A visit to the newly opened Origins Centre is an absolute must for every tourist visiting South Africa.

Not only does the museum have an outstanding, and fascinating, collection of rock paintings, engravings and artifiacts, but more importantly, the history of South Africa is told, through the art of the San people.

If we want to understand the culture, the spiritual beliefs, and the very essence of the Zulu and Xhosa people as they are today, and even the reasons for the development of Soweto and other townships - we need to take a step back a few hundred years, and follow the path that the rock art stories can tell us ...

Humanity's Origins in Africa

Scientific research has shown that modern human DNA lineages originally come out of Africa. We all share 99.9% of our DNA

Between 150 000 to 200 000 years ago modern Homeo sapiens sapiens evolved in Africa. They then left the continent and settled throughout the entire world ...

Middle East – 100 000 years ago
Asia & Europe – 70 000 years ago
America – 25 000 years ago

Artifacts of the San people. A hunter-gatherer way of life

Some of the oldest found in Southern Africa are 26 000 years old.

Originally San rock art was seen as just pictures of animals and people, and narrative accounts of the hunter-gatherer life. Only now have researchers discovered the spiritual meaning behind the rock art, and their importance.

Rock paintings and engravings have proved a valuable tool for Nature Conservationists, as the San provided historical evidence of wildlife species that occurred in their area hundreds of years ago.

The Trance Dance

The San danced in a circle around the dying eland, clapping and singing, until the Eland released its supernatural energy to the dancers. The invisible energy floats through the air and the dancers harness it through a spot in the back of their neck called the n/aa spot. The energy travels down the spine to the stomach where it is said to "boil" before moving back to the head where it explodes , catapulting the dancer into the Spirit world.

There they would encounter strange people with heads of animals, spirits of dead friends & relatives, and sometimes God ...

Once in the spirit world, the dancers must perform various tasks for the benefit of their community.

The Rain Animal

In times of drought, Shamans must enter a trance then visit the spirit world by traveling through a waterhole where they must lure the ferocious animal out. Once caught, the animal is guided into the real world, where it is taken to the place where rain is needed. It is then either killed or wounded, and its blood and milk fall as rain.

The story of the history of South Africa

The arrival of horses, cattle, ox wagons, and men with guns...

Rock paintings tell the story …
1894 – Paul Kruger and the Hananwa tribe

Building of the railway, resistance to invasion and colonization, forced removal of the Hananwa people from their ancestral land, the chief being taken to prison in Pretoria, and forced labour…

A forgotten genocide.

The San suffered harshly at the hands of Europeans in South Africa.