Heritage Day Walk To Sibudu

Our human heritage here in KZN goes much further back in time than the coming of the Indian merchants and sugar labourers, the Natal settlers, or the Zulu tribes: people lived in the Sibudu Rock Shelter, near Tongaat, 80000 years ago, before humans migrated from Africa to the rest of the world.

To affirm this common human heritage, Lifelong Learning kzn has got special permission from AMAFA to visit this important Middle Stone Age site on Sept 24 on a walk assembling at 8.30 am at the Tongaat Huletts compound off the R614, walking through the cane fields, then down along bushy riverside to below the cliff, and then wading across the river and climbing the rocks up to this site.

"It is important that local people begin to understand this pre-historic heritage, which includes finds of the oldest bedding in the world, oldest bone awl, oldest arrow head, oldest hafting with compound glue. These ancient people, our Homo sapiens African ancestors, were ingenious, at the cutting edge of technology at the time" says Charlotte Mbali, Chairperson of LLLkzn, echoing the words of Prof Lyn Wadley from Wits University, who for 15 years led the research team at this site. Over 90 scientific papers have been written about the site and there is room there for at least 25 years of further archaeology. But the whole environment may change next year if the authorities go ahead to put 600 low-cost houses on the nearby sugar cane field - see https://www.sibudu.net for further details.

Sibudu is a rock shelter on a cliff beside the Uthongathi river north of Durban, South Africa