The area we call the Eastern Cape today has a history long preceding the arrival of man. Indeed, the discovery of fossils has shown that dinosaurs, and not hunter gatherers, were the original inhabitants of the Bushman’s River region, just south of the Shamwari Game Reserve.
The reserve itself holds the fossil remains of the aptly named Algoasaurus bauri, a long-necked sauropod dinosaur, which would have been at least 14 metres in length.
Different archeological finds show that prehistoric man hunted and lived along the Bushman’s River but unlike their more modern counterparts they lived in harmony with nature. An ancient burial site, dated at 10,000 years old and Palaeolithic (earlier Stone Age) site indicate consistent human habitation of the area.
The San, who were hunters and gatherers, left behind rock art depicting their history and their 20 000 year-long co-existence with the pastoral Khoikhoi as well as the wild animals of the region. Later, during the fourteenth century, the Xhosa, who had migrated here steadily from the north and eastern regions, also established themselves in the vicinity, living peacefully as herders and agriculturalists along the coastal areas.
From the sixteenth century everything began to change with the arrival of the first European sailors and merchants in the region. First the Portuguese, then the Dutch and the British arrived by sea to discover the rich abundance of the land beyond the coastline.
The Khoikhoi, San and amaXhosa were increasingly exposed to these seafarers whose ships anchored or were wrecked along the Eastern Cape coast. The contact between the indigenous tribes and the travellers was peaceful at times, violent on other occasions. The blood spilt during the century-long Frontier Wars, bears testimony to the contested ground in this region.
The early European explorers, who ventured into the hinterland, discovered a wild, unspoilt country, teeming with game. “The country here is extremely beautiful” wrote William Paterson in 1779; “very hilly, and the hills are shaded with impenetrable woods; the valleys well-watered. Great numbers of quadruped inhabit this neighbourhood, such as Lions, Panthers (leopards), Elephants, Rhinoceroses, Buffaloes, Spring-bucks (sic), and so on.”
In his book, the Historical Incidence of the Larger Land Mammals in the Broader Eastern Cape, the respected and well-known naturalist CJ (Jack) Skead reveals the vast array of animals that occupied the highly diverse landscapes of the region at the time when it was being settled by Black and White agriculturalists from the 17th century onwards.
Skead records the words of author and missionary Henry Hare Dugmore who observed, as late as 1820, how: “Elephants in hundreds roamed leisurely from the Kooms to the Kowie, and from thence to the Ado. The rhinoceros crashed at will the thickets of the Fish River ravines. The lion stalked in undisputed sovereignty on the slopes of the Winterberg. The howl and laugh of the hyena, and the shrill yell of the jackal were the regular nightly serenade of the new settlers. By day even, the leopard’s deep bass sounded for hours together among the krantzes; while from every high ridge whole armies of baboons
shouted their defiance, and demanded what business we had on their domain. And then, over the plains of Mount Donkin, and the Salem flats, springboks in thousands bounded playfully, as their snowy back shone in the sunlight, while the ostriches ruffled their plumes, the hartebeests raised their horned crests, and the quaggas galloped heavily among them.”
During the late eighteenth century, the area bordered by the Sundays River in the west and the Great Fish River in the east became known as the Zuurveld because the grass covering the land was sour and unpalatable to sheep and cattle during winter months. In summer however it made for good grazing.
This vast stretch of land possessed a wild beauty, with grassy hills and forested river valleys. Dutch trekboers (cattle farmers in search of grazing) moved into the Zuurveld after 1750 to take up a pastoral existence and as such began a way of life that would have a major impact on the future of the landscape and indigenous wildlife in the region.
Not only would competition for land between the Europeans and Xhosa lead to conflict but the need to eradicate wildlife as well as clear vegetation for the grazing of cattle and sheep would shape our region for generations. Only now, with the initiative to ‘rewild’ our landscape, are we seeing an attempt to reverse this process centuries later.
Dr Dean Allen is a best-selling author and keynote speaker