The dual launch of People of the Eland and its companion volume, The Eland’s People, was appropriately set at Wits University’s Origins Centre, with exhibitions depicting stories from all over southern Africa. People who arrived for the launch browsed the centre, drawn in by the displays of the San people and their rock paintings – which are, of course, is the subject of the Eland books.
As a young occupational therapist, Pat Vinnicombe had a keen interest in the paintings of the Drakensberg, developed after she joined husband Patrick on archaeological digs in the mountains. Her discoveries led to the publication of People of the Eland in 1976. “This was the first definitive book on San ethnography ever published, and we are delighted to have reworked and republished the book in Vinnicombe’s honour,” said the head of the Rock Art Research Institute Benjamin Smith.
The next speaker, Wits academic Belinda Bozzoli, said that Vinnicombe’s work was never extended beyond the 1976 publication, and that her untimely death a few years ago meant that it could be said to have been left unfinished. But others, including David Lewis-Williams have added to Vinnicombe’s legacy, making a more complete survey possible. “What Vinnicombe, Lewis-Williams and others have shown us is that the San people are quite extraordinary.”
As the final speaker, Professor John Wright said that both Elands volumes were intricately woven and carefully referenced and executed. All those with a passion for rock art and the remarkable San people lined up to get their copies.
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Book details
People of the Eland: Rock Paintings of the Drakensberg Bushmen as a Reflection of their Life and Thought by Patricia Vinnicombe
EAN: 9781868144976 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
The Eland’s People: New Perspectives in the Rock Art of the Maloti-Drakensberg Bushmen edited by Peter Mitchell, Benjamin Smith
EAN: 9781868144983 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
My main aim has been to demonstrate that the Bushman rock paintings are concerned not so much with the commonplace, material aspects of life, but with the deeper philosophies which govern relationships between man and the world he lives in, between man and man, and between man and the Creator Spirit.
—Patricia Vinnicombe, 1976.
First published in 1976, People of the Eland was the first major step away from the outsider’s view of San rock art that had dominated studies of rock art for nearly a century. The book, an account of the rock art of the San of the Drakensberg Range, was also about the mountain San themselves: their lives, their beliefs, their culture and their history during colonisation. The book not only brought an extraordinary and dynamic body of art to the attention of a global audience, but also helped to lay the foundations for a new generation of research into the meaning of prehistoric art.
People of the Eland, now republished by Wits University Press, aims to gain an insider’s view of the rock art using San understandings of the world. While following this approach, it quickly became clear to Vinnicombe that the art was very far from simple depictions of daily life as had once seemed likely, but instead reflected the most deeply held San beliefs and symbols. This approach has now become the standard for all those working with San rock art. Whilst this early knowledge of San art has been built upon considerably since 1976, People of the Eland remains a cornerstone of our current understanding.
Reprinted here in full colour, with the original artwork and photographs, People of the Eland remains a seminal work, the impact of which cannot be underestimated.
Only 1000 copies of Vinnicombe’s classic book on the rock art of the Drakensberg were printed in 1976. Until now, it was neither reissued nor reprinted. It has become one of the rarest and most expensive of all books on the African past. One of the things that most disturbed the author while she was working at the Rock Art Research Institute at Wits in the early 2000s was that students could not access her book. As in many libraries, Wits University locks People of the Eland away in its rare and valuable book section.
In 2002, Pat started to explore the possibility of republication. But she did not feel that the book could be reissued without adding additional sections to explain how knowledge had expanded in the decades since the publication of the book. Tragically, Pat died in March 2003 before she could start work on the new sections. Peter Mitchell and Ben Smith have now taken up this challenge and brought together the leading scholars in the field to write new sections to explain both how knowledge has changed since the publication of People of the Eland, and how current research is still influenced by this landmark volume.
The Eland’s People is thus intended as a companion volume to People of the Eland and it is hoped that this new volume will provide a richer appreciation of the importance of Pat’s original work, as well as allowing readers an overview of current understandings of Drakensberg rock art.
About the author of People of the Eland
Patricia Vinnicombe, born in 1932 in Underberg, KwaZulu-Natal, was one of South Africa’s foremost rock art experts. An innovative and groundbreaking researcher, Vinnicombe was highly influential in the way that rock art came to be interpreted. She died in Australia in 2003.
Book details
People of the Eland: Rock Paintings of the Drakensberg Bushmen as a Reflection of their Life and Thought by Patricia Vinnicombe
EAN: 9781868144976 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
The Eland’s People: New Perspectives in the Rock Art of the Maloti-Drakensberg Bushmen edited by Peter Mitchell, Benjamin Smith
EAN: 9781868144983 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
The discussion used the time period covered in Everatt’s book as a springboard for a discussion of the state of non-racialism today.
In a multi-layered and frequently irreverent interchange, the two attempted to tease out the central dilemma of Everatt’s thesis. “Looking at this book with contemporary eyes we have to ask what it tells us now,” said Davis as he reflected on the lack of pointers informing our current political direction.
He quoted an extract from the book where the author cites Warren Beatty in the 1998 movie, Bulworth, “who suggested that non-racial democrats should pursue, ‘… a programme of voluntary, free-spirited, open-ended procreative racial deconstruction,’ by which he meant, ‘…everybody just gotta keep [bleeping] everybody till we’re all the same colour’.”
“If they’d only told us in the 1980s,” said Davis, “that they didn’t believe in this BS called non-racialism, we could have left.” He questioned how deeply entrenched in the political psyche the spirit of the Freedom Charter ever had been in progressive movements. “Are we surprised that the commitment to non-racialism is only skin deep?”
Everatt wasn’t sure he agreed with that assessment. He suggested that there’s a central question that Africans of all sorts have to answer for themselves. “The basic tension is: can you be a non-racialist, whatever that means, and also an African nationalist? Are these remotely compatible?” He said he’d concluded that it wasn’t possible, although at the time he began the book (the late 80s) he’d desperately hoped it was.
“What we’re going through is a necessary and seemingly unavoidable outpouring of very strong African national sentiment. The notion that so little has been delivered over such a long time; the privileges remain where they were in the past; and non-racialism means majority rule.”
He noted the different lines of thinking that exist in the ANC today. “I worry about saying the ANC is not committed to non-racialism. There are members and sections of the ANC, particularly the older generation, who had to fight on a daily basis for their belief in non-racialism – and they are still fighting for this. I’m sure you’ve all seen the Julie Frederikse book from the early 90s [The Unbreakable Thread]. Hilda Bernstein’s review expressed her opinion that the thread was, in fact, extremely fragile; non-racialism would have to be fought for on a day-to-day basis.”
The author said it was important not to see the ANC as a single monolithic entity that thinks and acts as a unitary organism. He also reflected that in his dealings with the ANC he senses a strong support for trying to work out what non-racialism means. “But there is a sense that you have to reach a level of parity in economic terms before you can worry about non-racialism.” He said the core problem was the notion that a tipping point must be reached before entering a new society, “where we take you for what you are, not for what colour you are”.
The dialogue touched on the contributions of Margaret Ballinger and Alan Paton, Leo Marquard and Harry Oppenheimer. It darted over the history of the Freedom Charter, the shifts in Liberal and Communist politics, the arc followed by the Congress of Democrats and the real intellectual rigour brought to the liberation movement by people like Helen Joseph and Ruth First. It plucked at the hagiography of beliefs and the muddle spawned by never having defined the terms of non-racism, non-racialism or multi-racialism. Questions from Virginia Tilley, Neville Rubin and Leon Levy made for a thought-provoking and timely discussion.
In conclusion, Davis reflected on the “ludicrous, racist, populism that poisons the current discourse” and said he hoped the book would encourage a rethinking of what is happening at the moment. He closed with an extract from the text: “In his preface to Humanity [A Moral History of the Twentieth Century], Jonathan Glover wrote: “… much English-language writing on ethics is limited by relative insulation from some of the twentieth century’s man-made disasters. There must be lessons for ethics in the events of this violent century… thinking about ethics is likely to be enriched by learning what we can about the causes of events we have been lucky to avoid.”
Gallery
Book details
The Origins of Non-racialism: White opposition to apartheid in the 1950s by David Everatt
EAN: 9781868145003 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
Wits University Press and Xarra Books are delighted to invite you to the launch of Zulu Love Letter, the award-winning screenplay for the award-winnning film written by by Bhekizizwe Peterson and Ramadan Suleman.
Come hear the authors discuss “writing in the shadow of Hollywood”. See you there!
Event Details
Date: Saturday, 10 October 2009
Time: 2:00 PM for 2:30 PM
Venue: Xarra Books, 1 Central Place
Jeppe Street, Newtown
Johannesburg
The 2004 film, Zulu Love Letter, won ten prestigious international awards and received over a dozen official invitations to premier international film festivals including the Venice International Film Festival (Venezia 61 orrizonti), Toronto International Film Festival, Fespaco (Burkina Faso), and the American Film Institute Los Angeles Festival, 2005.
Zulu Love Letter’s script, written by Bhekizizwe Peterson and Ramadan Suleman, is also a well-decorated article, having won the Special Jury Prize – Best Script 2001, at the Grand Prix du Meilleur Scenariste in Paris France.
Now, Wits University Press is proud to present the complete Peterson-Suleman screenplay. Don’t miss your chance to own this piece of South African filmmaking history!
About Zulu Love Letter
Set against the backdrop of the success of the first democratic elections and the launch of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, Zulu Love Letter is a story of two mothers in search of their daughters.
Thandeka Khumalo is challenged with mending her estranged relationship with her thirteen-year-old daughter, Simangaliso, who grew up with her grandparents because of Thandeka’s career and political commitments. Tormented by a sense of guilt and grief that refuses to wane, Thandeka is battling to adjust to the changes around her. Her melancholy soul is compelled to confront her experiences of detention and torture when ghosts from the past reappear.
Me’Tau, the mother of a young activist whose assassination Thandeka witnessed and reported, wants Thandeka to help in finding the body of Dineo so that she can be given a fitting burial. For mourning to end and for healing to take place, the psychic demons that haunt the present must be recognised and exorcised.
Marking the ebb-and-flow of the adults’ attempts to deal with the historical inheritances of apartheid, is the “Love Letter” that Simangaliso is weaving as a gift to her mother. A colourful tapestry of beads, trinkets and buttons, the ‘Love Letter’ encapsulates the power of the arts in fostering memory-work, healing and love.
“Zulu Love Letter is an extraordinary film for a number of reasons. It creates a local narrative with national resonances; centralises women and their experiences; engages an African aesthetics rooted in an African spirituality while sustaining an identifiable contemporary look and fee … It strives to expose truth and reveals the impossibility of ever fully knowing it. Yet, there have been terrible abuses towards humanity exacted under apartheid that the film is in a position to visualise on behalf of those who survive them. Zulu Love Letter has bravely created a new cinematic space for representing historical truths.”
—Jacqueline Maingard, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
About the authors
Bhekizizwe Peterson and Ramadan Suleman are directors of Natives At Large, a film and television production company that produced the feature films Fools and Zulu Love Letter. Peterson is also Associate Professor of African Literature, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
The dual launch of People of the Eland and its companion volume, The Eland’s People, was appropriately set at Wits University’s Origins Centre, with exhibitions depicting stories from all over southern Africa. People who arrived for the launch browsed the centre, drawn in by the displays of the San people and their rock paintings – which are, of course, is the subject of the Eland books. 
