tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/southern-africa-17252/articles
Southern Africa – The Conversation
2024-03-10T06:42:33Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224166
2024-03-10T06:42:33Z
2024-03-10T06:42:33Z
Happy smiling African children: why school tourism in Zimbabwe shouldn’t be encouraged
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578562/original/file-20240228-26-doqnyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children will often sing and dance for visiting tourists.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pascal Deloche/GODONG</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A large, air-conditioned bus draws up outside a school. Tourists, most from Europe and the US, disembark, cameras at the ready. Some have brought gifts: packages of pens and pencils. They distribute these to the children, who spontaneously begin singing and dancing. </p>
<p>This scene and others like it play out in schools around the world. It’s called school tourism. It’s similar to <a href="https://theconversation.com/modern-slavery-and-tourism-when-holidays-and-human-exploitation-collide-78541">orphanage tourism</a> and so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/slumming-it-how-tourism-is-putting-the-worlds-poorest-places-on-the-map-61320">“slum” tourism</a>, in which tourists visit orphanages or “slums” in poor countries to witness poverty and suffering. These sorts of tourism come with several ethical problems: photography of unconsenting children and adults, intrusions on people’s private lives, daily interruptions to children’s routines and issues of child protection.</p>
<p>Tourists visit a school for between two and three hours. They usually enter classrooms, photograph children and sometimes watch cultural displays like singing and dancing. These tours are generally part of an arrangement with a tourism company but exist in a multitude of forms globally. As an example, a school tour often sits within the itinerary of a tour of southern Africa, or alongside wildlife tourism ventures.</p>
<p>In Zimbabwe, schools have arrangements with tourism companies that enable funding for infrastructure and sponsorship of children. In Matabeleland North, close to Mosi-oa-Tunya (Victoria Falls) and Hwange National Park, for example, 19 out of 20 companies <a href="https://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/view/26974">interviewed by researchers in 2012</a> provided some sort of support, sponsorship or infrastructure to schools in nearby areas. </p>
<p>These partnerships are often in conjunction with an exchange of philanthropic funding for access to their school. This phenomenon has also been reported in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09669582.2019.1643871">Fiji, Zambia</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738321000906">Kenya, Ethiopia</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13683500.2010.540314">Mozambique</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/zimbabwes-shattered-economy-poses-a-serious-challenge-to-fighting-covid-19-135066">Zimbabwe’s economic troubles</a>, including severe hyper-inflation, are <a href="https://theconversation.com/inflation-is-spiking-in-zimbabwe-again-why-high-interest-rates-arent-the-answer-187362">well documented</a>. Schools are poorly resourced and, in government schools, teachers are often unpaid or <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/africa_zimbabwe-teachers-reject-promised-salary-increase-far-too-low/6198233.html">earn below the poverty line</a>.</p>
<p>I am a Zimbabwean-born Australian woman and a trained secondary school teacher. In 2015, I was working with a school in Zimbabwe as part of my university degree and witnessed this tourism myself. In 2019, as part of my doctoral research, I spent one term at a school in Matabeleland North. It received 129 visits from tourist groups that year alone. </p>
<p>During my time there I talked with teachers, tourism workers and NGO staff. I also asked students to draw <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02508281.2022.2133812">pictures of their experiences of tourism</a>. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17508487.2023.2286230">a recently published article</a> I contribute to the growing field of research about how schools funded by tourism operate. I offer a critique of how an image of “Africa” is reproduced for the tourist gaze, and the fact that images shared by tourists after their visits further inculcate damaging tropes of the African continent as a place only of extreme poverty and neediness. Schools funded by tourism become a mirror of the tourism industry. </p>
<h2>The study</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17508487.2023.2286230">My research identified</a> the sorts of images involved in marketing of tourism that portray a static and cliched <a href="https://theconversation.com/ordinary-peoples-stories-can-change-the-worlds-views-about-africa-48597">image of “Africa”</a>. This includes landscapes filled with animals, extreme poverty, white women and men dressed for safari and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-00607-7">images of Maasai men</a> herding cattle. Smiling, happy children are another part of the image.</p>
<p>The tourism workers I interviewed tried to prevent the continuation of these images by presenting counter-narratives of how Zimbabweans live. But they were not always successful. This is partly due to the structured nature of mass tourism initiatives: tourists are sold an itinerary and this must be followed. Since the school tours are part of broader tours of southern Africa, the school and tourism workers felt a need to conform to a particular image – and this involved interactions with happy children. When teachers and schools feel a need to conform to a particular image, their actions and choices are constrained.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/changing-the-african-narrative-through-social-media-platforms-97097">Changing the African narrative through social media platforms</a>
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<p>The school I worked with had different arrangements with three tourism companies. One donated US$200 in cash on every visit. Another had promised to build one classroom block. The third company actually founded the school, providing teachers’ salaries and significant infrastructure development. Some tourists had also donated larger pieces of infrastructure, such as the materials for a borehole and electrical connections to the main grid.</p>
<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>The school tours are disruptive to students and staff. They are a diversion from the usual routines of the school. One teacher said:</p>
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<p>Sometimes you may be called, maybe you did not know that there are visitors coming and they just want to come in at that particular time … Then you are called off the lesson and the time does not wait for you. It goes and that subject is being interrupted. Then you are no longer going to be able to move onto the next subject now. Since you had already introduced the previous lesson, you will not leave it in the air, you have to finish it, so the next subject now is being disturbed.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-close-up-look-at-what-happens-when-tourists-and-maasai-communities-meet-84095">A close-up look at what happens when tourists and Maasai communities meet</a>
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<p>The school in my study found it difficult to balance the perceived needs of the tourists and the institution’s needs. As one of the school leaders put it:</p>
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<p>We have to look at it in the sense that, yes, it is taking time: it is probably asking the kids to do something that they would not just usually do when meeting someone. But you have to look at the guest side of things, and also think, these are the people who are helping us. Potential helpers, some are already helping, what are (the tourists) taking away?</p>
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<p>The children were <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02508281.2022.2133812">highly aware of the need to please the tourists</a>, whom they saw as fulfilling a particular need. Tawanda, aged 10, said:</p>
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<p>I would prefer to come to school which has visitors because they will be helping us. When there are no books, they will be paying, they will be giving us some money, and we buy some books. </p>
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<p>Teachers worried that some groups would donate less if they weren’t able to interact with children.</p>
<h2>What should be done</h2>
<p>Ideally, school tours should not occur at all. However, due to Zimbabwe’s economic instability, schools are becoming increasingly resourceful to find avenues for additional funding. Although they are not a perfect solution, philanthropic partnerships need to exist.</p>
<p>My research does not suggest that people should avoid visiting Zimbabwe as a whole and I do not want to suggest that philanthropic funding of schools is necessarily bad. Rather, it is important to seek out tourism experiences that do not homogenise culture and cultural experiences. Tourists should also consider the itinerary of any tours they book and aim to avoid companies that offer school tours.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathleen Smithers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A school tour often sits within the itinerary of a tour of southern Africa, or alongside wildlife tourism ventures.
Kathleen Smithers, Lecturer, Charles Sturt University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/217111
2023-11-08T13:53:13Z
2023-11-08T13:53:13Z
Do you like snakes, lizards and frogs? Why herpetology might be the career for you
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557734/original/file-20231106-23-lkg44h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The author handling a boomslang as part of her work with a conservation organisation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Cooke</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We are so fortunate to share the world with a huge diversity of creatures. For me, some of the most fascinating are reptiles and amphibians. Collectively called <a href="https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/administration_pdf/0220c4kherps.pdf">herpetofauna</a>, reptiles and amphibians are ectotherms; they rely on external sources to regulate their body temperature.</p>
<p>A person like me who works with these groups of animals is called a herpetologist. Among the reptiles and amphibians, my special interest is in snakes. I’ve always been interested in reptiles, from the days when I would chase common flat lizards in the Motobo Hills in Zimbabwe, where I grew up, and interact with snakes and other animals at our local rehabilitation centre. </p>
<p>Still, if somebody had told my teenage self that my job would entail working with snakes and encouraging other people to appreciate them, I never would have believed them. I didn’t even know you could make a career out of working with reptiles. Today, I’m studying towards my PhD in herpetology (which is technically a degree in ecology and conservation) while also working with a snake conservation organisation in South Africa.</p>
<h2>Learning about snakes</h2>
<p>Most people will be familiar with zoology, the branch of biology that focuses on the study of all animals. Some animals have their own speciality within the discipline of zoology. Herps (a slang term for herpetofauna) are one example.</p>
<p>There are <a href="http://www.reptile-database.org/db-info/SpeciesStat.html">over 4,000 species</a> of snakes around the world. Each species has a unique adaptation to its own environment. Some snakes, like <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ultimate-in-stealth-puff-adders-employ-camouflage-at-every-level-53316">puff adders</a>, are scentless as a way to camouflage themselves from predators. Others, like southern African pythons, <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-insights-into-how-southern-african-pythons-look-after-their-babies-91276">show maternal care</a>, which is very unusual for snakes and much more common in mammals and birds. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ultimate-in-stealth-puff-adders-employ-camouflage-at-every-level-53316">The ultimate in stealth, puff adders employ camouflage at every level</a>
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<p>These unique adaptations have allowed snakes to thrive in different environments. This makes them a great model in science: herpetologists can ask questions about their physiology, evolution, ecology and biology.</p>
<p>For anyone looking to become a herpetologist, a basic zoology degree will get you started. Most universities will have someone who specialises in teaching herpetology or someone who can point you in the right direction. Volunteering at institutions that have reptiles, like zoos, is also a great way to get some experience working with them. Once you get to postgraduate level, you can specialise in one of many different topics in herpetology and apply different techniques to answer questions that you are curious about. </p>
<p>As a specialist in reptiles and amphibians, you can merge that interest with other disciplines like photography, law or conservation, and this can open up many job opportunities. You can also pursue further research at a university, become a lecturer or school teacher, work at a zoo or become a museum curator. There are many options to explore. </p>
<h2>My research</h2>
<p>I completed my MSc in 2017 and my research focused on the evolution of diet in a group of snakes called <a href="https://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/items/2d772155-77f6-4f7c-94db-b3e59fb0b22a">lamprophiids</a>. I loved learning about how diverse snakes are in the food they eat. For my PhD, I wanted my research to have a real-world application, so I waited until 2021 to start after getting some work experience in conservation. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-insights-into-how-southern-african-pythons-look-after-their-babies-91276">New insights into how southern African pythons look after their babies</a>
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<p><a href="https://hiralnaik.wordpress.com/contact-info/publications/">My current research</a> focuses on the way that snakes behave (behavioural ecology) to answer some of the bigger question of what leads snakes to bite people. Another year and I will have some answers for you on this. </p>
<p>Snakebite is a <a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/snakebite">neglected tropical disease</a> according to the World Health Organization and affects millions of people around the world. When natural spaces are transformed and destroyed, many animals, like snakes, go looking for food and shelter – often in people’s homes. Many people are afraid of snakes, so encounters often lead to conflict as people try to kill the animals and get bitten in the process. </p>
<p>I am also fortunate to work for a non-profit organisation, <a href="https://savethesnakes.org/">Save The Snakes</a>, which allows me to educate people about snakes and do my part to conserve them by applying my research. My job includes researching information on snakes that live in different parts of South Africa and assessing threats to them, like habitat transformation, learning more about the relationship between humans and snakes, conducting fieldwork and running experiments to understand more about the behaviour and ecology of snakes.</p>
<h2>The circle of life</h2>
<p>I’m also passionate about education.</p>
<p>Learning about the world of snakes has allowed me to appreciate the natural world in a unique way. <a href="https://youtu.be/ltQcE0gapIo">As predators and prey</a>, snakes are an emblem of the circle of life. One of my favourite activities is going out at night looking for them (called “herping”) and watching them display different behaviours. After the summer rains, frogs and insects come out and the snake predators follow. When I take these moments to observe the world around me I feel fortunate to appreciate these animals in a way most people don’t. This is the feeling I like to share in my education efforts.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A southern African python being returned to the wild by Save the Snakes.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Some of my favourite moments in my current job have involved seeing the change in people’s perceptions about snakes. Snakes have been feared for many generations because of misinformation. Most snakes are harmless. They don’t chase people, and they stay hidden much of the time. By sharing the correct information about snakes, we show that fear can be changed to curiosity and that creates more motivation to learn about them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217111/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hiral Naik has received funding from the National Research Foundation. She is affiliated with Save The Snakes.</span></em></p>
Learning about snakes offers unique insights into the natural world.
Hiral Naik, PhD candidate: School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/215555
2023-10-29T10:07:08Z
2023-10-29T10:07:08Z
Shepherd Ndudzo’s celebrated sculptures tell an untold history of southern African art
<p>The <a href="https://intethe.co.za/shepherd-ndudzo/">work</a> of award-winning Zimbabwe-born sculptor <a href="https://artafricamagazine.org/shepherd-ndudzo-2/">Shepherd Ndudzo</a> is instantly recognisable. Fluid, elongated black bodies and body parts flow from white rock in a typical work. The bodies are dancing or praying, holding hands or reaching out. </p>
<p>These figurative sculptures, carved out of stone (marble and granite) and wood (ironwood), were recently shown along with his abstract wooden sculptures (titled Seed) at the <a href="https://artjoburg.com/exhibitors/">FNB Joburg Art Fair</a> in South Africa by Botswana’s <a href="https://www.instagram.com/oraloapi_/?hl=en">Ora Laopi</a> contemporary art gallery and research project.</p>
<p>The work by the artist (born in 1978) was displayed as a celebration of the sculpture of Botswana, where he lives and works. The show was <a href="https://www.facebook.com/oraloapi">dedicated</a> to his father, <a href="https://www.mmegi.bw/artculture-review/ndudzo-a-patriarch-of-local-sculptors/news">Barnabas Ndudzo</a>, the famed creator of realistic, often life-size sculptures. In a <a href="https://vimeo.com/861254066?fbclid=IwAR1KfPY63fbSjGwOgg3BxVF0fwQ0e0LM7MC-68wtN54O6igXOSoMnQRCcNQ">documentary</a> produced by the gallery, Shepherd tells how he was taught to sculpt by his father. He says that his works speak about migration and help tell his family story.</p>
<p>It’s a tale that spans three neighbouring southern African nations, all known for their sculpture – Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. It exposes a history of shared traditions and schools of teaching, of colonial-era gatekeeping and art world wars. It’s this history that informs the research for my <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/artsofafrica/people/doctoralresearchers/barnabastichamuvhuti/">PhD thesis</a> on Zimbabwean art.</p>
<p>It’s my view that Shepherd Ndudzo’s work can only be fully appreciated by understanding his transnational story and how it has shaped his life and career, showing how art traditions are invented and reinvented across borders.</p>
<h2>Kekana school</h2>
<p>His father Barnabas was born in Zimbabwe and attended the Kekana School of Art and Craft in the late 1960s. Early art schools in Zimbabwe were founded and run by white missionaries and expatriates. But the Kekana School was founded by a black artist and teacher. The school was started at St Faith’s Mission near Rusape by South African sculptor <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/job-patja-kekana">Job Patja Kekana</a> in the early 1960s, long before Zimbabwe attained <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/zimbabawean-independence-day">independence</a> in 1980. </p>
<p>Kekana had trained at Grace Dieu Mission Diocesan Training College near Pietersburg (Polokwane). The same institution was attended by <a href="https://www.art.co.za/gerardsekoto/about.php">Gerard Sekoto</a> and <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/ernest-methuen-mancoba">Ernest Mancoba</a>, two of South Africa’s prominent black modernists. (<a href="https://uobrep.openrepository.com/handle/10547/621830">Modernism</a> was an era of experimentation in art from the late 1800s to the mid 1950s. It saw new ideas, new media and the uptake of socio-political concerns.)</p>
<p>Kekana had settled at St Faith’s in 1944 and stayed until he died in 1995, except for the three years (1960-1963) when he attended art college in the UK. When Shepherd enrolled at St Faith’s High School in Zimbabwe in the early 1990s, he briefly met his father’s ageing mentor. </p>
<p>Shepherd mostly learned from assisting and observing his father at work. Like Kekana and all his students, Barnabas mostly carved realistic statues and busts.</p>
<h2>Art war</h2>
<p>Zimbabwe is famous for its <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/curations/shona-sculpture">“Shona sculpture”</a> tradition in which artists use handmade tools, patiently carving human and animal forms from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/serpentinite">serpentinite</a> rocks. UK-born artist, teacher and museum curator <a href="https://africanartists.blogspot.com/2015/04/remembering-frank-mcewen.html">Frank McEwen</a> pigeonholed artists from various ethnic backgrounds and different countries – and not just from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shona">Shona people</a> – in a single <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171633?typeAccessWorkflow=login">misnamed</a> cultural basket. Their individual creative styles did not matter. </p>
<p>McEwen was the founding director of the Rhodes National Gallery (<a href="http://www.nationalgallery.co.zw/">National Gallery of Zimbabwe</a>). Although he was celebrated for his efforts at promoting Zimbabwe’s abstract stone sculpture tradition, ensuring that the world accepted it as modern art, his presence was bad for artists who worked with media like wood and were making realistic works, as well as for those stationed at <a href="https://cyrenemission.com/2016/11/08/history/">missionary</a> <a href="https://zimnative.com/blogs/historical-sites-and-ancient-ruins/father-john-groeber-and-st-mary-s-church-at-serima-mission">workshops</a>. (Figurative art represents existing objects. Abstract art usually has no real-life visual reference. Realism refers to accurate depictions usually portraying a sitter or model.)</p>
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<p>McEwen preferred working with sculptors from the National Gallery School and the <a href="https://www.herald.co.zw/the-beauty-of-tengenenge-village/">Tengenenge</a> workshop until he had a fall-out with its founder, <a href="https://www.herald.co.zw/just-in-fare-thee-well-thomas-blomefield/">Tom Blomefield</a>. As reported in the press, Blomefield accused McEwen of stealing artists from his stable. Art historian <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315714465_Patron_and_Artist_in_the_Shaping_of_Zimbabwean_Art">Elizabeth Morton</a> highlighted that when Kekana visited the National Gallery School soon after his return from the UK he was chased away by McEwen, who didn’t want to see him near his students.</p>
<h2>Barnabas</h2>
<p>With McEwen holding the most powerful position at the nation’s central art institution, artists from Kekana’s school found themselves on the periphery of Zimbabwe’s mainstream art canon. They had to rely on church commissions and teaching jobs. This probably explains why Barnabas briefly found himself conducting “ecumenical workshops” for the Methodist Church in 1970 and 1971. Today the national gallery doesn’t have a single piece of his in its collection.</p>
<p>Barnabas headed south, finding a home at the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/federated-union-black-artists-arts-centre">Federated Union of Black Artists</a> (Fuba), an academy in Johannesburg. He settled in Botswana in the mid-1990s. He taught art at Gallery Ann and other institutions before moving to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thapong.centre">Thapong Visual Arts Centre</a> where he continued to mentor emerging artists. </p>
<p>He gained considerable recognition and respect in Botswana. And it’s in Botswana that his son Shepherd continues to sculpt, having moved to the country initially to assist his father.</p>
<h2>Shepherd</h2>
<p>The younger Ndudzo collects the <a href="https://www.herald.co.zw/ndafunga-dande-exhibition-opens-at-national-gallery/">hardwood</a> he uses from construction sites, especially from trees bulldozed for road construction. He prefers marble from Zambia and Namibia which comes not only in white, but also in various shades of grey and brown. He highlights how citizens of these countries walk across the countryside on this resource, hardly appreciating its importance. The black granite he combines them with is mostly from Zimbabwe.</p>
<p>Recently, Shepherd took me to his home in Oodi village in Kgatleng district. His vast open yard is his studio – where his artist neighbours tolerate the deafening noise of his sculpture making.</p>
<p>Though he <a href="https://vimeo.com/861254066?fbclid=IwAR1KfPY63fbSjGwOgg3BxVF0fwQ0e0LM7MC-68wtN54O6igXOSoMnQRCcNQ">talks</a> about moving away from his father’s realistic style, I still see strong elements of it in his work. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/bas-relief">bas-relief</a> carving in the larger works of wood exhibited at the Joburg Art Fair is a good example. It’s a style inherited from Kekana, <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&lr=&id=aXMHEwVL0bgC&oi=fnd&pg=PT44&dq=barnabas+ndudzo&ots=4S2f9dwvF3&sig=QxJZpGay1iqYFxULB93gbd7LuFE&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=barnabas%20ndudzo&f=false">who</a> “taught his students bas-relief carving, and realism and understanding of the wood grain”. </p>
<p>Thus I see Shepherd Ndudzo as an artist sustaining a legacy emanating from the Kekana school. However, his work oscillates between figuration and abstraction. It’s quite conceptual in that it is about ideas and quite experimental in that it blends different elements. The artist points to the likes of <a href="https://chapunguatcenterra.com/team/tapfuma-gutsa/">Tapfuma Gutsa</a> as his greatest inspiration. Gutsa transformed Zimbabwe’s stone sculpture tradition, blending stone with various other elements.</p>
<h2>Lineage</h2>
<p>Shepherd’s decision to dedicate his exhibition to his father and mentor is an important gesture. It highlights the story of a sidelined artist, mostly written out of history, like others from the Kekana school.</p>
<p>Artists do not make art in complete isolation. Highlighting the lineage Shepherd Ndudzo belongs to helps us understand his practice, choice of materials and aesthetic references.</p>
<p>It’s a lineage that’s transnational in outlook – linking Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe – and his materials are drawn from different countries. This helps us appreciate how artistic practice can feed off art ecosystems across southern African borders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215555/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article. </span></em></p>
His work can only be fully understood by observing the shared traditions of Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti, PhD in Art History, Rhodes University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/213269
2023-09-14T11:59:04Z
2023-09-14T11:59:04Z
Pollen in pee: fossilised urine from a small African mammal helps us understand past environments
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547771/original/file-20230912-27-za8r9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The lessons pollen can teach us are not to be sneezed at.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elisa Manzati</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you are allergic to pollen, you are likely to curse the existence of these microscopic particles. You’re not alone: <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4829390/#:%7E:text=Allergies%20on%20the%20Rise,people%20worldwide%20affected%20by%20asthma">up to 30%</a> of the world’s population suffers from hay fever, which is often driven by pollen allergies. Shifting global climates are likely to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4829390/">push that figure even higher</a>.</p>
<p>However, pollen represents one of the most powerful tools to uncover the nature of past environmental change. </p>
<p>I am the head of the <a href="https://drlynnequick.com/nelson-mandela-palaeolab/">Palaeoecology Laboratory</a> at <a href="https://www.mandela.ac.za/">Nelson Mandela University</a> in South Africa. My research focuses on unravelling the secrets of ancient environments and ecosystems by examining fossil pollen grains. These tiny time capsules hold a wealth of information about the earth’s past. They help scientists to reconstruct ecosystems, track climate change and understand the evolution of plant life.</p>
<p>But it can be difficult to source pollen deposits in arid regions. That’s because such deposits are often found in large lakes, which are in short supply in southern Africa. That’s where an unlikely scientific ally enters the picture: the fossilised urine of a small mammal, the <a href="https://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/hyrax">rock hyrax</a> (South Africans call them “dassies”). </p>
<h2>Looking back</h2>
<p>Pollen grains are incredibly durable because they are made of an organic substance (called sporopollenin) that is very resistant to decay. Pollen is released into the air, often in large quantities, and can settle on surfaces like lakes, and become preserved in sediment deposits over thousands, or even millions, of years.</p>
<p>In the lab, we examine the pollen found in these deposits using a microscope. By identifying the different types of pollen grains found within the different layers (representing different time slices) we can reconstruct the area’s vegetation history. Plants grow under specific climatic conditions: for instance, desert plants can grow under low rainfall conditions whereas forest plants need high amounts of rainfall. So we can make inferences about the climate at the time that the pollen was incorporated into the deposit.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A rather chubby small rodent with dark brown fur and protruding front teeth regards the photographer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547484/original/file-20230911-23-arxq3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547484/original/file-20230911-23-arxq3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547484/original/file-20230911-23-arxq3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547484/original/file-20230911-23-arxq3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547484/original/file-20230911-23-arxq3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547484/original/file-20230911-23-arxq3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547484/original/file-20230911-23-arxq3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The fossilised urine of rock hyraxes helps in the study of pollen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kiev Victor</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As I’ve said, southern Africa’s arid climates mean there are very few large lakes in the region. This makes it a challenge to source deposits that adequately preserve pollen within them over long periods of time. That’s where <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379112003319">fossilised dassie urine</a> comes in. </p>
<p>These sticky deposits called “middens” accumulate in rock crevices in mountainous areas over thousands to tens of thousands of years and contain beautifully preserved pollen grains. As they also contain various other types of evidence (such as geochemical data) and can be accurately dated, they represent the most valuable archive of past climate data in southern Africa. The oldest middens we’ve worked with date back 50,000 years.</p>
<h2>Ancient sites</h2>
<p>The research my lab conducts, focusing on harnessing the power of the humble pollen grain and utilising unique archives such as hyrax middens, is strongly multidisciplinary. It draws together elements from botany, geography, geology, climatology and archaeology. </p>
<p>We are currently generating fossil pollen records from several sites within the Cape Fold Belt mountains of South Africa. For example, we have a midden sequence that covers the last 6,000 years from the Baviaanskloof in the Eastern Cape province. The fossil pollen from this sequence shows that there was a dramatic shift in vegetation about 3,300 years ago, driven by a large fire event and increased temperatures. We’re hoping to publish this research soon.</p>
<p>This information provides baselines of variability in natural systems and can help inform current conservation efforts within the Baviaanskloof, which is a biodiversity hotspot. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.africanpaleoscienceslab.org/fieldwork/capp">Another project</a> that we are involved in is centred on the archaeological excavation within South Africa’s southern Cape region at a site called Boomplaas Cave. By using the fossil pollen within hyrax middens found within the vicinity of Boomplaas Cave, we hope to provide the environmental context to the archaeological record which can help to decipher how early humans responded to climate change.</p>
<h2>And looking forward</h2>
<p>We are not only working within the realm of the past: as pollen is one of the main sources of allergies it is important to monitor the types and amounts of pollen currently present in the air we breathe. My lab is part of the <a href="https://pollencount.co.za/">South African Pollen Monitoring network</a> and we generate pollen data for the city of Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province. </p>
<p>This initiative focuses on analysing pollen captured in the air across several different parts of South Africa and ensuring that this information is publicly available. This project is particularly important as, <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/EJC21714">due to climate change</a>, pollen seasons are lengthening and <a href="https://www.immunology.theclinics.com/article/S0889-8561(20)30061-8/fulltext">allergenic pollen is increasing</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213269/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynne Quick receives funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa: African Origins Platform and
GENUS: DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences
</span></em></p>
Pollen can become preserved in sediment deposits over thousands, or even millions, of years.
Lynne Quick, Senior Research Fellow, Nelson Mandela University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/211604
2023-08-31T14:09:55Z
2023-08-31T14:09:55Z
How our ancestors viewed the sky: new film explores both indigenous and modern cosmology
<p>Something remarkable is happening in a remote part of South Africa’s Northern Cape province, in a semi-desert area called the Karoo. In the past 15 years 64 radio receiving dishes have appeared on the landscape. These constitute the <a href="https://www.sarao.ac.za/gallery/meerkat/">MeerKAT telescope</a>, a precursor to the <a href="https://www.skao.int/en/about-us/skao">Square Kilometre Array Observatory</a> (SKAO), which will – when it is completed and fully functional in 2030 – be the world’s largest radio telescope.</p>
<p>The SKAO will receive signals emanating from the dark regions between the stars and galaxies. This data, studied by <a href="https://www.skao.int/en/resources/what-radio-astronomy">radio astronomers</a>, has the capacity to inform us about dark matter and could change our conception of the universe irrevocably.</p>
<p>In his new, award-winning documentary, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2g7eGjWGCk">!Aitsa</a>, filmmaker Dane Dodds explores the intellectual background and science of the SKAO alongside indigenous conceptions of the cosmos held by ancient <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/">ǀXam San people</a> and their Afrikaans-speaking descendants living in the Karoo today. As the film’s advisor I saw my task as bringing into focus the hidden assumptions that must be recognised in any encounter between knowledge, traditions and cosmology.</p>
<p>!Aitsa (a South African exclamation of praise or surprise) explores the SKAO’s approach to understanding the universe through big data made comprehensible by the techniques of empirical science, machine learning, artificial intelligence and instrumentation. The film also examines <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08949468.2023.2168962?journalCode=gvan20">Karoo star-lore</a> as it is shared and spread by an interwoven tapestry of oral traditions. Conventional ideas about the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01436597.2018.1447374">nature of science</a> are challenged and the dominant structures of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533952.2020.1850626">knowledge creation</a> are questioned as a result.</p>
<p>To the ǀXam and San people, being in the world as a person includes “the sky’s things” – an understanding of and deep connection with the cosmos. In an age progressively dominated by digital and automated knowledge it was important that the film hold space for this notion.</p>
<h2>Inflected with star-lore</h2>
<p>Through <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dBUudaAAAAAJ&hl=en">my own research</a> in the fields of archaeoacoustics, rock art and oral tradition I have come to understand that there is a profound multiplicity of connections within the ǀXam knowledge tradition. In a ǀXam conception of the universe there is no alienating distance between inner and outer, person, stars and space. That’s because their cultural understanding of reciprocities encourages ecological and cosmic connection. </p>
<p>!Aitsa strives to express astronomy as a lived-body experience. One person interviewed in the film says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I look up into the sky and look at how my star is positioned, and look up at the star’s direction, I know which way to walk.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another describes the Milky Way as being “right at the centre of a person’s spirituality.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z2g7eGjWGCk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for !Aitsa.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Animism and animation</h2>
<p>The instruments of modern science deliver facts, innovation and technical advancement. But all this comes with societal entanglements and colonial dynamics, a part of the <a href="https://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu05se/uu05se00.htm">intellectual history</a> of scientific endeavour that assumes authority and stands aloof from the kinds of sensory perceptions and lived experience that are central to ǀXam San cosmology.</p>
<p>!Aitsa investigates a modern pre-disposition that considers <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/200061">animistic knowledge</a> and reasoning as inherently flawed. Animism is the notion that any living thing has a distinct spiritual essence. It’s a mistake to dismiss ǀXam cultural expression as a mythology that is intrinsically animistic and therefore quaint.</p>
<p>The ǀXam and San people are known as “<a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/People_of_the_Eland.html?id=D_wwAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">the people of the eland</a>” and so, to illustrate the way their beliefs animate “things”, an eland antelope is a key character in !Aitsa. The animal’s presence compels the viewer to consider the importance of relationship and relatedness. </p>
<h2>Soundscapes</h2>
<p>Sound plays a crucial role in the film, and was another opportunity to showcase an element of |Xam San culture. The soundtrack (you can hear a preview <a href="https://soundcloud.com/s_i_l_v_a_n/aitsa-film-ost-preview">here</a>) draws on composer Simon Kohler’s musical creativity and the archaeoacoustic research I have done on lithophones, otherwise known as gong rocks, which produce sounds not dissimilar to that of a bell when it is struck.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-music-of-an-ancient-rock-painting-was-brought-to-life-185475">How the music of an ancient rock painting was brought to life</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Sound is the most ephemeral and transitory of presences but in the film the gong rock sound is a thread linking voices and images, past and present. Collecting the sound required two trips into the Karoo. There we recorded a variety of rock sounds – deep bass-vibrations through to light metallic tinkles. We brought these recordings back into the Cape Town sound studio where the sound was “composed” to create the soundtrack that viewers will hear throughout the film.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.aitsafilm.com/">!Aitsa</a> had its world premiere at <a href="https://cphdox.dk/film/aitsa/">CPH:DOX</a> in Denmark in 2023, with sold out screenings and <a href="https://mubi.com/en/lists/cph-dox-2023-best-to-worst">rave reviews</a>. The film won the Grand Prize at Estonia’s <a href="https://www.chaplin.ee/">Pärnu International Film Festival</a> and was voted Best of the Fest at the Encounters Film Festival in Cape Town. !Aitsa is selected to screen in Canada at <a href="https://planetinfocus.org/">planetinfocus</a> and in October 2023 at the <a href="https://psff.cz/">Prague Science Film Fest</a> and is up for selection at the <a href="https://www.idfa.nl/en">idfa Festival</a> in the Netherlands in November.</p>
<p>In 2024 !Aitsa will go on a road trip, visiting remote places in the Karoo where the film will be screened to audiences who do not have the means for or access to cinemas. </p>
<p>We also hope to take the film to Australia so that the Wajarri Yamaji Aboriginal people can see, listen and connect with their counterparts in the Karoo. This is an important connection because the Wajarri Yamaji live in the Murchison region in Western Australia where the low-frequency component of the SKAO is <a href="https://www.skao.int/en/partners/skao-members/133/australia">currently under construction</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Rusch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
To the ǀXam and San people, being in the world as a person includes “the sky’s things” - an understanding of and deep connection with the cosmos.
Neil Rusch, Research Associate, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208963
2023-08-03T14:39:56Z
2023-08-03T14:39:56Z
Dinosaur tracksite in Lesotho: how a wrong turn led to an exciting find
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539023/original/file-20230724-14014-ctdnz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An artistic impression of the various dinosaur species that once roamed the Roma Valley.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Akhil Rampersadh</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I am a poor navigator. This is not an easy thing for a field geologist to admit. We need to be able to find our planned area of interest in good time and make our way back to our potentially hidden and distant vehicles at the end of the day. It’s especially true that I am a poor navigator when I need to use nondescript bushes, the distant hill shape, and the odd fallen boulder as reference points. </p>
<p>So it was no surprise when I led my MSc student Loyce Mpangala and our PhD candidate field assistant Akhil Rampersadh astray in Lesotho’s Roma Valley. We were walking back to our car after looking at a <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-the-giant-dinosaur-that-roamed-southern-africa-200-million-years-ago-86004">dinosaur tracksite</a> that I’d visited before. The tracksite, which is marked on Google Maps as an attraction, was on the other side of a sparsely populated hill with numerous informal walkways, overlooking the National University of Lesotho.</p>
<p>Walking along the wrong (I didn’t know it then) footpath, I spotted a dinosaur footprint I hadn’t seen before. Once you’ve worked on dinosaur tracks for seven years and visited the same site a few times you get to know their shape and their personality. And this one was different. The first footprint I spotted superficially resembled others on the hill: three-toed, longer-than-wide with claw marks; but it was far away from the known site we had just visited. </p>
<p>After taking a few more steps, we spotted some more footprints. These had distinct shapes we had not yet seen in the Roma area: short, wide footprints with rounded, stubby toes. When we looked more closely, they were sometimes paired with star-shaped handprints. These footprints were made by herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs and it is the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2023.2221306">first time</a> their distinct shape has been documented in the Roma Valley, which is rich in fossil footprints. It adds to scientists’ knowledge of the extensive trace fossil diversity of the local dinosaur community during the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Jurassic-Period">Early Jurassic</a> period about 200 million years ago. </p>
<p>I guess sometimes – and I cannot overemphasise how rarely – the wrong turn can lead you to the right place. </p>
<h2>New, old and very old</h2>
<p>The tracksite was new to our dino-tracking team from South Africa’s University of Cape Town. But it was not a new discovery. It is known as the Mokhosi site and was reported in 2003 by David Ambrose, a tracking enthusiast and mathematics professor at the National University of Lesotho. He noted that a number of large three-toed prints were preserved, with more likely to be beneath the recent sand covering. </p>
<p>Our extensive uncovering (a glamorous way for saying sweeping) of the 18 metre by 2 metre tracksite showed that more fossil evidence had indeed been captured in the rock. We documented 35 footprints; most were part of trackways, heading in all directions. </p>
<p>The footprints were all three-toed and fell into two main shape groupings – those that were longer-than-wide, with slender toes and sharp claw marks, and those that were wider-than-long, with robust, rounded toes. The latter were occasionally associated with smaller and shallow handprints, in front and slightly to the outer side of their corresponding footprints. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/footprints-take-science-a-step-closer-to-understanding-southern-africas-dinosaurs-185480">first group of tracks</a> (longer-than-wide) are a type commonly preserved in southern Africa and can be attributed to carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. The theropod tracks at Mokhosi reach a maximum length of about 40cm, meaning that these meat-eating travellers would have had a hip height of about 2 metres, towering over humans.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/footprints-take-science-a-step-closer-to-understanding-southern-africas-dinosaurs-185480">Footprints take science a step closer to understanding southern Africa's dinosaurs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The second group of hand- and footprints preserve characteristics consistent with herbivorous ornithischian dinosaur trackmakers. Our excitement rose as we carefully dusted these tracks: globally, ornithischian footprints are rarer than theropods during the Early Jurassic. </p>
<p>This marks the first time these distinct quadrupedal ornithischian footprints have been found in the Roma Valley. It’s remarkable, given that a high number of tracksites (14) have been identified and studied in the area.</p>
<h2>Waiting to be found again</h2>
<p>When we walked back to our car after a long day, we took a moment to stare back at the wonderful site we’d stumbled across. We knew that the future rains and winds would once again hide the Mokhosi tracksite, leaving only small clues to the keen eye of what lies beneath the sand. </p>
<p>We wish the same excitement to the next passerby who unveils this little wonder. </p>
<p>To help you, I’d like to note that the nearby bush is “bushier than the surrounding ones”, that the hill gradient “changes ever so slightly above the track-bearing sandstone”, and that the nearby boulders are completely “nondescript”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208963/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research component of this project was supported from the following research grants obtained by MA: DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence Genus (grant number 86073); NRF Thuthuka (grant number 138151); UCT Research Development Grants 2020 – 2021. AR is a recipient of postgraduate funding from the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeoscience (Genus). LM is a recipient of postgraduate funding from the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeoscience (Genus) and Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST), Johannesburg, South Africa; DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeoscience.</span></em></p>
Fossilised tracks of a group of plant-eating dinosaurs have been found in Lesotho’s Roma Valley for the first time.
Miengah Abrahams, Lecturer, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202395
2023-06-21T14:57:56Z
2023-06-21T14:57:56Z
Unicorns in southern Africa: the fascinating story behind one-horned creatures in rock art
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535542/original/file-20230704-21-a05eoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Images of one-horned rain-animals have been found in the northern parts of the Eastern Cape province.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy David M. Witelson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One-horned creatures are found in myths <a href="https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/mythic-creatures/land/unicorns-west-and-east">around the world</a>. Although unicorns in different cultures have little to do with one another, they have multiple associations in European thought.</p>
<p>For example, the Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder <a href="https://mythicalcreatures.edwardworthlibrary.ie/unicorns/">wrote about unicorns</a> in the first century AD. The unicorn features in both <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/467642">medieval Christian</a> and <a href="https://www.theclanbuchanan.com/folklore">Celtic</a> beliefs, and is <a href="https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/the-unicorn-scotlands-national-animal#:%7E:text=With%20its%20white%20horse%2Dlike,strength%20of%20their%20healing%20power">Scotland’s national animal</a>. The unicorn’s prominence in European culture spread across the globe with colonisation. </p>
<p>In southern Africa, colonial European ideas encountered older indigenous beliefs about one-horned creatures. I’ve highlighted this in a recent research <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/revisiting-the-south-african-unicorn-rock-art-natural-history-and-colonial-misunderstandings-of-indigenous-realities/5875B2016D8EB1C598C95B21D720F862">article</a> about some of the region’s rock art.</p>
<h2>Unicorns in Africa?</h2>
<p>In the age of natural science, unicorns were gradually dismissed as mythical rather than biological creatures. But some thought that real animals with single horns might yet exist in the “unexplored wilds” of Africa.</p>
<p>A famous search for such evidence was carried out by the English traveller, writer and politician <a href="https://ulverstoncouncil.org.uk/education/sir-john-barrow-1764-1848/">Sir John Barrow (1764-1848)</a>. He’d heard rumours about “unicorns” from the colonists and local people he encountered on his southern African travels. </p>
<p>One of those rumours was that unicorns were depicted in the rock paintings made by the indigenous <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/San">San (Bushman)</a> inhabitants of the region. Barrow searched unsuccessfully for them. Then, in mountains in what’s now the Eastern Cape province, he found and copied an image of a unicorn (Figure 1).</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532936/original/file-20230620-26-qlotji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white drawing of the head and neck of a horse-like creature with a mane and one long pointed horn." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532936/original/file-20230620-26-qlotji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532936/original/file-20230620-26-qlotji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532936/original/file-20230620-26-qlotji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532936/original/file-20230620-26-qlotji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532936/original/file-20230620-26-qlotji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532936/original/file-20230620-26-qlotji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532936/original/file-20230620-26-qlotji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 1. Barrow’s unicorn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">After the image published by Barrow</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But many were sceptical of his claims. His published copy resembles a European engraving rather than a San rock painting. More generally, critics have argued that rock paintings of unicorns were probably inspired by side-on views of <a href="https://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_oryx.html">gemsbok or South African oryxes</a> – antelope with long, straight horns – or by <a href="https://www.helpingrhinos.org/5-species-of-rhino/">rhinos</a> (which might have one horn in India, but have two in southern Africa).</p>
<p>My research concludes that these criticisms don’t take into account several factors that have since come to light. My paper provides further support for the <a href="https://www.magzter.com/stories/Animals-and-Pets/Farmers-Weekly/The-Search-For-The-South-African-Unicorn">claims</a> that some San rock paintings do indeed depict one-horned creatures.</p>
<h2>Multiple rock art depictions</h2>
<p>Early documented rock paintings of one-horned creatures are known from <a href="http://www.sarada.co.za/#/library/stow/images/IZI-GWS-01-25D">19th</a> and <a href="http://www.sarada.co.za/#/library/tongue/images/IZI-HT-01-71HC">20th</a> century copies by British geologist <a href="https://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=2746">George Stow</a> and South African teacher <a href="https://www.aluka.org/heritage/partner/XSTTONGUE">M. Helen Tongue</a>.</p>
<p>I draw attention to additional examples of rock paintings of one-horned creatures (Figures 2 and 3). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532953/original/file-20230620-5458-5u3n7d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rock art painting showing buck and fish." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532953/original/file-20230620-5458-5u3n7d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532953/original/file-20230620-5458-5u3n7d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532953/original/file-20230620-5458-5u3n7d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532953/original/file-20230620-5458-5u3n7d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532953/original/file-20230620-5458-5u3n7d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532953/original/file-20230620-5458-5u3n7d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532953/original/file-20230620-5458-5u3n7d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 2. A pair of spotted one-horned animals surrounded by fish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David M. Witelson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Collectively, these show that rock paintings of one-horned creatures can’t be dismissed as naturalistic profile views of two-horned creatures, one horn covering the other.</p>
<h2>Rain-animals</h2>
<p>The second way in which my research engages with early criticisms is to draw attention to previously overlooked indigenous beliefs concerning one-horned beings.</p>
<p>The evidence suggests that the “unicorns” in indigenous mythical beliefs and rock art are actually animal-like forms of rain, known as rain-animals.</p>
<p>Tongue’s colleague and co-worker, <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/researchers.html">Dorothea Bleek</a>, compared Stow’s and Tongue’s copies and <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Bushman_Paintings_Copied_by_M_Helen_Tong.html?id=9HPVxAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">suggested</a> in 1909 that rock paintings of one-horned antelope were probably kinds of rain-animals, which she knew from <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/">|Xam San (Bushman) myths</a>.</p>
<p>Rain-animals feature prominently in <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/492703532">San ritual, myth and art</a>. They take many forms, ranging from <a href="http://www.sarada.co.za/#/library/rain/images/RARI-RSA-FLO3-1R">four-legged creatures</a> to <a href="http://www.sarada.co.za/#/library/serpent/images/RARI-RSA-WAD1-2R">serpents</a>. They were ritually captured and slaughtered by San rainmakers to cause rain to fall in specific places. <a href="https://archive.org/details/cu31924029904830">Many |Xam myths</a> tell of the dangerous male rain, sometimes personified as the “Rain”, who turned pubescent girls and their families into frogs when the girls did not correctly observe their initiation taboos.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532954/original/file-20230620-25-yb22k8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white drawing of a buck with one horn, behind it three other buck heads emerge." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532954/original/file-20230620-25-yb22k8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532954/original/file-20230620-25-yb22k8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532954/original/file-20230620-25-yb22k8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532954/original/file-20230620-25-yb22k8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532954/original/file-20230620-25-yb22k8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532954/original/file-20230620-25-yb22k8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532954/original/file-20230620-25-yb22k8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 3. Digital drawing of original rock painting near the town of Dordrecht.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David M. Witelson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among other details, my paper highlights a fascinating and previously missed reference to a one-horned water creature. In one of the variants of a <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/stories/748/index.html">story</a> told by <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/xam.html">|Han≠kass’o or Klein Jantje</a> – a |Xam man who was an expert storyteller – a “water child” or juvenile rain-animal is said to have a single horn. The story was written down in phonetic script (to record the sounds of the San langauge) by <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/researchers.html">Lucy Lloyd</a> (Bleek’s aunt) and translated into English.</p>
<p>The girl in |Han≠kass’o’s story breaks the rules of her ritual puberty seclusion by going to a pond and catching (like fish) the children of the rain, which she cooks and eats. After a few times she struggles to catch another one: unlike the others, this last creature is <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/books/BC_151_A2_1_092/A2_1_92_07513.html">“a grown-up water”</a>.</p>
<p>We know what made it recognisably grown-up: unlike the others, it had a single horn that <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/books/BC_151_A2_1_092/A2_1_92_07513.html">poked out of the water</a>. We have, therefore, the actual |Xam San words (which translate as “horned rain-child”) used to describe this kind of rain-animal, which we find in the rock paintings in and around the Eastern Cape.</p>
<h2>An intersection of beliefs</h2>
<p>In the colonial period, indigenous people were exposed to European images of unicorns on crests, badges and buttons and through tales. In one of the <a href="https://archive.org/details/southafricacentu00barnuoft/page/76/mode/2up?q=unicorn">recorded instances</a>, indigenous people at the Cape saw the British royal coat of arms and commented on the unicorn in it. They recognised it as their “god”, but this description, translated into English from an unknown indigenous idiom, probably refers to the creature’s mythical nature rather than a genuine god-like status. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532973/original/file-20230620-23-fy3zbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Buck with horns that point forward depicted in a rock painting with blue bodies and white spots." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532973/original/file-20230620-23-fy3zbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532973/original/file-20230620-23-fy3zbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532973/original/file-20230620-23-fy3zbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532973/original/file-20230620-23-fy3zbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532973/original/file-20230620-23-fy3zbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532973/original/file-20230620-23-fy3zbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532973/original/file-20230620-23-fy3zbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 4. Rain-animals with horns that point up or curve forward at a site near Indwe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David M. Witelson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Foreign unicorn images may have gradually influenced local ones. Some rock paintings of one-horned creatures – dated by associated human figures in European dress to the colonial period – show horns pointing upward or forward (Figure 4) like the European unicorn, rather than backwards like antelopes, such as the eland (Figure 5), on which many rock paintings of one-horned rain-animals are modelled.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532972/original/file-20230620-27-3f4pm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A buck lying in the grass, its horns pointed up[wards and back." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532972/original/file-20230620-27-3f4pm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532972/original/file-20230620-27-3f4pm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532972/original/file-20230620-27-3f4pm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532972/original/file-20230620-27-3f4pm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532972/original/file-20230620-27-3f4pm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532972/original/file-20230620-27-3f4pm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532972/original/file-20230620-27-3f4pm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 5. The horns of the common eland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pxfuel</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One-horned animals depicted in rock art are not mere rhinos nor antelope, nor are they the creatures of European myth.</p>
<p>Indigenous beliefs help us to explain that the uncanny resemblance between European unicorns and South African “unicorns” was pure chance. The mixing of foreign beliefs with local ones in colonial South Africa has hidden the independent, indigenous creature.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202395/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David M. Witelson is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand's Rock Art Research Institute (RARI). He receives funding from RARI and the University's Faculty of Science. </span></em></p>
Some explorers believed they had found unicorns depicted on rocks. The truth behind the paintings is far more interesting.
David M. Witelson, Postdoctoral research fellow, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/207229
2023-06-19T14:04:46Z
2023-06-19T14:04:46Z
Climate change journalism in South Africa misses the mark by ignoring people’s daily experiences
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531078/original/file-20230609-27-o2hiep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the 2022 COP27 meeting in Egypt. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s media houses rely too heavily on events like conferences, climate disasters and the release of scientific papers in their reporting on climate change. That’s a problem: it creates the potential for day-to-day issues related to climate change, like ongoing mitigation and adaptation efforts, to go unreported.</p>
<p>That’s one of the key findings of <a href="https://www.aku.edu/gsmc/Documents/Climate%20change%20journalism%20in%20South%20Africa%20-%20Enoch%20Sithole.pdf">a study</a> I recently conducted into how the country’s media cover the climate crisis. </p>
<p>I also identified major shortcomings in overall communication on the climate crisis by key stakeholders in South Africa – policymakers, captains of industry, scientists and non-governmental organisations.</p>
<p>These shortcomings are hugely worrying given what <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-08-16-the-ipccs-latest-assessment-report-on-the-climate-crisis-five-take-home-messages-for-south-africa/">scientists say</a> lies in store for South Africa in the coming years. Along with many parts of the broader southern African region, it is projected to become both warmer and drier, putting pressure on water security and agriculture. Increasing heatwaves will affect human health and result in deaths. Tropical cyclones are likely to become stronger, with catastrophic impacts in central and southern regions of Mozambique and certain areas in north-eastern South Africa.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-has-already-hit-southern-africa-heres-how-we-know-169062">Climate change has already hit southern Africa. Here's how we know</a>
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<p>The kind of coverage favoured by South African media probably doesn’t do much to improve the public’s understanding of climate change because they cannot associate the reporting with their day-to-day lives – even though, as <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/">the science makes clear</a>, the toll is tremendous. It also leaves the impression that climate change is an issue for elites, politicians and activists, and not ordinary people. </p>
<h2>‘Ignoring the end of the world’</h2>
<p>The study was jointly commissioned by the Wits University Centre for Journalism (South Africa) and Fojo Media Institute of Linnaeus University, Sweden.</p>
<p>To conduct the study, I reviewed some 476 articles published between September 2021 and August 2022 about climate change in 11 online South African publications that report frequently on the issue. I also interviewed 42 people from government institutions, civil society and the corporate sector, as well as members of the media and climate change scientists.</p>
<p>The majority of climate change-related stories I reviewed were about the release of scientific reports, or high-profile global meetings.</p>
<p>However, some local media houses barely covered perhaps the most important and high-profile of these publications: the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/">Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> (IPCC). </p>
<p>The presentation of the report by UN secretary-general, António Guterres, on 9 August 2021, was covered live by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Al Jazeera, and dominated their bulletins throughout the day. None of South Africa’s news networks covered the report’s release on the day. This choice led South African political scientist Steven Friedman <a href="https://www.newframe.com/mainstream-media-ignore-the-end-of-the-world/">to declare</a>: “Mainstream media ignore the end of the world”.</p>
<h2>Foreign news dominates</h2>
<p>Another key finding of the study is that South Africa’s media have relied on news from foreign news networks in their reporting on the climate crisis. </p>
<p>This dominance of foreign news reports creates the impression among audiences that climate change is not a local concern. It has been <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/EJC139533">well established</a> in <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/research/files/Media%2520Coverage%2520of%2520Climate%2520Change%2520in%2520Africa%2520A%2520Case%2520Study%2520of%2520Nigeria%2520and%2520South%2520Africa.pdf">media theory</a> that if some development is not reported in the media, it is viewed as less important than those that are. </p>
<p>This reporting also creates a psychological distance between audiences and climate change; they come to see it as a distant problem.</p>
<h2>After the fact</h2>
<p>Where local stories were covered, these tended to centre on disasters. One example was extensive reporting on the disastrous floods in the KwaZulu-Natal province in April 2022, in which the media mentioned climate change as the cause. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-african-floods-wreaked-havoc-because-people-are-forced-to-live-in-disaster-prone-areas-181309">South African floods wreaked havoc because people are forced to live in disaster prone areas</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Of course, the coverage of climate disasters is an obvious choice for any newsroom. But, as some interviewees in my study pointed out, communities need ongoing reporting on the climate crisis to inform and educate them about adaptation so they can prepare themselves for future disasters. Reporting only after the fact of a disaster was not, they said, particularly helpful.</p>
<p>The interviewees also argued that climate change news was not attractive to most audiences because it did not talk to their pressing day-to-day concerns. They decried the fact that most articles on the climate crisis were published in online media and some were behind paywalls. This was seen as limiting public access, particularly by ordinary people who need the information the most because they are <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-ipcc-report-reveals-how-inequality-makes-impacts-worse-and-what-to-do-about-it-178049">especially vulnerable</a> to the effects of climate change.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-ipcc-report-reveals-how-inequality-makes-impacts-worse-and-what-to-do-about-it-178049">Climate change: IPCC report reveals how inequality makes impacts worse – and what to do about it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Finally, interviewees lambasted communication from stakeholders other than the media. They suggested that this stifled media coverage. If institutions such as the government, for instance, were communicating more extensively on the crisis, the media would follow suit and improve their own coverage.</p>
<h2>Recommendations</h2>
<p>The findings of the study could be addressed in several ways. For instance, I propose an indaba (workshop) involving key stakeholders like the government, NGOs, scientists, policymakers and journalists to discuss the issue of climate change journalism and the overall communication of the crisis in South Africa. </p>
<p>Academic institutions should also introduce courses on climate change journalism and communication.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Enock Sithole receives funding from the Fojo Media Institute. </span></em></p>
The kind of coverage favoured by South African media probably doesn’t do much to improve the public’s understanding of climate change.
Enock Sithole, Lecturer, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205310
2023-05-23T13:57:46Z
2023-05-23T13:57:46Z
World’s oldest ‘Homo sapiens’ footprint identified on South Africa’s Cape south coast
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526199/original/file-20230515-12409-7oogjm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The oldest known footprint of our species, lightly ringed with chalk. It appears long and narrow because the trackmaker dragged their heel.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Helm</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just over two decades ago, as the new millennium began, it seemed that tracks left by our ancient human ancestors dating back more than about 50,000 years were excessively rare. </p>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/worlds-oldest-homo-sapiens-footprint-identified-on-south-africas-cape-south-coast-205310&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p>Only four sites had been reported in the whole of Africa at that time. Two were from East Africa: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/278317a0">Laetoli in Tanzania</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/289167a0">Koobi Fora in Kenya</a>; two were from South Africa (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10420940802470482">Nahoon and Langebaan</a>). In fact the Nahoon site, reported in 1966, was the first hominin tracksite ever to be described.</p>
<p>In 2023 the situation is very different. It appears that people were not looking hard enough or were not looking in the right places. Today the African tally for dated hominin ichnosites (a term that includes both tracks and other traces) older than 50,000 years stands at 14. These can conveniently be divided into an East African cluster (five sites) and a South African cluster from the Cape coast (nine sites). There are a further ten sites elsewhere in the world including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0088329">the UK</a> and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba8940">Arabian Peninsula</a>.</p>
<p>Given that relatively few skeletal hominin remains have been found on the Cape coast, the traces left by our human ancestors as they moved about ancient landscapes are a useful way to complement and enhance our understanding of ancient hominins in Africa.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10420940.2023.2204231">recently published article</a> in <em>Ichnos</em>, the international journal of trace fossils, we provided the ages of seven newly dated hominin ichnosites that we have identified in the past five years on South Africa’s Cape south coast. These sites now form part of the “South African cluster” of nine sites. </p>
<p>We found that the sites ranged in age; the most recent dates back about 71,000 years. The oldest, which dates back 153,000 years, is one of the more remarkable finds recorded in this study: it is the oldest footprint thus far attributed to our species, <em>Homo sapiens</em>.</p>
<p>The new dates corroborate the archaeological record. Along with other evidence from the area and time period, including the development of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11660">sophisticated stone tools</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.01.005">art</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2004.09.002">jewellery</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.07.011">harvesting of shellfish</a>, it confirms that the Cape south coast was an area in which early anatomically modern humans survived, evolved and thrived, before spreading out of Africa to other continents.</p>
<h2>Very different sites</h2>
<p>There are significant differences between the East African and South African tracksite clusters. The East African sites are much older: Laetoli, the oldest, is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9956-3_4">3.66 million years old</a> and the youngest is <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-21158-7">0.7 million years old</a>. The tracks were not made by <em>Homo sapiens</em>, but by earlier species such as australopithecines, <em>Homo heidelbergensis</em> and <em>Homo erectus</em>. For the most part, the surfaces on which the East African tracks occur have had to be laboriously and meticulously excavated and exposed. </p>
<p>The South African sites on the Cape coast, by contrast, are substantially younger. All have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22059-5%20https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2020/8156">been attributed</a> to <em>Homo sapiens</em>. And the tracks tend to be fully exposed when they’re discovered, in rocks known as aeolianites, which are the cemented versions of ancient dunes. </p>
<p>Excavation is therefore not usually considered – and because of the sites’ exposure to the elements and the relatively coarse nature of dune sand, they aren’t usually as well preserved as the East African sites. They are also vulnerable to erosion, so we often have to work fast to record and analyse them before they are destroyed by the ocean and the wind.</p>
<p>While this limits the potential for detailed interpretation, we can have the deposits dated. That’s where optically stimulated luminescence comes in.</p>
<h2>An illuminating method</h2>
<p>A key challenge when studying the palaeo-record – trackways, fossils, or any other kind of ancient sediment – is determining how old the materials are. </p>
<p>Without this it is difficult to evaluate the wider significance of a find, or to interpret the climatic changes that create the geological record. In the case of the Cape south coast aeolianites, the dating method of choice is often <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-earth-040610-133425">optically stimulated luminescence</a>.</p>
<p>This method of dating shows how long ago a grain of sand was exposed to sunlight; in other words, how long that section of sediment has been buried. Given how the tracks in this study were formed – impressions made on wet sand, followed by burial with new blowing sand – it is a good method as we can be reasonably confident that the dating “clock” started at about the same time the trackway was created. </p>
<p>The Cape south coast is a great place to apply optically stimulated luminescence. Firstly, the sediments are rich in quartz grains, which produce lots of luminescence. Secondly, the abundant sunshine, wide beaches and ready wind transport of sand to form coastal dunes mean any pre-existing luminescence signals are fully removed prior to the burial event of interest, making for reliable age estimates. This method has underpinned much of the dating of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.07.032">previous finds</a> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047248410001375?via%3Dihub">in the area</a>. </p>
<p>The overall date range of our findings for the hominin ichnosites - about 153,000 to 71,000 years in age – is consistent with ages in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.10.003">previously reported studies</a> from similar geological deposits in the region. </p>
<p>The 153,000 year old track was found in the Garden Route National Park, west of the coastal town of Knysna on the Cape south coast. The two previously dated South African sites, Nahoon and Langebaan, have yielded ages of about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10420940802470482">124,000 years and 117,000 years respectively</a>.</p>
<h2>Increased understanding</h2>
<p>The work of our research team, based in the African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa, is not done. </p>
<p>We suspect that further hominin ichnosites are waiting to be discovered on the Cape south coast and elsewhere on the coast. The search also needs to be extended to older deposits in the region, ranging in age from 400,000 years to more than 2 million years.</p>
<p>A decade from now, we expect the list of ancient hominin ichnosites to be a lot longer than it is at present – and that scientists will be able to learn a great deal more about our ancient ancestors and the landscapes they occupied.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205310/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
This was an area in which early anatomically modern humans survived, evolved and thrived, before spreading out of Africa to other continents.
Charles Helm, Research Associate, African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University
Andrew Carr, Senior Lecturer, University of Leicester
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/200371
2023-02-21T11:56:45Z
2023-02-21T11:56:45Z
Cyclones in southern Africa: five essential reads
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511392/original/file-20230221-18-r3odu7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The fishing village of Mahebourg, Mauritius, is among the places in the path of cyclone Freddy.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laura Morosoli/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Tropical cyclone Freddy was, on 21 February 2023, bearing down on Mauritius and Madagascar. Mauritius grounded flights and, news agency Reuters <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-02-20-mauritius-halts-flights-madagascar-braces-for-floods-as-cyclone-freddy-nears/">reported</a>, emergency teams in four regions of Madagascar were braced for “heavy rains, floods and landslides”.</em></p>
<p><em>A day earlier the Mauritius Meteorological Services <a href="http://metservice.intnet.mu/current-cyclone.php">issued</a> a Class 3 cyclone warning, saying estimated gusts in the centre of Cyclone Freddy could reach around 280 kilometres an hour.</em></p>
<p><em>Both island nations are located in the Indian Ocean and are no strangers to tropical cyclones. But, as the global climate shifts, such storms will become ever more common, endangering millions of people in Madagascar, Mauritius and other countries in the southern African region like Mozambique and Malawi.</em> </p>
<p><em>The Conversation Africa has published a number of articles explaining the science of tropical cyclones and the role climate change is playing in their increasing frequency and force. Here are five essential reads.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Warming oceans</h2>
<p>Tropical cyclones are huge. They can span more than 1,000km in diameter and they draw their energy from the ocean heat – ocean surface temperatures of at least 26⁰C are required for tropical cyclones to form. Over the past 30 years, as the world’s oceans have become warmer, the locations of where tropical cyclones form and intensify have been shifting.</p>
<p>Climate scientists Micheal Pillay and Jennifer Fitchett unpacked these shifts.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tropical-cyclones-in-the-south-west-indian-ocean-new-insights-125579">Tropical cyclones in the South West Indian Ocean: new insights</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Devastation</h2>
<p>The most damaging tropical cyclones of the past few years were tropical cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which hit Mozambique especially hard in March and April of 2019. Idai alone killed more than 1,500 people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. In an article first published in 2019 soon after the devastation and updated in 2022 as more powerful storms battered Mozambique, Professor Fitchett explained why tropical cyclones from the Indian Ocean were becoming ever more powerful.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-indian-ocean-is-spawning-strong-and-deadly-tropical-cyclones-116559">Why the Indian Ocean is spawning strong and deadly tropical cyclones</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Countries must pull together</h2>
<p>In the wake of tropical storms Idai and Kenneth, researcher Chris Changwe Nshimbi argued that the Southern African Development Community had once again proved that it wasn’t ready to deal with environmental disasters as a collective. He traced the reasons for these shortcomings and suggested ways forward – more critical than ever as tropical storms and other climate-related crises hammer southern Africa.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/southern-african-countries-wont-manage-disasters-unless-they-work-together-114541">Southern African countries won't manage disasters unless they work together</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>More to come</h2>
<p>Nshimbi is right: there is far more to come. Professor Fitchett – who has dedicated much of her research to the phenomenon – explained what drives extreme weather events.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/southern-africa-must-brace-itself-for-more-tropical-cyclones-in-future-103641">Southern Africa must brace itself for more tropical cyclones in future</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The bigger picture</h2>
<p>Tropical cyclones are only one part of the African continent’s climate crisis. Meteorologist Victor Ongoma explained what climate change experts were predicting for the continent and how different regions would be affected.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/insights-for-african-countries-from-the-latest-climate-change-projections-165944">Insights for African countries from the latest climate change projections</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200371/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Tropical cyclones are becoming more frequent in the Indian Ocean. Here’s why and what that means.
Natasha Joseph, Commissioning Editor
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199192
2023-02-09T13:57:47Z
2023-02-09T13:57:47Z
500-year-old horn container discovered in South Africa sheds light on pre-colonial Khoisan medicines
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508067/original/file-20230203-4002-7qjkit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Both the Khoi and the San believed in a mythical animal, resembling a cow, whose horns were thought to have medicinal attributes.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rodger Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2020, a chance discovery near the small South African hamlet of Misgund in the Eastern Cape unearthed an unusual parcel – a gift to science. The parcel turned out to be a 500-year-old cow horn, capped with a leather lid and carefully wrapped in grass and the leafy scales of a <a href="https://pza.sanbi.org/boophone-disticha">Bushman poison bulb</a> (<em>Boophane disticha</em>). Inside the horn were the solidified remnants of a once-liquid substance.</p>
<p>Thanks to chemical analyses, we now know that the horn was a medicine container. It is the earliest known object of its kind from anywhere in southern Africa and offers the first insights into pre-colonial medicines in this part of the world.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I conducted <a href="https://sajs.co.za/article/view/13011">chemical analyses of the contents</a>. We identified several secondary plant metabolites, the most abundant of which were mono-methyl inositol and lupeol. Both of these compounds, and indeed all of those identified, have known medicinal properties.</p>
<p>This remarkable find is the oldest example in southern Africa, of which we are aware, of two or more plant ingredients being purposefully combined into a container to form a medicinal recipe. Several museums in South Africa house examples of medicine horns collected during the 19th and 20th centuries – but none has ever been found in an archaeological context. </p>
<h2>Various plant uses</h2>
<p>The medicine container was found in a painted rock shelter. A radio carbon date of the horn container places the parcel at around AD 1461-1630. Although the rock shelter contains several San paintings, we do not know if they are the same age as the horn container. At this time the area was occupied by both San hunter-gatherers and Khoi pastoralists; both believed in a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3889185?origin=crossref">mythical animal</a>, resembling a domestic cow, whose horns were considered to have medicinal attributes. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508065/original/file-20230203-26-7qjkit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508065/original/file-20230203-26-7qjkit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508065/original/file-20230203-26-7qjkit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508065/original/file-20230203-26-7qjkit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508065/original/file-20230203-26-7qjkit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508065/original/file-20230203-26-7qjkit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508065/original/file-20230203-26-7qjkit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508065/original/file-20230203-26-7qjkit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The site location.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Google Earth</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People have exploited the pharmacological properties of plants for at least the last 200,000 years. The descendants of these communities still live in Southern Africa today. During the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Mesolithic">Middle Stone Age</a> (which started about 300,000 years ago and ended between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago), people burnt certain aromatic leaves to <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abc7239">fumigate their sleeping areas</a>. Plant extracts also seem to have been the main component of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440312005511?via%3Dihub">glues and adhesives</a> and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1204213109">hunting poisons</a> around this time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/were-closer-to-learning-when-humans-first-daubed-arrows-with-poison-75566">We're closer to learning when humans first daubed arrows with poison</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But not much is known about traditional medicines from the pre-colonial era of southern Africa. What information there is derives mainly from early traveller accounts and modern ethnographic studies. The horn offered us a chance to learn a little more about traditional knowledge of medicine and pharmacology during this early period. </p>
<p>The descendants of these communities still live in southern Africa today.</p>
<h2>Medical and spiritual applications</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508334/original/file-20230206-15-urxszt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508334/original/file-20230206-15-urxszt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=153&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508334/original/file-20230206-15-urxszt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508334/original/file-20230206-15-urxszt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=153&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508334/original/file-20230206-15-urxszt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=192&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508334/original/file-20230206-15-urxszt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=192&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508334/original/file-20230206-15-urxszt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=192&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The contents of the parcel were slowly revealed as it was unwrapped.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rodger Smith</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The main compounds present in the container, mono-methyl inositol and lupeol, are still found today in a variety of known medicinal plants in the Eastern Cape. They have a wide range of recorded medicinal applications, including the control of blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and treatment of fevers, inflammation and urinary tract infections. They can also be applied topically to treat infections – rubbing ointment into cuts in the skin is one of the ways the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/abs/medicine-dance-of-the-kung-bushmen1/E4066082D71D58305B0725A4297F4F4D">San</a> are known to have administered certain medicines.</p>
<p>Both mono-methyl inositol and lupeol are pharmacologically safe compounds. This means that they can be ingested without the risk of overdose. Both compounds stimulate the production of dopamine in the brain; mono-methyl inositol is used to <a href="https://journals.lww.com/psychopharmacology/Abstract/2001/06000/Double_Blind,_Controlled,_Crossover_Trial_of.14.aspx">treat anxiety</a>, and plants containing lupeol are used as <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/medicinal-poisonous-plants-southern-eastern-africa/">aphrodisiacs</a>.</p>
<p>For the Khoi and San people, not all medicines were meant to treat physiological illnesses. Healers were specialised individuals whose task was to treat both physical and spiritual ailments. Indeed, one of the principal functions of traditional medicine, both in the past and today, is to treat <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40462576">supernatural bewitchment</a>. Medicine and culture remain intimately entwined and <a href="https://www.africabib.org/rec.php?RID=183047389">traditional medicine</a>, which is highly adaptive, continues to play an important role in much of Africa as a primary health service.</p>
<h2>A treasured possession</h2>
<p>We cannot know exactly what the medicine stored in the horn was used for, how it was administered or who precisely used it. But it was clearly a treasured possession, judging by the way it was carefully wrapped and deposited in the rock shelter. Its owner evidently intended to retrieve it but never returned. </p>
<p>The absence of any evidence of long-term occupation of the shelter means that the medicine horn is an isolated, chance discovery. Nevertheless, this is a find that sheds new light on traditional medicines used in the Eastern Cape 500 years ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199192/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin Bradfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The medicine container was found in a painted rock shelter. A radio carbon date of the horn container places it at around AD 1461-1630.
Justin Bradfield, Associate professor, University of Johannesburg
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198455
2023-01-26T10:14:59Z
2023-01-26T10:14:59Z
Heat stress is rising in southern Africa – climate experts show where and when it’s worst
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506391/original/file-20230125-2999-tc5bml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Being too hot isn't just uncomfortable: it can be dangerous.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Angel DiBilio/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most of us have felt either too hot or too cold at some point in our lives. Depending on where we live, we may feel too cold quite often each winter, and too hot for a few days in summer. As we’re writing this in late January 2023 many southern Africans are probably feeling very hot and fatigued; a prolonged regional heatwave began around 9 January.</p>
<p>Being too hot isn’t just uncomfortable. Heat stress causes dehydration, headaches, nausea – and, when people are exposed to high temperatures for protracted periods, they risk <a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/ehp.123-A275">severe health outcomes and could even die</a>. For instance, at least five people working on farms in South Africa’s Northern Cape province <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/we-were-struggling-to-breathe-five-farm-workers-died-of-heat-stroke-in-sweltering-northern-cape-20230122">have died from heat stroke</a> in January. At least <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/south-asias-intense-heat-wave-sign-things-come-rcna30239">90 people died in India and Pakistan</a> in May 2022 during a devastating heatwave.</p>
<p>The situation is only going to get worse. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/about/frequently-asked-questions/keyfaq3/">warns</a> that “globally, the percentage of the population exposed to deadly heat stress is projected to increase from today’s 30% to 48%-76% by the end of the century, depending on future warming levels and location”.</p>
<p>We wanted to create a detailed picture of when and where heat stress occurs in southern Africa. By applying a global gridded dataset of a human thermal comfort index, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.8009">we found</a> that there has been a consistent change in thermal comfort – the human body’s experience of the outdoor thermal environment – from the 1970s to today. Simply put, southern Africans are experiencing heat stress more often than in 1979.</p>
<p>Given that global temperatures are <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/about/frequently-asked-questions/keyfaq3/">set to rise</a> in the coming years and decades, these findings are worrying. Warmer temperatures will mean that regions that were classified as having “favourable” thermal comfort will more regularly be classified as regions of “thermal stress”. Heatwaves have been projected to occur more frequently, and to be more intense.</p>
<h2>Measuring thermal comfort (or stress)</h2>
<p>Over the past two decades, scientists from across the world have developed the <a href="https://utci.lobelia.earth/what-is-utci">Universal Thermal Climate Index</a>. It has advanced our ability to model human thermal comfort levels, ranging from cold stress to heat stress. Earlier thermal comfort indices typically only modelled heat stress because they mainly measured the combined effects of humidity and temperature to calculate an equivalent temperature. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506300/original/file-20230125-16-cpv882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Temperature extremes can put people’s health at risk. Authors supplied.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This equivalent temperature would essentially measure how we feel in relation to the surrounding environment. For example, at 5pm on 23 January, Johannesburg’s outdoor air temperature was 29˚C; relative humidity was 30%; the sky was clear and there was a gentle breeze of 16km/h. </p>
<p>For someone outside, the equivalent temperature would have been slightly higher than the outdoor temperature (<a href="https://utci.lobelia.earth/images/what-is-utci/global-diff.png">possibly as high as 32˚C</a>), largely due to the effect of relative humidity and limited wind chill.</p>
<p>The Universal Thermal Climate Index considers a wider range of factors that influence thermal comfort than its predecessors. In addition to air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed, it also includes radiant heat, a measure of how hot we feel when standing in the sun rather than in the shade. </p>
<p>The index is built for humans navigating the real world: it includes a clothing model and an exertion model. </p>
<p>During the current southern African heatwave, for instance, the model assumes that nobody is dressed in a fuzzy jersey. In winter, it assumes nobody in countries like Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Eswatini, Lesotho and South Africa is wearing shorts and a T-shirt.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the inclusion of all these factors means that the Universal Thermal Climate Index is a more accurate and realistic indicator of the level of thermal comfort (or discomfort) perceived by the human body.</p>
<h2>Southern African application</h2>
<p>To apply the Universal Thermal Climate Index to southern Africa, we drew data from the <a href="https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/derived-utci-historical?tab=overview">ERA5-HEAT</a> data collection, which provides an hourly dataset, of the equivalent temperature derived from the index, for 1940 to present; it is produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.</p>
<p>We zoomed into the time period 1979-2021 and considered thermal comfort at annual, seasonal and monthly scales. Over these scales, we calculated the average climatology, and investigated changes and year-to-year variability patterns in day-time, night-time and daily average equivalent temperatures across southern Africa.</p>
<p>We found that heat stress occurs most widely during the summer months (December to March); cold stress occurs mainly during the winter months (June to August). Heat stress was, as one would expect, most common during the day and cold stress more common at night.</p>
<p>Drilling further into the data, we discovered that, from September to March, more than 85% of the subcontinent experiences day-time heat stress. Over parts of the Northern Cape in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, day-time heat stress can reach very strong, and potentially dangerous, heat stress levels during these months. </p>
<p>From May to August, our results showed that more than 80% of southern Africa experiences night-time cold stress, and over much of South Africa night-time cold stress can reach moderate cold stress. In short, it’s unusual for people in the region to feel extremely cold and fairly common in certain months to feel extremely hot, especially outside.</p>
<h2>Going forward: why it’s bad news</h2>
<p>Everyone in southern Africa is at risk of heat stress. But children, the elderly, and those with underlying comorbidities are more vulnerable. </p>
<p>Those working outdoors, like farm and construction workers, are especially vulnerable because there’s little that can be done to adapt to and cope with heat stress while working outdoors during the day-time. <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2023-01-22-heat-stroke-deaths-department-suggests-working-early-late-hours/">Adjusting work hours</a> to avoid peak heat hours is one measure that could be applied.</p>
<p>There are also some coping mechanisms you could apply in your daily life. Limit your exposure to the sun by moving to shade or indoors to a well-ventilated or air-conditioned room. Keep hydrated (with water), avoid strenuous activities (like sports or excessive manual labour), wear lightweight protective clothing, a hat and sunblock, and, if you feel ill, seek medical attention.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Roffe works for the Agricultural Research Council. She receives funding from the National Research Foundation, South Africa. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Fitchett receives funding from the National Research Foundation</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adriaan Van Der Walt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Simply put, southern Africans are experiencing heat stress more often than in 1979.
Sarah Roffe, Researcher, Agricultural Research Council
Adriaan Van Der Walt, Senior Lecturer of Physical Geography and GIS, University of the Free State
Jennifer Fitchett, Professor of Physical Geography, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197200
2023-01-19T14:10:44Z
2023-01-19T14:10:44Z
Ancient poop offers unusual insight into animal behaviour
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503978/original/file-20230111-27936-qzs82w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One day this fresh elephant dung could be a coprolite helping scientists understand the past.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Silarock/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some people are annoyed when they encounter a fresh pile of dung while out on a walk in nature. Others are excited because it points to the recent visit of a particular kind of animal. But some scientists, myself included, may just be disappointed that the dung isn’t fossilised.</p>
<p>That’s because coprolites – fossilised scat – are palaeontological <a href="https://theconversation.com/my-job-is-full-of-fossilised-poop-but-theres-nothing-icky-about-ichnology-182906">treasure troves</a>. They can provide all sorts of information about the animal that deposited them, including the environment they lived in, what they ate and what the climate and vegetation were like.</p>
<p>Over the past decade, our research team has identified more than 300 vertebrate tracksites in aeolianites (cemented sand dunes) and cemented beach deposits on the Cape south coast of South Africa. They date back to the <a href="https://www.livescience.com/40311-pleistocene-epoch.html">Pleistocene epoch</a>, which started about 2.6 million years ago and ended around 11,700 years ago. But it took us a long time to realise that we shouldn’t just be looking for depressions (tracks) in the rock surfaces we study; we should also be on the lookout for raised features. These, it turns out, are often coprolites.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://meridian.allenpress.com/jcr/article-abstract/doi/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-22-00063.1/488606/Coprolites-in-Cemented-Pleistocene-Deposits-on-the?redirectedFrom=fulltext">recent paper</a> we describe a number of firsts. Our findings are the first of their kind from southern African aeolianites. We’ve also recorded the first known instances of coprolites belonging to a Nile crocodile, and to an African elephant. And we discovered a site where roaming elephants may have repeatedly disturbed small animals, probably mongooses or genets, that were answering the call of nature.</p>
<p>These discoveries, along with our previous research, combine to create a picture of an ancient landscape so scientists can better understand what came before. Looking back can also help us understand how and when things changed and what role factors like climate or the arrival of humans played in those changes. </p>
<h2>The new sites</h2>
<p>It took one particularly obvious example to alert us to what we had been missing by not considering coprolites as study material. On an aeolianite surface near the town of Knysna, about 500km from Cape Town, we spotted 130 dark nodules, between 2cm and 3cm in size. They formed a clear contrast to the much lighter surrounding surface, on which four tracks of a medium-sized bovid (probably an antelope called a bontebok) were evident.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/my-job-is-full-of-fossilised-poop-but-theres-nothing-icky-about-ichnology-182906">My job is full of fossilised poop, but there's nothing icky about ichnology</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503615/original/file-20230109-9439-ckqb1l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503615/original/file-20230109-9439-ckqb1l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503615/original/file-20230109-9439-ckqb1l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503615/original/file-20230109-9439-ckqb1l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503615/original/file-20230109-9439-ckqb1l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503615/original/file-20230109-9439-ckqb1l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503615/original/file-20230109-9439-ckqb1l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503615/original/file-20230109-9439-ckqb1l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">130 coprolites, probably made by a bontebok, in a fossilised trackway.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Helm</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The nodules were evenly spread over a distance of more than a metre, and a couple of them actually lay within the tracks. They were slightly flattened, suggesting that they had been lightly compressed by overlying dune layers while they were still malleable. A sample for dating from a nearby rock revealed that the site was around 76,000 years old. </p>
<p>It was our first coprolite site and it was an unprecedented finding. Bovid coprolites are extremely rare and an open-air site even more so. In southern Africa, coprolites are usually found in caves and rock shelters, in scavenger dens or archaeological deposits.</p>
<p>Also, we had luck on our side: the site is usually covered by metres of sand, and is only occasionally exposed.</p>
<p>Remarkably, close by we found a second site, but with very different characteristics. In this case we noted about 50 small tracks on a rock surface, on which were plastered about 30 raised features, many of which were cylindrical and hollow (characteristic features of some coprolites). In the low cliffs immediately above this surface we found similar coprolites in six layers in a vertical height of 2.6cm. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503588/original/file-20230109-7616-vqurx9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503588/original/file-20230109-7616-vqurx9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503588/original/file-20230109-7616-vqurx9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503588/original/file-20230109-7616-vqurx9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503588/original/file-20230109-7616-vqurx9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503588/original/file-20230109-7616-vqurx9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503588/original/file-20230109-7616-vqurx9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cylindrical, slightly hollow coprolites of a small carnivore that formed part of a latrine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Helm</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The evidence was clear: this was the site of a latrine (a place that an animal returns to repeatedly to defecate), which had been used for a substantial period of time. We could not identify the tracks to family level, as many small carnivorans leave tracks that are similar in size and shape. However, the nature of the latrine suggests that a genet or mongoose might have been responsible. </p>
<p>To add to the interest, deep elephant tracks were a common phenomenon on these same surfaces, leading us to imagine the latrine-maker having to dodge trampling by African elephants at indelicate moments. </p>
<h2>More analysis needed</h2>
<p>We found two other coprolite sites. One featured both African elephant tracks and coprolites – the first of their kind ever described. The other presented us with a crocodile coprolite right beside crocodile swim traces. This is the first ever record of a Nile crocodile coprolite; it was probably deposited underwater in a shallow lagoonal environment (crocodiles defecate either on land or in water). </p>
<p>We sent samples to university laboratories for different tests, including analysis of pollen and phytoliths (microscopic silica structures found in plants). Positive results would have aided in helping us interpret the Pleistocene environment and climate. Unfortunately, as often happens, all our coprolites were “sterile”, with no pollen or phytoliths to be found. </p>
<p>Our response is to keep trying: in 2022 we identified a number of other coprolites on the same coastline, including those of the extinct long-horned buffalo. These appear to have more internal structure, which augurs well for detecting phytoliths and pollen, and perhaps even evidence of bone fragments in the case of carnivores. </p>
<p>We hope that the samples we submit this time will deliver more positive results and will shed new light on the Pleistocene palaeoenvironment of coastal southern Africa.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197200/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Helm does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Studying fossil dung offers another avenue for scientists trying to recreate ancient landscapes.
Charles Helm, Research Associate, African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193813
2023-01-05T19:23:08Z
2023-01-05T19:23:08Z
The pandemic has shown Southern Africa can do staycations: could this momentum hold in the long run?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502552/original/file-20221222-4087-gglfc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C2488%2C1384&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Chapel of Nossa Senhora do Baluarte is just one of the attractions on Mozambique Island. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/599/gallery/">Francesco Monteiro/UNESCO</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Covid-19 pandemic has had a dramatic effect on the tourism industry worldwide. International arrivals dropped by <a href="https://www.unwto.org/impact-assessment-of-the-Covid-19-outbreak-on-international-tourism">74% globally in 2020</a> and tourist accommodations, businesses, borders and heritage sites had to close, resulting in a loss of income for those working in the tourism sectors. In Africa, the impact was deeply felt. In Kenya, tourist arrivals shrank from nearly 620,000 in April 2019 to 393,000 the following April. In South Africa, they fell from 10.2 million in 2019 to 2.8 million in 2020, and while almost 174,000 visited Tanzania in the third trimester of 2019, only 13,000 did so during the same period of 2020.</p>
<p>Yet is this situation been such a bad thing? A <a href="https://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/wurpubs/574828">number of studies</a> have lamented that international tourism has often generated an unequal distribution of economic benefits, increased social disparities, marginalised local communities, and exploited local resources. This is particularly the case in Africa, where tourism has mainly benefited international and foreign companies and individuals, with the core tools of air travels and e-commerce concentrated in the Global North.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://research.kent.ac.uk/gcdc/gcdc-final-report-sustainable-development-poverty-alleviation-in-sub-saharan-africa-through-heritage-tourism-the-creative-industries/">part of our research</a>, we wanted to understand whether and how the Covid-19 pandemic has been and could be used to transform the tourism sector into a more sustainable field in Southern Africa. Particularly important for us was how tourism could be improved to meet the needs and expectations of local communities in terms of enhanced living standards and quality of life. Another aspect was to explore how to safeguard the environment for the health and well-being of locals.</p>
<p>Interviews were carried out with tourism professionals, local community members, and heritage site managers at the World Heritage sites of <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1055/">Lamu Old Town</a> (Kenya), the <a href="https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/silk-road-themes/underwater-heritage/stone-town-zanzibar">Stone Town of Zanzibar</a> and <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/403/">Kilimanjaro National Park</a> (Tanzania), and <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/916/">Robben Island</a> and <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1007/">Cape Floral Region</a> (in South Africa). Professor Labadi’s latest book <a href="https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/185111"><em>Rethinking Heritage for Sustainable Development</em></a> (UCL Press, 2022), provides additional data and analyses.</p>
<h2>Changing needs and expectations</h2>
<p>The global health crisis has shown the negative consequences of an overreliance on international visitors as a <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000377667?posInSet=1&queryId=bd741d77-d5ef-4c62-b83b-bfaf040b7b32">primary source of tourism-generated income</a>. It has shown how visits of heritage sites should be diversified to make the tourism industry more resilient and sustainable. A popular suggestion research participants made for overcoming this issue is to stimulate domestic tourism, and regional tourism from neighbouring countries. Some of the tourism professionals interviewed, particularly in Kenya, pointed out that since the country came out of lockdown in August 2020, domestic tourism has been blossoming, with many Kenyans visiting the Maasai Mara National Reserve, and holidaying in Lamu and other coastal destinations.</p>
<p>Changing the profile of tourists is a long-term challenge. As explained by a lodge manager in Kenya, exclusive hotels would rather have a low rate of occupancy, rather than slash their prices and attract different, less privileged people and/or accommodate a larger number of people. Currently, offers target Western and international visitors through a focus on colonial history, particularly for cultural heritage destinations. Attracting local, national and regional visitors for “staycations” would require changing the tourism maps and attractions, so that they focus on regional, national and local history.</p>
<p>This will not happen overnight, and attempts to change those maps and destinations have already faced serious challenges. In the case of Namibia, the government and international community have sought to refocus tourism on the country’s war of independence and indigenous communities rather than German colonial history. These efforts have faced challenges, including lack of support from the private sector as well as inadequate infrastructures and facilities.</p>
<h2>Travel bounces back</h2>
<p>With wide-scale vaccination and reduced rates of contamination, international travel is on the rise again. Unfortunately, some projects funded by international aid have fallen back on recipes from before the pandemic, providing training and capacity-building activities so that locals can cater to the needs of international visitors. Instead of helping to change the narrative and build a more resilient sector based on local, national and regional visitations, the international community is back to promoting the unsustainable model that was dominant before the pandemic.</p>
<p>One positive aspect of the pandemic has been a greater environmental sustainability, the reduction of pollution, of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions, and a decrease of international tourism. Considering that these benefits can help with tackling the climate crisis, the world post-pandemic and the future of the World Heritage Convention, should promote a world beyond tourism.</p>
<p>On Mozambique Island, a <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/599/">World Heritage site</a> in the country’s north, governmental and international projects aim to promote and increase tourism. However, a university has recently opened on the island, so why not take this opportunity to provide goods and services based on local resources, to respond to the needs of students? Not only would this bottom-up approach fulfil several <a href="https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals">sustainable development goals</a>, including education, reducing inequalities and boosting gender equality, but it would also provide a function for historic and vacant buildings on the island, in dire need of a new life.</p>
<p>Such a move beyond tourism, that adopts a more systemic, integrated and bottom-up approach aligned with local needs would help World Heritage sites to be better aligned with the fight against climate change, environmental protection, heritage conservation, poverty reduction and health and well-being.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was cowritten by Francesca Giliberto, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Leeds. Sophia Labadi’s latest book, <a href="https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/185111">“Rethinking Heritage for Sustainable Heritage”</a>, has been released in open access by UCL Press.</em></p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485372/original/file-20220919-20-pguqfq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485372/original/file-20220919-20-pguqfq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485372/original/file-20220919-20-pguqfq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485372/original/file-20220919-20-pguqfq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485372/original/file-20220919-20-pguqfq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485372/original/file-20220919-20-pguqfq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485372/original/file-20220919-20-pguqfq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/next50/">50th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention</a> (16 November 2022): World Heritage as a source of resilience, humanity and innovation.</em></p>
<p>_</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193813/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophia Labadi a reçu des financements de Arts and Humanities Research Council from the United Kingdom for her research on Rethinking Heritage for Sustainable Development. Sophia Labadi and Francesca Giliberto received funding from the University of Kent and the Global Challenges Research Fund for the research on Heritage beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.</span></em></p>
The Covid-19 pandemic has the potential to make tourism more sustainable in Africa, improving the lives of local communities rather than just catering to international visitors.
Sophia Labadi, Professor of Heritage, University of Kent
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/194372
2022-12-11T08:07:50Z
2022-12-11T08:07:50Z
When did humans first start to speak? How language evolved in Africa
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499312/original/file-20221206-5419-8iau2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Descendants of the indigenous San people in the Kalahari Desert.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eric Lafforgue/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Image</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>When did humans first begin to speak, which speech sounds were uttered first, and when did language evolve from those humble beginnings? These questions have long fascinated people, especially in tracing the evolution of modern humans and what makes us different from other animals. George Poulos has spent most of his academic career researching the phonetic and linguistic structures of African languages. In his <a href="https://www.amazon.com/ORIGINS-HUMAN-SPEECH-LANGUAGE/dp/B096ZZ3YKR/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=">latest book</a>, On the Origins of Human Speech and Language, he proposes new timelines for the origins of language. We asked him about his findings.</em></p>
<h2>When and where did human speech evolve?</h2>
<p>Research carried out for this <a href="https://www.amazon.com/ORIGINS-HUMAN-SPEECH-LANGUAGE/dp/B096ZZ3YKR/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=">study</a> indicates that the first speech sounds were uttered about 70,000 years ago, and not hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago, as is sometimes claimed in the <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aaw3916">literature</a>. </p>
<p>While my research has been primarily based on phonetic (speech sounds) and linguistic (language) analyses, it has also taken into account other disciplines, like palaeoanthropology (the study of human evolution), archaeology (analysing fossils and other remains), anatomy (the body) and genetics (the study of genes). </p>
<p>The transformation of <em><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Homo-sapiens">Homo sapiens</a></em> (modern humans) from a “non-speaking” to a “speaking” species happened at about the same time as our hunter-gatherer ancestors <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/incredible-human-journey-9781408810910/">migrated</a> out of Africa. </p>
<p>When those early adventurers migrated beyond the African continent, they took with them the greatest gift ever acquired by our species – the ability to produce speech sounds, enabled by the creation of a “speech” gene. It was that ability, more than anything else, that catapulted them into a world in which they would dominate all other species. </p>
<h2>Which speech sounds were first uttered?</h2>
<p>The very first speech sounds ever produced were not just random involuntary sounds. Underlying these speech sounds was a fledgling network that connected certain areas of the brain to different parts of the vocal tract. Various anatomical and environmental factors contributed to <em>Homo sapiens’</em> ability to produce speech sounds for the first time ever. </p>
<p>Another interesting factor was an apparent change in the <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Human+Brain+Evolution:+The+Influence+of+Freshwater+and+Marine+Food+Resources-p-9780470452684">diet</a> of our early ancestors and the possible effect it might have had on the human brain. The change to what was essentially a marine diet rich in omega 3 fatty acids occurred when those early humans migrated from the interior to the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-sea-saved-humanity-2012-12-07/">coastlines</a> of the continent. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499319/original/file-20221206-16-59tzsq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499319/original/file-20221206-16-59tzsq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499319/original/file-20221206-16-59tzsq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499319/original/file-20221206-16-59tzsq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499319/original/file-20221206-16-59tzsq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499319/original/file-20221206-16-59tzsq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499319/original/file-20221206-16-59tzsq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499319/original/file-20221206-16-59tzsq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">George Poulos</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The vocal tract developed gradually over a long period, and the different stages in its development determined the types of sounds that could be produced. At the time of the “out of Africa” migration, the only part of the vocal tract that was <a href="https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/49-2/Lieberman.pdf">physiologically developed</a> to produce speech sounds was the oral cavity (mouth area).</p>
<p>The only speech sound that could be produced entirely in the mouth at the time was the so-called “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/ORIGINS-HUMAN-SPEECH-LANGUAGE/dp/B096ZZ3YKR/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=">click</a>” sound. The airstream could be controlled within the mouth. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6WO5XabD-s">Clicks</a> are the only known speech sounds that behave in this manner. They still occur today in a few African languages – predominantly in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Khoisan">Khoisan</a> languages spoken in parts of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. </p>
<p>Clicks occur in less than 1% of the languages of the world. They also occur in a few isolated instances in East Africa and in certain languages of South Africa that adopted the clicks when they came into contact with the Khoisan. Clicks have also been noted in one instance outside the African continent, in an extinct ceremonial language register known as Damin in Australia. </p>
<p>An example of a click speech sound is the so-called “kiss” (or bilabial) click where the lips are brought together, and the back part of the tongue is raised against the back of the mouth. The lips are then sucked slightly inwards, and when released a click sound is produced.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499301/original/file-20221206-3886-zfofy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A diagram of the human head showing the mouth and three stages of sound being produced." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499301/original/file-20221206-3886-zfofy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499301/original/file-20221206-3886-zfofy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499301/original/file-20221206-3886-zfofy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499301/original/file-20221206-3886-zfofy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499301/original/file-20221206-3886-zfofy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499301/original/file-20221206-3886-zfofy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499301/original/file-20221206-3886-zfofy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The production of the alveolar click.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy George Poulos</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My research suggests that the “kiss” click was probably the first speech sound ever produced by <em>Homo sapiens</em>. As time moved on, the various parts of the tongue became more and more manoeuvrable, making it possible for other click sounds to be produced in the mouth as well. </p>
<h2>So, when did the other speech sounds evolve?</h2>
<p>This study demonstrates that the production of all the other human speech sounds (the other consonants, as well as all the vowels) began to take place from approximately 50,000 years ago. This was dependent on the gradual development of a <a href="https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/49-2/Lieberman.pdf">well-proportioned vocal tract</a> which included the mouth, the area behind the mouth (the pharynx), the nasal passages, and the all-important larynx with its vocal cords. Three airstream mechanisms evolved for the production of all speech sounds, and they evolved gradually in successive stages. </p>
<h2>How did humans communicate before clicks?</h2>
<p>Before this, the only sounds humans could produce were the so-called “vocalisations” or vocal calls. Those were imitations or mimics of various actions or sounds that humans were exposed to in their environment. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-first-ever-dictionary-of-south-africas-kaaps-language-has-launched-why-it-matters-165485">The first-ever dictionary of South Africa's Kaaps language has launched - why it matters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>They may have also been involuntary sounds which expressed various emotions or the involuntary sounds made when yawning, sneezing etcetera. These must not be confused with the very intricate mechanisms that are involved in the production of the speech sounds which form the foundations of what we recognise today as human language. </p>
<h2>And the use of full grammatical language?</h2>
<p>As the different speech sounds evolved, they combined in various ways to form syllables and words. And these in turn combined with each other in different ways to generate the structural types of grammatical sentences that characterise modern languages.</p>
<p>The initial ability to produce speech sounds was the spark that led to the gradual evolution of language. Grammatical language did not evolve overnight. There was no “single silver bullet” that generated language. </p>
<p>The indication is that human language was a fairly late acquisition of <em>Homo sapiens</em>. It is argued in this study that language, as we know it today, probably began to emerge about 20,000 years ago. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499987/original/file-20221209-24-mesb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in traditional hunting clothing crouches to apply paint with his finger on a boy child's cheeks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499987/original/file-20221209-24-mesb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499987/original/file-20221209-24-mesb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499987/original/file-20221209-24-mesb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499987/original/file-20221209-24-mesb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499987/original/file-20221209-24-mesb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499987/original/file-20221209-24-mesb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499987/original/file-20221209-24-mesb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A San elder paints a child’s face.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hoberman/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We observed earlier that the first speech sounds were uttered by the ancestors of the speakers of present-day Khoisan languages. In the light of this observation, it would be reasonable to assume that they had a head start in being the first to speak a grammatical language as well. </p>
<p>To date there is no substantial phonetic or linguistic evidence to indicate that other species such as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Neanderthal">Neanderthals</a> could have ever spoken a grammatical language. They did not have the <a href="https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/49-2/Lieberman.pdf">required vocal tract dimensions</a> for speech sound production, let alone the morphological and syntactic structures that were required for grammatical language. </p>
<h2>Why does this all matter?</h2>
<p>The utterance of the very first speech sounds about 70,000 years ago was the beginning of a journey that was to lead to the evolution of human language. </p>
<p>Language has provided the medium of communication that has played a pivotal role in the momentous developments that have taken place from the earliest known “written” records that we have access to (some 5,500 years ago), to the highly sophisticated technological advances that we are witnessing today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194372/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Poulos does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The first speech sounds were uttered about 70,000 years ago and not hundreds of thousands of years ago as is sometimes claimed.
George Poulos, Professor Emeritus, University of South Africa
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/192106
2022-10-12T14:08:31Z
2022-10-12T14:08:31Z
Mozambique had no data about snakebites. Our new study filled the gap – and the results are scary
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488755/original/file-20221007-7785-4xd2be.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Stiletto Snake is one of the species found in Mozambique. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">extinctorshy.org - Ali Puruleia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year between 20,000 and 32,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa die after being <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/snakebite">bitten by snakes</a>. That’s more than five times the number of deaths caused by <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/hippos-flooding-fishing-covid-collide-kenya">hippos</a>, <a href="http://www.crocodile-attack.info/">crocodiles</a>, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/448169/deadliest-creatures-in-the-world-by-number-of-human-deaths/">elephants, lions and buffalo</a> combined. </p>
<p>At least, that’s what the available data suggests. But, the World Health Organization (WHO) <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/324838/9789241515641-eng.pdf#page=17">acknowledges</a>, that statistics – as well as figures related to non-fatal injury and disability caused by snakebites – are incomplete. Not all snakebite victims are treated in hospitals, especially in poorer countries and communities. Some may be treated by traditional doctors. Others may die before receiving any treatment.</p>
<p>But without accurate data, it is difficult to see how the WHO will meet its <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/324838/9789241515641-eng.pdf">global target</a> of reducing death and disability from snakebites by 50% by 2030. Without it, it’s difficult to prioritise which countries or regions require financial resources or antivenom, for instance.</p>
<p>We wanted to find a different way to quantify snakebites. So my colleagues and I from Mozambique’s Lúrio University embarked on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004101012200277X">a household survey</a> across nine rural villages in Cabo Delgado Northern Mozambique. Before this, the only existing snakebite data for Mozambique was extrapolated from incidents in other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0041010118311802">suggested</a> there were 6996 snakebite cases and 319 deaths annually in Mozambique.</p>
<p>Our results offer a very different and extremely worrying picture. From our data we extrapolated snakebite figures for the entire area and for Mozambique as a whole. Despite being an underestimation (since we favoured a conservative approach) they increase snakebite incidence levels ten-fold and the number of deaths by 30-fold. </p>
<p>Urgent and widespread surveys are needed to further assess the full extent of snakebites in sub-Saharan Africa, explore regional patterns and develop mitigation plans. Obtaining this sort of data is critical: the WHO has placed snakebite in <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)31751-8/fulltext">category A</a> (the most severe or urgent) of neglected tropical diseases. Its 2030 target underscores that this is a priority area. But how can this metric be checked without accurate data?</p>
<h2>Gathering data</h2>
<p>We gathered data from 1037 households. We asked about snakebite incidents in people’s own homes and among their neighbours, as well as details about the species of snake, the symptoms, and what sort of treatment the victim received, if any. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/snakebites-still-exact-a-high-toll-in-africa-a-shortage-of-antivenoms-is-to-blame-80982">Snakebites still exact a high toll in Africa. A shortage of antivenoms is to blame</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There were 296 reported snakebites and most (60%) were treated exclusively by traditional doctors; 15% went to hospitals for treatment and 25% died before reaching any doctor. </p>
<p>Using a conservative estimation where we assume our results to be extrapolatable for the whole of rural Mozambique, but considering snakebites in urban areas to be inexistent, we propose that every year in Cabo Delgado, at least 6124 people are victims of snakebites. Of these at least 791 result in deaths. </p>
<p>In Mozambique, we extrapolated that every year at least 69,261 people are victims of snakebite; at least 8950 result in death, meaning that one in eight snakebites is fatal. <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1268021/main-causes-of-deaths-in-mozambique/">For comparison</a>, 37,000 people die in Mozambique (which is home to more than 30 million people) each year because of respiratory infections and tuberculosis while 21,000 die from malaria.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.resakss.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/MozSAKSS_ATOR_2010.pdf">Most</a> (68%) of the population live in rural areas and practice subsistence farming for a living. This means that millions of people are exposed to snakebites. The country is home to at least <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13002-021-00493-6">14 snake species of medical importance</a> – those whose bites can kill or lead to limb amputation. This is a fairly standard number of such snakes for the continent’s less tropical regions.</p>
<p>The number of medically important snakes in the country, the percentage of people living in rural areas, and the total absence of snakebite incidence data, make Mozambique a good place to focus on when trying to quantify and model snakebite data.</p>
<h2>Who gets bitten and where</h2>
<p>Some of our other key findings included:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Most bites occurred on farms and during the rainy season (December to April).</p></li>
<li><p>The type of snake was important when people were choosing between hospitals or traditional doctors. Those bitten by dangerous species such as the <a href="https://www.africansnakebiteinstitute.com/snake/puff-adder/">Puff Adder</a> were usually taken to hospitals. Bites from less dangerous species like the <a href="https://www.africansnakebiteinstitute.com/articles/beware-of-the-stiletto-snake/">Stiletto Snake</a> were taken to traditional doctors. </p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/finally-snakebite-is-getting-more-attention-as-a-tropical-health-issue-131016">Finally, snakebite is getting more attention as a tropical health issue</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One exception was made for victims of <a href="https://www.sanbi.org/animal-of-the-week/black-mamba/">Black Mambas</a>. This deadly snake has extremely fast-acting venom: its bite can kill in less than an hour. In the communities we surveyed, Black Mamba victims were usually taken to traditional doctors close to home, to avoid long trips to hospitals up to 20km away and queues at the facilities. </p>
<h2>Figures may be higher</h2>
<p>It is possible that our figures are too low. That’s because we took a conservative approach when extrapolating data – and because we assumed that every interviewee had 100% recall, as well as assuming a 0% snakebite incidence in urban areas, which make up 30% of the country.</p>
<p>So, the figures for snakebite incidence are very likely still an underestimation of the true incidence in both Cabo Delgado and Mozambique more broadly. </p>
<p>Local universities should consider using our approach to engage with communities and retrieve household data. This will help researchers and health authorities to assess the full extent of snakebites in sub-Saharan Africa, explore regional patterns and develop mitigation plans.</p>
<p>Such mitigation might include training both traditional doctors and hospital staff in snakebite treatment; public education campaigns to encourage people to use hospitals for treating snakebites; and making antivenom widely available. It may also be useful to generate local literature to guide snake identification and share first-aid measures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192106/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Even by conservative estimates, Mozambique’s snakebite figures are far higher than previously thought.
Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq, Post-doc, University of Copenhagen
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/185480
2022-07-31T06:44:32Z
2022-07-31T06:44:32Z
Footprints take science a step closer to understanding southern Africa’s dinosaurs
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476406/original/file-20220727-1332-rnl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=308%2C232%2C1298%2C783&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A site in Tsiokane (Lesotho) where diverse tridactyl theropod tracks are preserved.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2020.1810681">Author supplied</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dinosaurs have captured people’s imaginations more than any other ancient creatures. These reptiles – some large, some small; some carnivores and others herbivores – rose and dominated the world’s landscapes for more than 135 million years during a period known as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Mesozoic-Era">Mesozoic</a>.</p>
<p>Today, dinosaur fossils can be found in many parts of the world, contained in rock successions. These are a series of strata or rock units in chronological order. South Africa and Lesotho’s main Karoo Basin, for example, contains plentiful dinosaur fossils in the rock succession that formed <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825219305586">between 220 million and 183 million years ago</a> during the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic period. These ancient remains include body fossils (bones) and trace fossils, which are <a href="https://theconversation.com/my-job-is-full-of-fossilised-poop-but-theres-nothing-icky-about-ichnology-182906">markings</a> in the ancient sediments in the form of footprints and burrows in the ground. </p>
<p>Body fossils can assist in recreating the ancient life forms, understanding what they looked like, their size, and even how they grew and evolved. The problem is that intact body fossils can be rare in some areas. Bone fragments alone cannot help scientists to piece together the puzzle of ancient life. The traces of animals offer another avenue of study.</p>
<p>In the main Karoo Basin, bone fossils of carnivorous dinosaurs called theropods are incredibly scarce. But their footprints, preserved in the rocks during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic, are abundant. These fossil footprints are a treasure chest of information. They can reveal what organism made the tracks – different animals have different footprint shapes. They offer clues to the creature’s behaviour – hopping on two legs would leave a different footprint pattern than walking on four. They also provide evidence about the substrate conditions when the creature walked, such as whether it sank into wet sand or was standing firmly on dry gravel.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.925313/full">recent study</a>, our team looked at around 200 footprints attributed to theropods across a time span of about 35 million years. We wanted to understand how dinosaurs’ feet changed through time in southern Africa. The time interval we studied is critical in dinosaur history because it captures a mass extinction event and the ancient ecosystems’ subsequent recovery period.</p>
<p>Our findings reveal that over time, our local theropods became larger and had a greater diversity than what the body fossil record could suggest. </p>
<h2>Footprints: a closer inspection</h2>
<p>To begin our study, we first looked for diagnostic clues to tell theropod footprints apart from the tracks of other ancient animals. Theropod footprints typically preserve three, slender toe impressions where the footprint is longer than it is wide. The middle toe has a pronounced forward projection. These footprints also commonly preserve fierce claw mark impressions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474643/original/file-20220718-71797-pw0u3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474643/original/file-20220718-71797-pw0u3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474643/original/file-20220718-71797-pw0u3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474643/original/file-20220718-71797-pw0u3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474643/original/file-20220718-71797-pw0u3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474643/original/file-20220718-71797-pw0u3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474643/original/file-20220718-71797-pw0u3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Natural casts of theropod tracks preserved on a cave ceiling, Tsikoane (Lesotho). Insets of dinosaur tracks from Tsikoane (top) and Roma (bottom).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Figure by author/Outlines of Meganosaurus (top) and Dracovenator (bottom) are adapted from Ornitholestes (2018) and Martz (2012), respectively.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We know the shape of their feet and how they moved from reconstructions based on theropod body fossil material. Scientists have also learned about these aspects of dinosaurs by <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018204006728">making modern footprints</a> using their closest living relatives: birds.</p>
<p>Once we identified the theropod footprints in the field, we quantified their footprint shape by measuring a set of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pala.12373">standard parameters</a> agreed on by the global dinosaur trace fossil scientist community. Based on these measurements across time and space, we were able to draw conclusions about theropod foot and body size evolution. This is possible because there is a direct link between foot length, and therefore footprint length, and body size (specifically hip heights and body lengths). </p>
<p>Our study recorded a 40% increase in the maximum and average footprint length in the studied time interval of 35 million years. Furthermore, we observed that larger bodied theropods were present, though rare, in the Late Triassic and that they became <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-the-giant-dinosaur-that-roamed-southern-africa-200-million-years-ago-86004">even larger</a> and more common in the Early Jurassic, during the recovery period following the mass extinction event. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-the-giant-dinosaur-that-roamed-southern-africa-200-million-years-ago-86004">Meet the giant dinosaur that roamed southern Africa 200 million years ago</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These observations echo trends recorded elsewhere in the world. We also observed that through time, theropod footprints became more prevalent. This may suggest that the carnivore population thrived during the recovery period. This change in abundance might, however, also have been influenced by changes in the ancient environment from meandering rivers with lushly vegetated floodplains to shallower ephemeral streams and lakes under dryland conditions. This newer setting is more conducive to preserving footprints because deposits in the soil are less likely to erode.</p>
<p>Based on our measurements, we identified three distinct types of footprint shapes that may be attributed to the three different theropods that roamed the landscape in the Early Jurassic. This means that southern Africa’s theropod footprint record reflects a greater theropod diversity than the scant carnivorous dinosaur body fossil record, which only preserves fragmentary material of two theropods, <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39674608.pdf">Dracovenator</a> and <a href="https://core.ac.uk/display/39675047;%20https://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/15970">Megapnosaurus</a>. </p>
<h2>More to explore</h2>
<p>Another key finding centred on changes to the form of theropods’ footprints. One is that the forward projection of the middle toes (how much further forward it is than the outer two toes) decreased over time. Another change is that small local theropods had shorter middle toe projections than their <a href="https://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.baztech-article-BUS6-0019-0023">contemporaneous North American equivalents</a>.</p>
<p>These observations require more investigation to better understand what these changes mean, especially because the middle toe projection has <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pala.12449">been linked</a> to an animal’s running ability. </p>
<p>Our research illustrates the importance of the understudied fossil footprint record in studying ancient life and how it complements the more explored body fossil record. Make no bones about it: evolutionary changes among southern African dinosaurs can be tracked by examining their footprints.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research for this study was supported by grants obtained by EB as principal investigator: DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (GENUS), NRF Competitive Programme, African Origins Platform. During the research period MA was supported by the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (GENUS) and FK was supported by ERDF/Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation-State Research Agency. </span></em></p>
Fossil footprints are a treasure chest of information.
Miengah Abrahams, Lecturer, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/185475
2022-06-29T14:36:15Z
2022-06-29T14:36:15Z
How the music of an ancient rock painting was brought to life
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469856/original/file-20220620-16-hhlhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C258%2C3317%2C1914&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A section of the Cederberg rock painting, digitally enhanced to emphasise red-ochreous colours.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Neil Rusch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Archaeologists spend a lot of time examining the remains of distant pasts, which includes the study of rock paintings. This is largely visual work – but sometimes we can “hear” the ancient past using acoustic methods.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://theconversation.com/pasha-36-the-sounds-of-our-ancestors-123782">archaeoacoustic research</a> is focused on bringing to life sounds made by people living in the past. No aural record remains but people did dance, sing and clap. Instruments either no longer exist or are extremely rare. One exception are the gong rocks, known as <a href="https://www.natureislouder.thepowerstation.co.za/post/soundtrack-of-the-world-sonorous-stones-and-the-rock-of-ages">lithophones</a>, which ring when struck and produce purposeful, percussive sounds. Occasionally, unfamiliar and rare musical instruments are depicted in rock paintings. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102511">new study</a> we turned our ears to a rock painting in the Cederberg Mountains in South Africa’s Western Cape province. The human figures in this painting have previously been interpreted as healers holding fly-whisks and doing a trance-dance. Fly-whisks were an important accessory for the dance because they were thought to keep arrows of sickness at bay. </p>
<p>But our results suggest that the fly-whisks are in fact musical instruments of a type known as a <em>!goin !goin</em> – a name that only exists in the now extinct ǀXam language that was spoken by hunter-gatherers in central southern Africa. The <em>!goin !goin</em> is an aerophone; these instruments produce sound by creating vibrations in the air when they are spun around their axes. </p>
<p>To reach this conclusion we combined digital image recovery techniques with instruments created from life-size templates based on our findings. The eight instruments were played in a Cape Town sound studio and the sounds were recorded. Sound produced by the recreated instruments convincingly matches the sound spectrum (90 – 150 Hz) produced by a similar 19th century model of the <em>!goin !goin</em> aerophone, which is archived in the <a href="http://www.sacm.uct.ac.za/sacm/kirbycollection">Kirby Collection</a> of Musical Instruments, curated by the University of Cape Town’s College of Music.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469861/original/file-20220620-26-l5yrsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469861/original/file-20220620-26-l5yrsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469861/original/file-20220620-26-l5yrsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469861/original/file-20220620-26-l5yrsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469861/original/file-20220620-26-l5yrsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469861/original/file-20220620-26-l5yrsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469861/original/file-20220620-26-l5yrsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Instruments created using dimensions extrapolated from the Cederberg aerophone rock painting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Neil Rusch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our results suggest that <em>!goin !goin</em> type aerophones were used around or before 2000 years ago. This conclusion is based on the age of the image that is painted in the fine-line technique, which is a style of painting that disappeared with the <a href="https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-678">arrival of pastoralists</a> in the southern Africa region 2000 years ago.</p>
<p>The Cederberg painting is one of only four known examples of aerophone playing depicted in rock paintings in the southern Africa region. By contrast many paintings are identified as illustrating fly-whisks. Our findings suggest the need for greater nuance when studying rock paintings. Perhaps some of the fly-whisk depictions should be revisited with a “listening ear”?</p>
<h2>Composition</h2>
<p>The <em>!goin !goin</em> generates a distinct pulsating sound (visualised in the image below) due to the circular rotation of the player’s arm and the twisting and untwisting of the cord that attaches the rotating blade to the stick.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-our-african-ancestors-made-sound-in-the-stone-age-121142">How our African ancestors made sound in the Stone Age</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469858/original/file-20220620-26-p4dqth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469858/original/file-20220620-26-p4dqth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469858/original/file-20220620-26-p4dqth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469858/original/file-20220620-26-p4dqth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469858/original/file-20220620-26-p4dqth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469858/original/file-20220620-26-p4dqth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469858/original/file-20220620-26-p4dqth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spectrogram illustrating the pulsating charater of !goin !goin sound. Orange and yellow areas represent frequencies of high intensity, and blue the low intensity.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An unexpected finding was the compositional possibilities offered when two or more <em>!goin !goin</em> were played at the same time. Speeding up and slowing down the rotation subtly changes the sound. Two instruments, one played fast and the other slow, creates a composition. Playing in sync and out of sync adds another layer of musical creation. </p>
<p>It was not possible to play eight instruments in the sound studio at one time. An eight-instrument performance requires more space than the studio could provide. But a sound recording of three <em>!goin !goin</em> playing together suggests what group music-making with the <em>!goin !goin</em> may have sounded like. </p>
<p><audio preload="metadata" controls="controls" data-duration="15" data-image="" data-title="A sound recording of three _!goin !goin_ playing together" data-size="316021" data-source="Neil Rusch" data-source-url="" data-license="Author provided (no reuse)" data-license-url="">
<source src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/2532/reconstructed-sounds.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
</audio>
<div class="audio-player-caption">
A sound recording of three <em>!goin !goin</em> playing together.
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neil Rusch</span>, <span class="license">Author provided (no reuse)</span><span class="download"><span>309 KB</span> <a target="_blank" href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/2532/reconstructed-sounds.mp3">(download)</a></span></span>
</div></p>
<p>This compositional aspect of the instrument was not well known at all so we delved deeper. In the Special Collections <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/">archive</a> at the University of Cape Town we found an obscure description of the <em>!goin !goin</em> which confirmed, as does the Cederberg painting, that groups did play the instruments together.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>An instrument consisting of a blade of wood attached to a little stick, which is held in the hand. The performer grasping the little stick whirls the blade about in the air, producing a whirring sound. It is used by both sexes among the Bushmen [another name used for the San and today considered derogatory by some] and, at times, by a number of persons together with the view to causing rain.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>ǀXam-speaking hunter gatherers associated the sound of the <em>!goin !goin</em> with <a href="https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2017.11">honey bees</a>. They even went so far as to say that with the <em>!goin !goin</em> they could “move bees”. This complements the previous statement linking the instrument’s sound with “causing rain”. The archive statement also confirms that both men and women worked with rain, using the sound of the <em>!goin !goin</em> for this purpose.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archaeology-tells-us-about-the-music-and-sounds-made-by-africas-ancestors-143809">What archaeology tells us about the music and sounds made by Africa's ancestors</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Trance links</h2>
<p>What of the trance healing dance suggested by earlier interpretations of the Cederberg painting? It is well <a href="https://archive.org/details/mindincaveconsci0000lewi/page/n3/mode/2up">known</a> that all senses, not just vision, hallucinate in trance and that the aural hallucination of buzzing is construed as the sound of bees, rushing wind or falling water. So the painting does link to trance because of the association with bees and buzzing – but the items depicted in the painting are musical instruments, not fly-whisks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185475/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Sometimes archaeologists can “hear” the ancient past using acoustic methods.
Neil Rusch, Research Associate, University of the Witwatersrand
Sarah Wurz, Professor, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184648
2022-06-09T20:10:26Z
2022-06-09T20:10:26Z
65,000-year-old ‘stone Swiss Army knives’ show early humans had long-distance social networks
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467873/original/file-20220609-26-lmgtxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C11%2C2507%2C1681&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paloma de la Peña</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Humans are the only species to live in every environmental niche in the world – from the icesheets to the deserts, rainforests to savannahs. As individuals we are rather puny, but when we are socially connected, we are the most dominant species on the planet. </p>
<p>New <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-12677-5">evidence from stone tools in southern Africa</a> shows these social connections were stronger and wider than we had thought among our ancestors who lived around 65,000 years ago, shortly before the large “out of Africa” migration in which they began to spread across the world. </p>
<h2>Social connection and adaptation</h2>
<p>The early humans weren’t always so connected. The first humans to leave Africa <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03244-5.pdf?origin=ppub">died out</a> without this migratory success and without leaving any genetic trace among us today.</p>
<p>But for the ancestors of today’s people living outside of Africa, it was a different story. Within a few thousand years they had migrated into and adapted to every type of environmental zone across the planet.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-handful-of-prehistoric-geniuses-launched-humanitys-technological-revolution-171511">How a handful of prehistoric geniuses launched humanity's technological revolution</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Archaeologists think the development of social networks and the ability to share knowledge between different groups was the key to this success. But how do we observe these social networks in the deep past?</p>
<p>To address this question, archaeologists examine tools and other human-made objects that still survive today. We assume that the people who made those objects, like people today, were social creatures who made objects with cultural meanings. </p>
<h2>Social connectivity 65,000 years ago</h2>
<p>A small, common stone tool gave us an opportunity to test this idea in southern Africa, during a period known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howiesons_Poort">Howiesons Poort</a> around 65,000 years ago. Archaeologists call these sharp, multipurpose tools “backed artefacts”, but you can think of them as a “stone Swiss Army knife”: the kind of useful tool you carry around to do various jobs you can’t do by hand.</p>
<p>These knives are not unique to Africa. They are found across the globe and come in many different shapes. This potential variety is what makes these small blades so useful to test the hypothesis that social connections existed more than 60,000 years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467869/original/file-20220609-12-r665l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graphic with photos of stone tools and a map showing where each was found in Southern Africa." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467869/original/file-20220609-12-r665l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467869/original/file-20220609-12-r665l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467869/original/file-20220609-12-r665l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467869/original/file-20220609-12-r665l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467869/original/file-20220609-12-r665l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467869/original/file-20220609-12-r665l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467869/original/file-20220609-12-r665l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Similar designs of ‘Stone Swiss Army knives’ have been found across southern Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paloma de la Peña</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Across southern Africa, these blades <em>could</em> have been made in any number of different shapes in different places. However, around 65,000 years ago, it turns out they were made to a very similar template across thousands of kilometres and multiple environmental niches.</p>
<p>The fact they were all made to look so similar points to strong social connections between geographically distant groups across southern Africa at this time.</p>
<p>Importantly, this shows for the first time that social connections were in place in southern Africa just before the big “out of Africa” migration.</p>
<h2>A useful tool in hard times</h2>
<p>Previously it has been thought people made these blades <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/multiple-uses-for-australian-backed-artefacts/779DCA6DF8D1261CB1D86150107FE138%5D">in response to various environmental stresses</a>, because just like the Swiss Army knife they are multi-functional and multi-use. </p>
<p>There is evidence the stone blades were often glued or bound to handles or shafts to make complex tools such as spears, knives, saws, scrapers and drills, and used as tips and barbs for arrows. They were used to process plant material, hide, feathers and fur. </p>
<p>While the making of the stone blade was not particularly difficult, the binding of the stone to the handle was, involving complex glue and adhesive recipes.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-stone-tools-found-in-southern-tip-of-africa-tell-us-about-the-human-story-43986">What stone tools found in southern tip of Africa tell us about the human story</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>During the Howiesons Poort, these blades were produced in enormous numbers across southern Africa. </p>
<p>Data from Sibudu Cave in South Africa shows that their peak in production occurred during a very dry period, when there was less rain and vegetation. These tools were manufactured for thousands of years before the Howiesons Poort, but it is during this period of changing climatic conditions that we see a phenomenal increase in their production. </p>
<p>It is the multi-functionality and multi-use which makes this stone tool so flexible, a key advantage for hunting and gathering in uncertain or unstable environmental conditions. </p>
<h2>A strong social network adapted to a changing climate</h2>
<p>However, the production of this tool at this time cannot be seen as only a functional response to changing environmental conditions. </p>
<p>If their proliferation was simply a functional response to changing conditions, then we should see differences in different environmental niches. But what we see is similarity in production numbers and artefact shape across great distances and different environmental zones. </p>
<p>This means the increase in production should be seen as part of a socially mediated response to changing environmental conditions, with strengthening long-distance social ties facilitating access to scarce, perhaps unpredictable resources. </p>
<p>The similarity in the stone “Swiss Army knife” across southern Africa provides insight into the strength of social ties in this key period for human evolution. Their similarity suggests that it was the strength of this social network which allowed populations to prosper and adapt to changing climatic conditions. </p>
<p>These findings hold global implications for understanding how expanding social networks contributed to the expansion of modern humans out of Africa and into new environments across the globe.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cave-that-carries-evidence-of-humanitys-first-cultural-exploits-is-under-threat-44797">Cave that carries evidence of humanity's first cultural exploits is under threat</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184648/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research was funded by the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, Australian Museum Foundation and Tom Austin Brown Research, University of Sydney.</span></em></p>
Shared designs for stone tools across southern Africa show early humans had wide social connections before beginning to migrate to the rest of the world.
Amy Mosig Way, Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Sydney, and Archaeologist, Australian Museum
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/179577
2022-04-06T14:55:48Z
2022-04-06T14:55:48Z
Worrying insights from UN’s first-ever assessment of water security in Africa
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453540/original/file-20220322-15111-o05byu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Franck Metois/ GettyImages</span> </figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to water security – a reliable, good supply of safe water – just 29 African countries have made some progress over the past three to five years. Twenty-five have made none.</p>
<p>This data comes out of the <a href="https://inweh.unu.edu/publications/">UN’s first-ever assessment of water security</a> in Africa. Published by the <a href="https://inweh.unu.edu/">UN University’s Canada-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health</a>, the assessment used 10 indicators to quantify water security in Africa’s 54 countries. Such an assessment had been done before in the Asia-Pacific region, but never for Africa.</p>
<p>The UN’s concept of water security encompasses various needs and conditions. These include: water for drinking, economic activity, ecosystems, governance, financing, and political stability. Water security, therefore, is not just about how much natural water a country has but also how well the resource is managed.</p>
<p>The assessment is limited by very poor data on some issues – such as access to drinking water or sanitation. It nevertheless offers some preliminary, but obvious, conclusions. </p>
<p>Overall levels of water security in Africa are low. Not a single country, let alone a sub-region, is at the highest “model” stage of water security. The top five countries – Egypt, Botswana, Mauritius, Gabon, and Tunisia — are at best at a “modest” (just above average) stage of water security. </p>
<p>Without water security, people are exposed to environmental and health risks, increased susceptibility to water-related disasters and lack water for economic and social use. </p>
<p>The assessment team hopes that as this quantitative tool develops, it will help generate targeted policy recommendations and inform decision-making and public-private investments toward achieving water security in Africa.</p>
<h2>Key findings</h2>
<p>The assessment introduced five stages of water security: Emerging (a score of 0 – 45), slight (45 – 60), modest (60 – 75), effective (75 — 90), and model (90 – 100).</p>
<p>Except for Egypt, all countries scored below 70. Only 13 of 54 countries were found to have a “modest” level of water security. Somalia, Chad and Niger appear to be the three least water-secure countries in Africa. </p>
<p>Over a third of the 54 countries had “emerging” level water security, representing a large gap to be closed to reach an acceptable level. These countries are home to half a billion people. </p>
<p>The situation doesn’t appear to be improving very quickly. Between 2015 and 2020, the continent as a whole progressed only by 1.1% based on the indicators. </p>
<h2>Examining the indicators</h2>
<p>Here is an overview of how countries fared on each indicator.</p>
<p><strong>Access to drinking water</strong></p>
<p>Access to “at least basic” drinking water services ranged from 37% of the population in the Central African Republic to 99% in Egypt. Regionally it ranged from 62% in central Africa to 92% in north Africa. Africa’s average basic drinking water service is 71%. This leaves behind about 29% of the total population, or more than 353 million people. </p>
<p>“At least basic” means access to improved water sources – such as piped water, protected hand-dug wells and springs. These either need to be “safely managed” (accessible on premises, available when needed, and free from contamination) or can be collected in a trip of 30 minutes or less.</p>
<p><strong>Access to sanitation</strong></p>
<p>Access to sanitation – meaning access to, and use of, sanitation facilities and services – was broadly similar at the regional level. There’s an average of 60% access to limited sanitation. This means at least 40% of the total population (483 million people) are left behind. </p>
<p>A few countries – Seychelles and most countries in north Africa – have reached, or nearly reached, 100%. The most challenged countries are Chad and Ethiopia. </p>
<p><strong>Access to hygiene facilities</strong></p>
<p>This indicator refers to access to practices like hand washing. The greatest access was found in north Africa (67%), the least access was in west Africa. Liberia was the lowest in the region with less than 10% access. </p>
<p>Chad and the Central African Republic suffer from the highest number of deaths from diarrhoea, an indicator of ineffective hygiene practices.</p>
<p><strong>Per capita water availability</strong></p>
<p>The amount of water available per person was highest in central Africa, with the Republic of Congo considered Africa’s most water-rich country. At the other end of the spectrum, half of the countries in north Africa appeared to be absolutely water scarce. </p>
<p>Water availability has recently declined in west, central and southern Africa. This was most notable in Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Somalia, Mozambique and Malawi.</p>
<p><strong>Water use efficiency</strong></p>
<p>This indicator assesses the economic and social value. The score is a sum of efficiencies – a measure of how well a country uses the water it has in its economy.</p>
<p>On this basis, water use efficiency appears to be lowest in north Africa (with Somalia lowest at the national level) and highest in central Africa (with Angola highest at a national level). </p>
<p><strong>Water storage infrastructure</strong></p>
<p>Water storage in large dams, measured in volume (m3) per capita, is deemed best in the southern Africa, worst in east Africa. </p>
<p>South Africa, with over 25% of all large dams in Africa, is outscored by Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, likely due to just one mega reservoir in those countries. </p>
<p>Half of all countries score very low, reflecting the continent’s low level of water storage development. Only Ethiopia and Namibia have increased their storage over recent years. </p>
<p><strong>Wastewater treatment</strong></p>
<p>Scores are highest in north African countries, lowest in east and west Africa, where 12 countries in each region treat less than 5% of wastewater. No country treats more than 75%. Only Tunisia, Egypt and Lesotho treat over 50% of wastewater.</p>
<p><strong>Water governance</strong></p>
<p>Governance takes into account the various users and uses of water with the aim of promoting positive social, economic, and environmental impacts. This includes the transboundary level. </p>
<p>Water governance appears to be most advanced in north and southern Africa and least advanced in central Africa.</p>
<p>Nationally, Ghana reported reaching 86% of integrated water resource management implementation in just two years – a significant improvement. </p>
<p>Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, and Comoros are the lowest-performing countries.</p>
<p><strong>Disaster risk</strong></p>
<p>Disaster risk is a measure of the potential loss of life, injury, or destroyed or damaged assets, which could occur to an ecosystem, or a community in a specific period of time. </p>
<p>North Africa appears to be the least risky sub-region (it has less exposure or high ability to adapt), with Egypt the least risky country. West Africa was the riskiest.</p>
<p>Some 49 of 54 African countries have seen increased disaster risk scores over five recent years.</p>
<p><strong>Water dependency on neighbouring nations and water resources variability</strong></p>
<p>Egypt stands out as Africa’s most water-dependent country. It relies on the Nile river which flows through 10 countries – Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, and Sudan – before reaching Egypt. And the southern Africa sub-region has a wide disparity in the available water per year.</p>
<h2>Preparing for the future</h2>
<p>Our paper calls for a pioneering effort to create global standards for water security measurement data and assessment.</p>
<p>Some critical components of water security simply cannot be assessed without good data. For example, it’s not possible to estimate the percentage of the African population that will have access to safely managed drinking water services or safely managed sanitation by 2030, a key UN Sustainable Development Goal.</p>
<p>Our water security assessment tool is a work in progress, guided by a goal of an influential and nationally-owned tool used by all African countries and that it helps generate targeted policy recommendations and inform decision-making and public-private investments in Africa.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179577/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
500 million people live in 19 African countries deemed “water insecure”.
Grace Oluwasanya, Research Lead for Water, Climate and Gender, Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), United Nations University
Duminda Perera, Senior Researcher: Hydrology and Water Resources, Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), United Nations University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/177074
2022-03-07T09:22:07Z
2022-03-07T09:22:07Z
Repeat photos show change in southern African landscapes: a citizen science project
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446212/original/file-20220214-13-1941j7y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A landscape in Hogsback, South Africa, photographed in 1942 by J. Acocks (left) and in 2016 by J. du Toit
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://rephotosa.adu.org.za">© rePhotoSA </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every place in the world has a history. To understand it in the present you need some knowledge of its past. The history of the earth can be read from its rocks; the history of life, from the evolutionary histories and relationships of its species. But what of the history of modern landscapes and the many benefits we derive from them, such as water and food? What are their histories – and how are they shifting in response to the intense pressures they face from climate change and from people? </p>
<p>Historical landscape photographs provide one way of measuring this. They capture the way things were at a moment in time. By standing at the same place and re-photographing the same scene, it is possible to document the nature of change. Sometimes researchers can even measure the extent and rate of change for different elements in the landscape. </p>
<p>Reasons for the change can also sometimes be observed from this and other historical information, such as the climate or fire record. All of these data can then be related to what has been written about environmental change using other approaches and models. Researchers can ascertain whether the environment has reached a critical threshold and consider how to respond to the changes.</p>
<p>This is what repeat photography is all about. </p>
<h2>A growing field</h2>
<p>Repeat photography has been used to document vegetation change in Africa since the 1950s; in the last 30 years there’s been an explosion of interest. It is now used in various parts of the world, with a number of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1574954121001783?via%3Dihub">major projects</a> in North America’s drylands, Ethiopia’s highlands and across the southern African region.</p>
<p>Historical landscape photographs have been matched with modern images and used to analyse changes in alpine glaciers, hydrology and soil erosion, and vegetation, including changes in the populations of long-lived desert succulents and savanna trees. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/eyes-in-the-sky-and-on-the-ground-are-helping-forest-conservation-in-cameroon-73695">Eyes in the sky and on the ground are helping forest conservation in Cameroon</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Repeat photography is increasingly being seen as an important tool for monitoring the impact of climate change on vulnerable species and threatened ecosystems. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446710/original/file-20220216-25-1nv2ant.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446710/original/file-20220216-25-1nv2ant.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=179&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446710/original/file-20220216-25-1nv2ant.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=179&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446710/original/file-20220216-25-1nv2ant.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=179&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446710/original/file-20220216-25-1nv2ant.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446710/original/file-20220216-25-1nv2ant.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446710/original/file-20220216-25-1nv2ant.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A landscape in Venterskroon in South Africa’s North West province, first photographed in 1919 (left) and repeated in 2017 (right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">I. B. Pole Evans (1919); repeated by L. de Speville (2017)/Images copyright of rePhotoSA under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Creative Commons licence.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our work in southern Africa has produced more than 2,000 repeat photographs from all the <a href="http://pza.sanbi.org/vegetation">major biomes</a> in the region. In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2018.12.003">a recent synthesis</a> of this work we provided a practical assessment of the impact of long-term climate and land use change for the African sub-continent. Contrary to expectations, we found that vegetation cover and biomass had increased at most locations in response to changes in land use, climate and CO₂. </p>
<p>Amassing such a large number of repeat photographs was the cumulative result of multiple research projects by many researchers over many years. Gaining a more holistic overview of the changes evident in southern Africa’s landscapes through repeat photography would require tremendous funding for travel, and of course, an amount of time that we do not have. That’s where citizen science comes in.</p>
<h2>Citizen science</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://rephotosa.adu.org.za/">rePhotoSA project</a> was launched in August 2015. The idea is to involve interested members of the public in re-photographing historical locations. This has two benefits. First, participants add to the number of repeated images. Second, public awareness of landscape change is raised.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://rephotosa.adu.org.za/Search_photos.php">project website</a> has over 6,000 historical images from ten primary photographic collections of southern African landscapes, dating from the late 1800s to the early 2000s. The geographic spread of the photographs is influenced largely by the interests of the original photographers. Often these photographs are donated to the project by family members, or institutions to which the original photographers belonged – and sometimes by the photographers themselves. </p>
<p>On the website, photographs are spatially referenced into a grid of quarter-degree squares (QDS; each approximately 28 x 25 km in size) to narrow down the possible locations of the historical photo sites. Users can browse photographs from the colour-coded QDSes and download a high-resolution copy for printing, as well as a field data sheet in which metadata can be recorded. After repeating the photo, users must register with the project to upload their repeats to the website. We also have active <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rephotosa_uct/?hl=en">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/rePhotoSA/">Facebook</a> pages. </p>
<p>Between 2015 and 2020, more than 280 landscape photographs were repeated and uploaded by citizen scientists, mostly from around South Africa’s Cape Peninsula and the country’s eastern Karoo region. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, there is a higher density of repeats nearer to city centres. Some of the changes observed in these areas include increased urbanisation and infrastructure such as power transmission lines, as well as the introduction or clearing of alien vegetation. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tracking-science-a-way-to-include-more-people-in-producing-knowledge-159587">Tracking science: a way to include more people in producing knowledge</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In more rural locations where urban expansion is less visible, we often see other ecologically interesting trends: increased woody vegetation cover – bush encroachment – and denudation of large areas as a result of fire or overgrazing. </p>
<p>There are some limitations on the consistency in the quality of data obtainable through citizen science projects. For instance, making inferences about the drivers of the changes observed partly depends on the quality of the repeat photograph and its associated metadata. But the benefits far outweigh the costs when the area from which data is required is so vast. </p>
<h2>Long-term monitoring</h2>
<p>The project recently achieved an important milestone with the publication of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2021.101390">peer-reviewed article</a> in which its activities are described. Bringing a South African repeat photography project into the international research arena and emphasising the value of citizen science and open data are both significant contributions. </p>
<p>The project has also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7001">been cited</a> in various <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106206">research articles</a> as an example of how photographs can illustrate vegetation change, suggesting its utility as a crowd-sourced, long-term monitoring project. As more photographic collections are curated and integrated into the website, we anticipate that the combined efforts of our citizen scientists and research teams will further aid in understanding how southern Africa’s landscapes are changing in response to human and climate pressures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177074/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Repeat photography has been used to document vegetation change in Africa since the 1950s; in the last 30 years there’s been an explosion of interest.
Timm Hoffman, Professor and Director of the Plant Conservation Unit, University of Cape Town
Hana Petersen, Project manager of rePhotoSA, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/172640
2021-12-15T14:33:08Z
2021-12-15T14:33:08Z
Emperor moths in the rock art of the Namib Desert shed new light on shamanic ritual
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437726/original/file-20211215-27-y1a1he.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Emperor moth cocoon rattles on the ankles of a ritual dancer, Kalahari, 1959.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.jurgenschadeberg.com/galleries/TheSanPeople1959">Jurgen Schadeberg, courtesy Claudia Schadeberg via Rock Art Research Institute, Wits University</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Not every archaeological discovery is made by opening the tomb of a long dead king. Indeed, some important finds seem inconsequential at first. Such as ostrich feathers stained with ochre, a leather bag containing emperor moth cocoons and a strange vessel made from the cranium of an African wild dog <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0067270X.2018.1423757?journalCode=raza20">I unearthed</a> from a sterile layer at Falls Rock Shelter. The site lies just below the summit of the remote <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_690.html">Dâures</a> (or Brandberg) massif in the desert region of western Namibia.</p>
<p>Perplexed, I consigned these finds, first buried 4,500 years ago, to a box beneath my desk. They lay there for another 40 years until, in a flash of realisation, I saw that the emperor moth cocoons were pierced to be strung as rattles worn around the ankles of a shaman in ritual dance. </p>
<p>As set out in my new book <a href="https://witspress.co.za/catalogue/namib/">Namib – the archaeology of an African desert</a>, these delicate, brittle things were to provide a new understanding of shamanic ritual performance as depicted in the rock art in Namibia and elsewhere in southern Africa. </p>
<p>The role of the shaman as a ritual specialist and healer among southern African hunter-gatherer societies is known mainly from rock art depictions. Until now, no archaeological evidence of shamanic ritual paraphernalia had been discovered in southern Africa.</p>
<h2>A new era</h2>
<p>When I excavated the site, rock art studies had just entered an exciting new era. They left behind antiquarian musings for a theoretically rigorous approach. This was informed by modern anthropology and the great trove of late 1800s historical <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/">ethnographic material</a> on the inhabitants of the region compiled by the German linguist Wilhelm Bleek. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-bandit-slaves-and-the-rock-art-of-resistance-165107">South Africa's bandit slaves and the rock art of resistance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Scholars were able to offer detailed and convincing explanations of mysterious rituals in which shamans drew upon supernatural sources of potency to heal, guide and protect their people. Paintings which had seemed inexplicable – some were dismissed as irrational fantasies – yielded their meaning. The spiritual world of southern African hunter-gatherer opened to enquiry. </p>
<p>Many puzzles remained, of course, but some rock paintings offered such depths of insight that one even became known as the <a href="https://africanrockart.britishmuseum.org/country/south-africa/gamepass/">Rosetta Stone of rock art </a> studies. The key to deciphering the rock art was the trance dance, a public ritual in which the shaman achieved a state of altered consciousness through rhythmic dancing, accompanied by clapping and singing.</p>
<h2>Evidence from the Namib Desert</h2>
<p>Southern African scholars argue that rock art and shamanic practice was not hidden: it was open for all to see. An egalitarian hunter-gatherer society had no place for specialist ritual practitioners. Other shamanic traditions are described by scholars of religion as essentially “polyphase”. This means having a phase of occultation, when the shaman is hidden or concealed, followed by his emergence or reappearance. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437727/original/file-20211215-21-n82qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Drawing in red on a rock depicting a figure in a cloak, moving forward, arms extended. Around them cattle and people." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437727/original/file-20211215-21-n82qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437727/original/file-20211215-21-n82qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437727/original/file-20211215-21-n82qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437727/original/file-20211215-21-n82qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437727/original/file-20211215-21-n82qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=878&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437727/original/file-20211215-21-n82qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=878&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437727/original/file-20211215-21-n82qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=878&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shaman figure enveloped in an animal skin cloak, Snake Rock, Dâures massif.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joris Komen</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Namib Desert rock art has many hidden sites, including paintings in dark crevices that cannot admit more than one person. These sites were part of a preparatory process which preceded a ritual performance. A striking feature of the rock art is its highly individualised figures, clearly shamans, overwhelmingly male and replete with specialised ritual equipment, including fly whisks, moth cocoon dancing rattles and long animal skin cloaks almost concealing the body. Significantly, these figures are not shown as participating in communal trance dance.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/abs/solitary-shaman-itinerant-healers-and-ritual-seclusion-in-the-namib-desert-during-the-second-millennium-ad/2383876C2BB3FF6241DE9D2C08006DA5">evidence suggests</a> that shamans in the Namib were individual specialists who travelled from place to place. They prepared themselves for ritual action in places of physical seclusion, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/southern-san-and-the-trance-dance-a-pivotal-debate-in-the-interpretation-of-san-rock-paintings/CB3AF67952770777B47E1DB6B380BB35">rather than</a> during the large communal <a href="http://jurgenschadeberg.art.co.za/galleries/TheSanPeople1959/">trance dance events</a> that rock art scholars have insisted were the fundamental social mechanism for trance experience throughout this region.</p>
<p>Enigmatically, no trace of ritual paraphernalia had been found elsewhere in southern Africa. This has led scholars to suggest that there probably were no such items and that the rock art represents concepts such as power and control rather than actual items of material culture. </p>
<p>So, what of the emperor moth dancing rattles? Are they no more than an unusual and accidental find, adding a little texture to our understanding of the rock art? On the contrary, they show that occultation, as an element of performance not previously considered by scholars of the region, is of fundamental importance to an understanding of the art and ritual practice of southern African hunter-gatherers. The rattles expose a critical weakness in conventional explanations.</p>
<h2>The emperor moth dancing rattles</h2>
<p>Moth cocoons with small pebbles placed inside and strung about the lower limbs, issue a characteristic rustling sound, a rhythmic accompaniment to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyLF3y1YJKA">ritual dance</a>. Their significance goes much further, for the cocoon represents the stage of occultation when the moth larva is hidden from view. The moth itself is the emergent stage represented by the dancing shaman: once hidden, now apparent. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437725/original/file-20211215-19-fbggwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A rock drawing of four moths, in red, spots on their extended wings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437725/original/file-20211215-19-fbggwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437725/original/file-20211215-19-fbggwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437725/original/file-20211215-19-fbggwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437725/original/file-20211215-19-fbggwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437725/original/file-20211215-19-fbggwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437725/original/file-20211215-19-fbggwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437725/original/file-20211215-19-fbggwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Emergent emperor moths with extended wings, Naib ravine, Dâures massif.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rodney Lichtman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Paintings of emperor moths are rare but those in the Dâures massif are shown with the wings extended as in the emergent stage. The painted moth represents the shaman with his knee-length animal hide cloak which resembles the wings. The cocoon rattle, the moth and the cloaked shaman thus combine the two essential stages of ritual performance: concealment and reappearance. </p>
<p>Cloaked figures are, of course, not confined to the rock art of the Namib Desert. The fact that they occur over much of southern Africa shows that they refer to a basic trope in this ritual tradition, overlooked until now.</p>
<p>The occultation and emergence of the emperor moth has further ramifications, too. It explains the importance of physical seclusion, such as in the deep rock crevices found in the desert, as sites of ritual preparation from which the shaman emerges to perform his work. It also explains why the cocoons and other ritual items were buried at the site; these are objects imbued with supernatural potency and therefore kept hidden, in a state of latency, lest their powers be misused. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437524/original/file-20211214-23-1rhx8jz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437524/original/file-20211214-23-1rhx8jz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437524/original/file-20211214-23-1rhx8jz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437524/original/file-20211214-23-1rhx8jz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437524/original/file-20211214-23-1rhx8jz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437524/original/file-20211214-23-1rhx8jz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1238&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437524/original/file-20211214-23-1rhx8jz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1238&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437524/original/file-20211214-23-1rhx8jz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1238&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Now we see that these small items are more important than they might at first appear. Indeed, they provide the first integration of southern African rock art and hunter-gatherer ritual practice on the basis of firmly dated archaeological evidence. They alleviate a long-standing and counter-productive separation of rock art studies and the less glamorous field of “dirt” archaeology. </p>
<p>Perhaps the evidence from the Namib is not unique after all; there may well be cocoon rattles elsewhere, and dark crevices with hidden rock art still waiting to be found.</p>
<p><em>Namib – the archaeology of an African desert was <a href="https://www.namibiabooks.com/english-books/wildlife-environmentalists-naturalists/product/1478-namib-the-archeology-of-an-african-desert">originally published</a> by the University of Namibia Press. It is <a href="https://witspress.co.za/catalogue/namib/">available</a> from Wits University Press and is also available <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781847012883/namib/">internationally</a> from Boydell & Brewer.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172640/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Kinahan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The moth cocoons are the first archaeological evidence of shamanic ritual paraphernalia in southern Africa.
John Kinahan, Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/170560
2021-10-27T13:20:25Z
2021-10-27T13:20:25Z
One sentence in a book leads researchers to a species not seen in over 100 years
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428188/original/file-20211025-15-1uq3sir.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One of four montane skinks collected by the researchers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wilson Monia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been more than 100 years since a live montane skink, <em>Proscelotes aenea</em>, was last spotted. Since then, it hasn’t been clear whether the lizard was extinct or just very good at hiding.</p>
<p>But, thanks to a combination of field work and detective skills, we can now announce that <em>Proscelotes aenea</em> is alive and scuttling around the sandy soils of Lumbo, Mozambique. This is an exciting result for our research project, <a href="http://www.extinctorshy.org">Extinct or Shy</a>. The project highlights what happens when there isn’t a great deal of data available about species in poorly sampled areas: species might be assumed to be extinct when they’re not, so their presence may not be taken into account when countries make conservation decisions.</p>
<p>Our journey to find the elusive montane skink has also highlighted why scientists’ field notes are so important. We used field notes made more than a century ago, as well as a tantalising clue in a naturalist’s autobiography, to narrow down where the skink might be found. </p>
<p>It’s a good reminder to modern researchers to make their fields notes as detailed as possible for future readers. After all, a species that is common at one point in time may not always be so in the future. Any “clues” that might guide researchers years, decades – or even centuries – from now are crucial.</p>
<h2>Hunting for written clues</h2>
<p>The last time the montane skink was recorded by scientists in Lumbo was in 1918. Naturalist Arthur Loveridge collected six specimens during a two-month stay in the area. In his field notes (contained in <a href="https://library.museum.wa.gov.au/fullRecord.jsp?recno=66462">a hard-to-find book</a>), Loveridge wrote that the skinks were found while “the land was cleared of stumps to make tent space for a British camp”. He gave a vague description of that land: at the “British Campsite” – a military base set up during the East African campaign of the First World War – in Lumbo, 3km away from Mozambique Island. There were no coordinates or other reference points to locate the camp site.</p>
<p>Using only these descriptive notes, Wilson Monia, Abdulrabe Jamal and Ali Puruleia, the students responsible for our project’s field work, conducted local interviews that took them to a more inland military base. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/search-for-elusive-skinks-is-filling-gaps-in-mozambiques-biodiversity-data-165635">Search for elusive skinks is filling gaps in Mozambique’s biodiversity data</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<hr>
<p>It seemed unlikely that this was the seaside site Loveridge wrote about, given its distance from the water. Further online searches didn’t turn up any reference to this campsite; no botanical records were available in <a href="https://www.gbif.org/">online databases</a> that referred to the site in further detail.</p>
<p>The clues we needed turned up unexpectedly in a short passage in Loveridge’s autobiography, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6394887-many-happy-days-i-ve-squandered">Many Happy Days I’ve Squandered</a>, where he briefly describes his stay in Mozambique. The skinks were not mentioned, but he did describe his daily routine. It was a single sentence that led the trio of researchers to the montane skink:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The camp itself was on a kind of peninsula; on the farther side of Lumbo Bay there were acres of mud flats covered by mangrove trees.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>After a quick look on Google maps, the team immediately found this site and set up new traps. Within two weeks we had found the montane skink; the students have so far recorded four individuals.</p>
<p>In 1918, Lumbo was most likely predominantly covered inland by savanna and by mangrove on the coast. Today it is home to around 20,000 people – double what it was 50 years ago, so far more densely populated than it was during Loveridge’s time. Travelling through the area, you’ll see tar roads and cement houses; there are farms and wetlands, but very little native vegetation remains. </p>
<h2>More work to come</h2>
<p>The project is now collecting important ecological information to map and assess the species. The montane skink is <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/44978942/44978950">listed as “data deficient”</a> by the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/resources/categories-and-criteria">International Union for the Conservation of Nature</a>. Once more data has been provided, the species may be assessed as range-restricted or threatened; both these categories require countries to put certain protections in place to support the at-risk species.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-used-60-year-old-notebooks-to-find-out-why-male-hippos-have-bigger-tusks-than-females-168686">We used 60-year-old notebooks to find out why male hippos have bigger tusks than females</a>
</strong>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>Finding the montane skink doesn’t mean that Extinct or Shy’s work is done. The team is also trying to find another species, Boulenger’s legless skink (<em>Scolecoseps boulengeri</em>). There’s even less information about this species than there is about the montane skink; so far our searches have been unsuccessful.</p>
<h2>Detail is key</h2>
<p>One of the biggest lessons to take from this work is that rich detail in field notes is crucial. The level of detail researchers use in their field notes today varies wildly; some provide minimal detail while others document weather, soil type, associated species, micro-habitat and much more. And, although field notes can be stored in online back-ups, a significant number undoubtedly still sit on shelves, in attics and in moving boxes as researchers progress through their field seasons and careers. This comes with a risk that the data can easily be lost forever.</p>
<p>When it comes to reptiles like skinks, many modern surveys are conducted using both trapping and active search methods. Explicitly describing how many of each species are recorded, as well as where and how they were obtained, can provide valuable details for studies that aim to reproduce earlier results. </p>
<p>This is increasingly important in areas that are rapidly changing due to urbanisation, expanding agriculture and that are experiencing adverse effects of climate change.</p>
<p>It was a description of a campsite that led us to find the montane skink again after 100 years without a scientific record in the area. We hope that in the future field biologists, with support and encouragement from editors and journals, will include such relevant information alongside species checklists in their scientific publications.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170560/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq receives funding from Rufford's Foundation.
Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq is also affiliated with Lúrio University, Mozambique</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allison Perrigo receives funding from Kungl. Vetenskaps- och Vitterhets-Samhället (KVVS). </span></em></p>
Detailed field notes can help researchers track down rare species.
Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq, Post-doc, University of Gothenburg
Allison Perrigo, Director of the Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, University of Gothenburg
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165635
2021-08-15T09:02:56Z
2021-08-15T09:02:56Z
Search for elusive skinks is filling gaps in Mozambique’s biodiversity data
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415430/original/file-20210810-19-p5l32o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A specimen of _Proscelotes aenea_ collected by Loveridge in 1918 in Lumbo, Mozambique, now kept at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every morning the phone buzzes, many times in short succession, as the students send photo after photo of the snakes, frogs and lizards that have been caught in various traps the previous day. We scroll through the images. Again - no <em>Scolecoseps boulengeri</em>. No <em>Proscelotes aenea</em>.</p>
<p>These two burrowing skinks – a type of lizard – were discovered in Lumbo, Northern Mozambique, in the 1920s. During this period, naturalists often used the readily available infrastructure at military bases during the East African Campaign of World War I as base camps for sampling. But then, the war ended and the naturalists stopped collecting at these sites. After that, the two skink species, assumed to be endemic to Mozambique, were not recorded again. Why?</p>
<p>We’re not entirely sure. It is possible, though, that the skink species are still there – they just haven’t been spotted because no one has been looking. This is a sadly common problem. Despite being an exceptional area for biodiversity – with a variety of habitats ranging from tropical savannahs up to highland mountains and down to coastal mangroves – northern Mozambique is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syaa090">severely undersampled</a>, even by African standards. There simply isn’t much data about on the area’s species. </p>
<p>This is partly due to the fact that some places are more accessible than others for various reasons. Parts of the country have been historically inaccessible due to civil war, and other areas are now unreachable <a href="https://theconversation.com/mozambiques-own-version-of-boko-haram-is-tightening-its-deadly-grip-98087">due to an ongoing insurgency</a>. Beyond accessibility issues, most field surveys are conducted by international teams, which tend to be more limited by time and require more resources to carry out the work. </p>
<p>Still, these skinks are thought to occur in the sandy soils of easily accessible beaches, in areas that are much more populated now than 100 years ago. Sites such as this make an excellent venue to stage a hunt for long-lost species. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.rufford.org/projects/harith-farooq/extinct-or-just-shy/">Our project, “Extinct or Shy”</a>, puts the problem of data deficient species in poorly sampled localities in the spotlight. The project asks whether species that haven’t been seen in many decades are actually extinct, or just “shy”. Ambitious students from a <a href="http://www.unilurio.ac.mz/unilurio/en/">university</a> close to the small town <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1920.tb07639.x">where the two burrowing skinks were discovered</a> are leading the hunt for answers.</p>
<h2>Africa’s widespread sampling deficiency</h2>
<p>As we’ve pointed out in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sysbio/article/70/3/623/6030962">earlier research</a>, species distribution data – or a lack thereof – can have a major bearing on how a country’s <a href="http://www.keybiodiversityareas.org/">Key Biodiversity Areas</a> and protected areas are designated. Even though studies have shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12372">data deficient species usually end up in threatened categories</a>, they are still not considered when proposing Key Biodiversity Areas, due to the uncertainty of their status.</p>
<p>However, once found or “rediscovered”, well-documented instances of rare species can trigger Key Biodiversity Area status, spearhead conservation efforts and potentially safeguard against extinctions. </p>
<p>The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists 3,381 African species as “<a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">data deficient</a>”; 283 of these may occur in Mozambique. These are the species that we know, or suspect, occur in certain localities, but that lack sufficient data to be assessed according to the rigorous <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/resources/categories-and-criteria">IUCN Assessment Criteria</a>. The missing information may consist of precise localities, the species’ ecology, or population trends, for example.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A light pink lizard-like creature without feet is pictured with a tag around its neck displaying scientific details. There is a ruler above it to denote its size." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415433/original/file-20210810-17-u6n00d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415433/original/file-20210810-17-u6n00d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415433/original/file-20210810-17-u6n00d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415433/original/file-20210810-17-u6n00d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415433/original/file-20210810-17-u6n00d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415433/original/file-20210810-17-u6n00d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415433/original/file-20210810-17-u6n00d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A specimen of <em>Scolecoseps boulengeri</em> in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University/icensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>That’s why our “Extinct or shy?” team is hard at work to locate the elusive skinks. Four students from Lúrio University – Abdulrabe Jamal, Ali Puruleia, Iassine Amade, and Wilson Monia – work alongside collaborators Cristóvão Nanvonamuquitxo and Yasalde Massigue. They are checking the traps daily for an entire year, taking tissue samples and saving vouchers (preserved specimens) for <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-still-collect-butterflies-41485">natural history collections</a>. The project will continue through April 2022. </p>
<p>In the process they are not only gathering the data necessary to reassess the conservation status of the skinks; they are also amassing an extensive understanding of the other reptiles and amphibians that occur in the region.</p>
<p>There are two main scenarios for each species in this project. If the species is found, its habitat could be protected via implementation of Key Biodiversity Area status or conservation initiatives. If we don’t find the species, it may already be extinct, or may exist in such small numbers that it may soon go extinct without proper intervention.</p>
<p>If these skinks show up again, this time it will be Mozambican researchers who find them and co-write the paper to describe the finding. This is significant because they will be describing the biodiversity of their own country and strengthening locally held taxonomic expertise. It is also extremely practical.</p>
<h2>Local universities can lead the way</h2>
<p>Mozambique has 11 accredited universities, spread out across the country. Several of them have multiple, distributed campuses offering natural sciences-related curricula. These institutions could lead initiatives to provide baseline information on poorly known species. That is why we’ve partnered with our Lúrio University colleagues on this project.</p>
<p>Many data deficient species are not easy to find, and will therefore require lengthy field experiments to collect information. This could be arranged between supervisors and students at local universities by equipping them to carry out field studies in adjacent areas, with support from international experts as necessary. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415614/original/file-20210811-17-ptxh43.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415614/original/file-20210811-17-ptxh43.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415614/original/file-20210811-17-ptxh43.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415614/original/file-20210811-17-ptxh43.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415614/original/file-20210811-17-ptxh43.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415614/original/file-20210811-17-ptxh43.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415614/original/file-20210811-17-ptxh43.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From left to right, Wilson Monia, Abdulrabe Jamal, and Ali Puruleia. At the bottom is collaborator and local coordinator Cristóvão Nanvonamuquitxo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Issues remain with this system. Mozambique lacks even simple field guides for major groups, including mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles. Field guides for Eastern and Southern Africa routinely exclude northern portions of the poorly documented country, where taxonomic expertise is rarely held by Mozambican nationals.</p>
<h2>Inclusive research</h2>
<p>For this reason, technology plays a key role in “Extinct or Shy”. Although one of us, Harith, is originally from Mozambique, he now depends on regular connection, usually via WhatsApp, with the students in the field. From Sweden, where we’re both based at the Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, we can identify the specimens in real time and also provide general project guidance. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tracking-science-a-way-to-include-more-people-in-producing-knowledge-159587">Tracking science: a way to include more people in producing knowledge</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>After the sampling is complete, the whole team will meet to analyse the data and write up our findings together. We hope that eventually the students will use both their field work skills and experience in the scientific process to lead their own research and document Mozambique’s wonderful biodiversity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165635/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq receives funding from The Rufford Foundation (29825-1). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allison Perrigo receives funding for this project from Kungl. Vetenskaps- och Vitterhets-Samhället (KVVS). </span></em></p>
Species distribution data – or a lack thereof – can have a major bearing on how a country’s Key Biodiversity Areas and protected areas are designated.
Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq, Post-doc, University of Gothenburg
Allison Perrigo, Director of the Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, University of Gothenburg
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165944
2021-08-11T15:00:15Z
2021-08-11T15:00:15Z
Insights for African countries from the latest climate change projections
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415545/original/file-20210810-13-1bx8nj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Flooding is projected to increase in eastern Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Toney Karumba/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (<a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/">IPCC</a>) – a body of the UN tasked with providing scientific information on climate change – has released <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/#SPM">a major new report</a>, pulling together evidence from a wide range of current and ancient climate observations. It’s the most up-to-date understanding of climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science.</p>
<p>It is crucial that we have a good understanding of the findings as they give an indication of what our future could look like. </p>
<p>According to the report global warming is evident, with each of the last four decades being successively warmer than any decade that preceded it since 1850. Average precipitation on land has also increased since the mid-20th century. In addition, there is high confidence that mean sea level increased by between 0.15 and 0.25m between 1901 and 2018.</p>
<p>The major concern is that as warming continues, more extreme climate events, such as droughts, are projected to increase in both frequency and intensity. This warming is mainly driven by greenhouse gas emissions from human activities such as burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) and coal production.</p>
<p>When it comes to African countries, the report projects an increase in average temperatures and hot extremes across the continent. The continent will likely experience drier conditions with an exception of the Sahara and eastern Africa.</p>
<p>Alarmingly, the rate of temperature increase across the continent exceeds the global average. In addition, as warming continues, the frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall events are projected to increase almost everywhere in Africa. Maritime heatwaves and sea level rises are also projected to increase along the continental shores.</p>
<p>Looking into the future, global warming could lead to an increase in hot extremes, including heatwaves. It could also lead to a decrease in cold extremes. </p>
<p>The projected dry and hot conditions will have a devastating impact on a continent where the economies of most countries, and the livelihoods of most people, are dependent on rain-fed agriculture. In fact, changes to the climate will affect almost all parts of our lives.</p>
<h2>Regional impacts</h2>
<p>In a scenario where global warming will reach at least 2°C by mid-21st century (as predicted by the report), southern Africa is highly likely to experience a reduction in mean precipitation (water vapour that falls, such as rain or drizzle or hail). This will adversely affect agriculture. Specifically, the region is likely to witness an increase in aridity, and droughts. We are already seeing this in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/may/10/at-least-1m-people-facing-starvation-madagascar-drought-worsens">Madagascar</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-real-water-crisis-not-understanding-whats-needed-126361">South Africa</a>.</p>
<p>This has serious implications for all sectors including agriculture, water and health. Drought would also likely reduce hydroelectric generation potential, adversely affecting energy dependent sectors. We are already seeing this at the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/12/zambians-water-shortage-drought-lake-rainfall">Kariba dam</a> which sits between Zimbabwe and Zambia.</p>
<p>In addition, there will be more tropical storms in the region. In southern Africa there’s been a southward shift in the occurrence of tropical cyclones. This is due to sea temperatures increasing as a result of global warming. The concern is that these events will be particularly destructive as seen in <a href="https://reliefweb.int/disaster/tc-2018-000001-mdg">Madagascar</a> and over <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/cyclone-idai">Mozambique</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rising-sea-temperatures-are-shaping-tropical-storms-in-southern-africa-73139">Rising sea temperatures are shaping tropical storms in southern Africa</a>
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<p>In relation to eastern Africa, the report projected an increase in mean precipitation that favours agriculture. However, increases in the frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation and flooding may cause a counter effect in some areas, such as arid and semi-arid lands.</p>
<p>There has been some conflicting information regarding rainfall in eastern Africa. This follows <a href="https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joc.7207">observations</a> that the general circulation models, used in preparation of IPCC reports, do not simulate the observed rainfall well over the region. Most models project increase in rainfall while observations <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-019-0091-7">report the opposite</a>. This has been termed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0140.1">‘the paradox of east Africa climate’</a>. This observed <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-019-0091-7">shortening of rainfall season</a> that is not captured by the models explains the paradox.</p>
<p>Besides rainfall, the recorded and projected temperature which is expected to increase will decrease the snow and glaciers in the region. A rise in temperatures will result in <a href="https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12936-020-03224-6#auth-Sadie_J_-Ryan">a rise in malaria</a> cases especially in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2012.00315/full">highland areas</a> within the region. </p>
<p>Northern Africa is a climate change hotspot. The report anticipates with high confidence increase in temperatures in the region,<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-021-00178-7#auth-George-Zittis">causing extreme heatwaves</a>. Projected drying will increase aridity that already <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aae013">begun to emerge</a> in the region and worsen water scarcity. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-worsening-water-crisis-in-north-africa-and-the-middle-east-83197">A worsening water crisis in North Africa and the Middle East</a>
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<p>Further, the situation will increase the risk of forest fires, a threat to ecosystems. As is currently seen in Algeria where, so far this year, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-58165169">more than</a> 100 fires have been reported across 17 provinces, killing over 40 people. </p>
<p>The report also anticipated that there will be a reduction in mean wind speed over northern Africa. The wind speed is dependent on temperature and consequently atmospheric pressure changes. This will limit the region’s wind power potential, however – on a positive note – it will equally reduce dust storms that cause <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/our-mandate/focus-areas/environment/SDS">health impacts</a>, such as causing and aggravating asthma, and bronchitis. </p>
<p>Similarly, west and central Africa are projected to record a reduction in mean precipitation and experience more agricultural and ecological droughts. All these cast a dark cloud on agriculture and water in the region.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lagos-is-getting-less-rain-but-more-heavy-storms-what-it-can-do-to-prepare-134437">Lagos is getting less rain, but more heavy storms. What it can do to prepare</a>
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<p>Along the African coastlines, the relative sea-level rise is likely to contribute to an increase in the frequency and severity of coastal flooding in low-lying areas, like the recent <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/01/africa/lagos-sinking-floods-climate-change-intl-cmd/index.html">cases in Lagos</a>, Nigeria. This causes massive destruction to delicate coastal ecosystems and will displace communities that live in coastal towns. The sea level rise equally causes saltwater intrusion, limiting availability of fresh water.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-affecting-agrarian-migrant-livelihoods-in-ghana-this-is-how-156212">Climate change is affecting agrarian migrant livelihoods in Ghana. This is how</a>
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<h2>Which way for Africa?</h2>
<p>Despite the projection of decrease in mean precipitation over nearly all the regions of Africa, heavy precipitation and pluvial flooding is likely. The increase in wet extremes has far reaching effects on nearly all socioeconomic sectors, from agriculture, water, environment to infrastructure. These are some of the key sectors in socioeconomic development. </p>
<p>This – compounded by <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-driving-africas-population-growth-and-what-can-change-it-126362">growing populations</a> – gives a worrying picture of the challenges that lie ahead. This is likely to widen the existing development gap, calling for concerted effort to strengthen response mechanisms to future challenges posed by climate change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victor Ongoma does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The report projects an increase in mean temperatures and hot extremes across the continent. Worryingly the rate of temperature increase across the continent exceeds the global average.
Victor Ongoma, Assistant Professor, Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.