Gifberg, Western Cape: craggy redoubt of the San people

TThe Gifberg rock art site, set in mountains which glower over the Knersvlakte (the ‘teeth-grinding plain’ in Afrikaans) in the north of Western Cape province, is linked in a vital way to the life of the ancient San people (once called ‘Bushmen’, but many modern San descendants find the name offensive). It was here that the San found a rich source of the poison for their otherwise puny arrows. 

The San were nomadic hunter-gatherers, with a very basic material culture based on stone, bone, wood and natural fibres; they had no metal-working skills. As a result, the bone- or stone-tipped arrows fired from their wood-and-sinew bows didn’t have much penetrating power, and poison was a vital part of their hunting arsenal. 

The Gifberg (Poison Mountain), with the Cedarberg, Bokkeveld and Matsikamma ranges, forms the eastern boundary of the 300km Olifants River Valley, which itself borders Namaqualand and the Atlantic. 

Latex from the bulbs of the gifboom, or gifbol (buphane toxicaria poison bush) in the area gave the deadly neurotoxin with which the San tipped their arrows. After wounding prey, the little hunters simply jogged along the wounded animal’s trail (the San are master trackers) until it fell. 

Part of the West Coast Rock Art Route, which explores San art along the coast of Western Cape north of Cape Town, the Gifberg rock art site is reached by a narrow pass branching off the N7 highway about 15km before Vanrhynsdorp. 

The San people lived throughout Southern Africa for thousands of years, and the ancient hunter-gatherers have left a remarkable legacy of art – a legacy which demonstrates that, no matter how simple San material culture might have been, their intricate spiritual culture was key to their ability to live so lightly and yet so successfully on the land over millennia. 

Paintings at this West Coast rock art site show shamans (healers) and animals bleeding from the nose – healers often bled thus when they went into a ‘healing trance’, which they regarded as death and a return to life. 

They believed the largest and fattest antelope, the eland, provided healing power through the healer in a trance, induced by ritual dance and chanting. 

Gifberg has accommodation for up to 45 people (in various self-catering cottages housing between 4 and 13 people each) as well as a large camping area, and the surrounds offer hiking trails and 2 easily reached sites with fine paintings – one including a healing and bleeding session with cloaked figures. 

Apart from San art, the other attractions of Gifberg are massed, bright yellow-orange Gifberg gazanias in spring, and intriguing small animals such as the crag lizard.