Botanical motifs in the rock art of Zimbabwe

Abstract

Botanical motifs are found in hunter-gatherer rock paintings throughout Zimbabwe, and to a lesser extent in other parts of southern Africa. However, even with plants being frequently mentioned in ethnographic material collected from San and hunter-gatherer societies in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, and Namibia, there has been a lack of engagement with plants in rock art research. In order to redress this I conduct the first thorough review to date of botanical forms and species in the rock art of Zimbabwe. This is achieved by a thorough analysis of literature on plants in southern African rock art, followed by the classifications and typologies used to identify and categorise botanical motifs recorded in Zimbabwe. These are informed by an extensive examination of ethnographic material concerning plants, and analysed through the lenses of the shamanistic model and the ‘New Animisms’. Botanical motifs are modelled on natural and supernatural plants including trees, tubers, fruit, leaves, and phytomorphs (plant-human/animal amalgamations). They are found in numerous contexts, frequently painted with specific motif types such as termites and formlings, antelope (tsessebe, kudu, roan and sable), birds (swifts and potentially red-billed queleas), ‘non-real’ creatures, and humans. These patterns of co-occurrence, I suggest, illustrate numerous and varied associations between these motif subjects and plants. I focus on five central themes: trees and their ability to transgress the boundary between the physical and spirit worlds; roots and tubers as potent underground metaphors; as well as rain; femaleness; and hunter-gatherer animistic ontologies relating to botanical forms with personhood and as a means to mediate relationships between human and other-than-human persons. In this way I hope to offer a more accurate understanding of the lives and beliefs of the peoples behind this treasure-trove of rock art