Tandjesberg San Rock Painting Rehabilitation Project: From Catastrophe to Celebration

Tandjesberg, an eastern Free State San rock painting site, has arisen, literally, from the ashes. Disaster had struck on 5 September 1998 when a run-away veld fire swept up-slope towards Tandjesberg and its more than 530 exquisite rock paintings. The inferno engulfed the trees surrounding the rock shelter and then the wooden boardwalk inside the site. In the intense heat a massive 1.9 x 1.6 m painted panel, weakened by leached calcite, crashed face-down onto the shelter floor. Other painted panels were ‘blistered’ and fractured by the blaze. The remaining paintings were blackened by soot.

But all was not lost. Two and a half years on, the site has been fully rehabilitated and, on 3 March 2001 Tandjesberg was happily re-opened for public visitation. Pioneering rehabilitation and conservation efforts had drawn on the help and expertise of a wide cross-section of specialists and volunteers over the previous 30 months. Funding was forthcoming from several generous sources. The opening ceremony was dedicated to the memory of the late Angelo Liguori, site custodian from 1941 until his death in 2000. The re-opening was marked by the cutting of a ‘ribbon’ of grass twine performed by Dominee Mario Mahongo, a leader of the !Xû and Khwe community at Schmidtsdrift in the Northern Cape, and representing descendants of San people of the subcontinent.

“We as the San of Southern Africa appreciate this work, which preserves our history and our culture, through these paintings, for the generations who may yet come” Dominee Mahongo said. He was accompanied by Zeka Shiwarra and Hennie Swart, also from Schmidts-drift.