuma on the Swaziland border in KwaZulu-Natal, at Fish Hoek in the Western Cape and at the Springbok Flats near Naboomspruit (near the borders of Limpopo and North West) are estimated to be about 100 000 years old, several thousands of years older than examples of Homo sapiens of a similar evolutionary stage found in Europe and Asia.

There can be no hard-and-fast theories about the exact location of the origins of man, but it is nevertheless apparent that South Africa’s human history has its origins millions of years ago, and there is a case for saying that the story of South...