By Roxanne Reid
Seven years ago I found myself falling in love with Mapungubwe National Park on my first visit. Everything had me under its spell, from the enormous baobabs and gnarl-rooted fig trees clawing their way out of rock, to the red rock formations and the cultural history. So I was really looking forward to our second visit and hoping that guide Moses Baloyi would be there to share more about this place he loved.
Seven years ago I found myself falling in love with Mapungubwe National Park on my first visit. Everything had me under its spell, from the enormous baobabs and gnarl-rooted fig trees clawing their way out of rock, to the red rock formations and the cultural history. So I was really looking forward to our second visit and hoping that guide Moses Baloyi would be there to share more about this place he loved.
The Venda-style Leokwe camp, the red rocks and baobab trees are just a few things to love about Mapungubwe
But that was not to be on our next visit to Mapungubwe National Park. Moses had been killed in a car accident in 2009. A man of a friendly and sunny disposition, a SANParks guide of the year with 18 months of training under archaeologists to gain insight into the history and cultural significance of Mapungubwe, he must be sorely missed.
As a cultural guide to the famous Mapungubwe Hill, he had painted a vivid picture for us of women carrying clay pots filled with water on their heads, from the river, past a giant baobab and up the narrow pathway up the steep hill, step by rocky step. Or of a man in a leopard-skin cloak drinking a gourd of sorghum beer made from crops in the valley below.
Although Moses was a Shangaan (Tsonga) who grew up near Polokwane, his mother – a Sotho who grew up near Mapungubwe – remembered stories about the sacred hill and its mystery. Local African legend considers it taboo and people regard it with so much awe that they’ll turn their backs to it if you so much as say its name.
As a cultural guide to the famous Mapungubwe Hill, he had painted a vivid picture for us of women carrying clay pots filled with water on their heads, from the river, past a giant baobab and up the narrow pathway up the steep hill, step by rocky step. Or of a man in a leopard-skin cloak drinking a gourd of sorghum beer made from crops in the valley below.
Although Moses was a Shangaan (Tsonga) who grew up near Polokwane, his mother – a Sotho who grew up near Mapungubwe – remembered stories about the sacred hill and its mystery. Local African legend considers it taboo and people regard it with so much awe that they’ll turn their backs to it if you so much as say its name.
Moses Baloyi, our heritage guide on our first visit to Mapungubwe seven years ago, had the sunniest smile in Limpopo
When he started working here, helping archaeologists to rehabilitate the site and gather beads and other relics, Moses had to take some home one evening for safekeeping. His mother was horrified and wouldn’t let him bring them into the house. She’d grown up on stories of how if you mess with Mapugubwe Hill, even walk on it, you put your life at risk or at the very least you’ll go bonkers.
Ask Mokwena, the man who showed the way to the hill to the first archaeologists who plundered it in the 1930s, schlepping stuff off to Pretoria. Time and again he refused to show them where the hill was – until finally they plied him with enough booze to get him drunk. ‘Even then he stood with his back to it, and wouldn’t go up himself,’ says Moses.
Mapungubwe Hill is 300 metres long, broad at one end, tapering at the other. About 50 people lived up here, with around 5 000 commoners at the foot of the hill. Some artefacts discovered on the summit include glass and gold beads, and the now-famous golden rhino with only one horn. Since African rhino have two, historians think it must have been traded with India, where the rhino have only one horn.
Ask Mokwena, the man who showed the way to the hill to the first archaeologists who plundered it in the 1930s, schlepping stuff off to Pretoria. Time and again he refused to show them where the hill was – until finally they plied him with enough booze to get him drunk. ‘Even then he stood with his back to it, and wouldn’t go up himself,’ says Moses.
Mapungubwe Hill is 300 metres long, broad at one end, tapering at the other. About 50 people lived up here, with around 5 000 commoners at the foot of the hill. Some artefacts discovered on the summit include glass and gold beads, and the now-famous golden rhino with only one horn. Since African rhino have two, historians think it must have been traded with India, where the rhino have only one horn.
A reflective moment at the top of the historic Mapungubwe Hill
Mapungubwe was abuzz from 1220 to 1290. That’s way back when the crusades were big news in Europe and the Middle East, and more than 200 years before Columbus ‘discovered’ America. To give us an idea of how archaeologists know this, Moses took us into an excavation pit showing different layers where potshards and bones of domestic animals were discovered. Posters also showed other things found here, like ivory wristbands, an iron hoe and small arrowheads, imported glass beads.
The people grew millet, sorghum and cotton and used to weave the cotton into rope. ‘The golden era of Mapungubwe was 1220 to 1250,’ said Moses. ‘After that they started to leave, probably due to climate change, which meant they couldn’t grow crops or feed their animals.’
Why is this a World Heritage Site?
‘First,’ explained Moses, ‘it was the forerunner of Great Zimbabwe further north.’
Second, it was the first southern African kingdom where the king and commoners were separated, the king isolated on top of the hill and the commoners below; the first class-based society in southern Africa.
Third, gold was discovered in the graves of royal families, evidence of trade with other parts of the world, probably Egypt, India and China.
The people grew millet, sorghum and cotton and used to weave the cotton into rope. ‘The golden era of Mapungubwe was 1220 to 1250,’ said Moses. ‘After that they started to leave, probably due to climate change, which meant they couldn’t grow crops or feed their animals.’
Why is this a World Heritage Site?
‘First,’ explained Moses, ‘it was the forerunner of Great Zimbabwe further north.’
Second, it was the first southern African kingdom where the king and commoners were separated, the king isolated on top of the hill and the commoners below; the first class-based society in southern Africa.
Third, gold was discovered in the graves of royal families, evidence of trade with other parts of the world, probably Egypt, India and China.
The stepped path to the top of the hill winds between rocks and trees
We climbed the 147 steps to the top of the hill, passing a cave where an acrid pong announced the presence of fruit bats. Moses stopped to talk about a tree here, a bit of history there, giving us a chance to catch our breath. Then we were back in the sunlight at the top staring down at the site of a grave where a woman was buried sitting facing west in a clay pot, with about a 100 gold bangles and more than 12 000 gold beads. ‘Because she had a golden rhino buried with her and many many beads, we assume she was a queen,’ he said.
Commoners, by contrast, were buried at the bottom of the hill, lying down, wrapped in animal skin and facing north. Some 200 such graves have been found down below, whereas just 23 graves have been discovered at the top of the hill. The bones and relics were removed to Pretoria years ago. On Goodwill Day in December 2005, 600 sangomas came to the hill to perform rituals to appease the ancestors and the remains have since been reburied on the hill.
Commoners, by contrast, were buried at the bottom of the hill, lying down, wrapped in animal skin and facing north. Some 200 such graves have been found down below, whereas just 23 graves have been discovered at the top of the hill. The bones and relics were removed to Pretoria years ago. On Goodwill Day in December 2005, 600 sangomas came to the hill to perform rituals to appease the ancestors and the remains have since been reburied on the hill.
Moses demonstrates morabaraba – an ingenious, mind-taxing game still played in many parts of Africa today, nearly 800 years after people made this 'board' at Mapungubwe
The views from the top of the hill were wonderful, revealing baobabs and eland, as well as a pair of soaring Verreaux’s eagles. But the most rewarding encounter that day was without doubt with Moses, his sunny personality, his love of history and his pride in the culture of Mapungubwe.
Sadly, he didn’t live to see all the beads and jewels, the golden rhino, take up their rightful place in Mapungubwe’s magnificent interpretive centre when it opened in 2012. If he had, his smile would have been as bright as the sun that now lights up its stained glass windows.
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Sadly, he didn’t live to see all the beads and jewels, the golden rhino, take up their rightful place in Mapungubwe’s magnificent interpretive centre when it opened in 2012. If he had, his smile would have been as bright as the sun that now lights up its stained glass windows.
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Mapungubwe National Park: everything you need to know
World Heritage Sites in South Africa and why to visit them
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
Mapungubwe National Park: everything you need to know
World Heritage Sites in South Africa and why to visit them
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
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