Drakensberg Times Spring 2025

As the winter frost lifts from the Drakensberg valleys, the skies begin to stir with movement. Arcing and diving with effortless grace, the swallows return, heralding the change of season. Their arrival is one of the surest signs that spring has settled over the mountains.

Among the most familiar of these migrants is the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica), a small bird with a deep-blue back, russet throat, and long forked tail. After spending the northern summer breeding across Europe and Asia, they embark on an epic journey—flying thousands of kilometres south to reach the grasslands and wetlands of KwaZulu-Natal. By early spring, they can be seen gliding low over pastures, vleis, and riverbanks in search of insects.

The Drakensberg offers them rich feeding grounds. Warmer days bring a surge of insect life, and the swallows’ agile flight, twisting and swooping in quick succession, transforms this abundance into a mesmerising aerial display.

For rural communities and mountain dwellers, the return of the swallows has long marked the turning of the seasons. Farmers look upon them as allies, consuming countless midges and flies, while hikers and nature lovers welcome their acrobatic flights as proof that the long nights of winter are fading.

Though other migratory birds also reappear in spring—the Yellow-billed Kite and White Stork among them—the swallow’s numbers and restless activity make them the most visible heralds of the season.

One of the most remarkable sights in the Drakensberg is the evening roost. As daylight wanes, swallows gather in great flocks above wetlands and reedbeds, circling in fluid, shifting formations. For a few minutes, the sky itself seems alive with movement before the birds drop as one into the reeds, where they find warmth and safety for the night.

Despite their abundance, swallows face pressures across their migratory route. The loss of grasslands and wetlands, the heavy use of pesticides, and changing climate patterns are all threats that may disrupt their cycles. Protecting their feeding and roosting grounds in the Drakensberg remains vital to ensuring that these migrations continue.

Each spring, the swallows reconnect the Drakensberg with far-off landscapes and distant summers. Their presence is both local and global, a reminder that the rhythms of nature cross continents. To see their dark silhouettes skimming against the mountain backdrop is to be reminded of endurance, return, and renewal—the timeless spirit of spring in the Drakensberg.

The San of southern Africa observed distinctive burial customs, revealed through archaeological investigations in regions such as the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and parts of Zimbabwe. Although specific practices varied across time and place, several consistent features have been documented.

San communities or their forebears often buried their dead in rock shelters, beneath overhangs, or in caves. These locations provided natural protection and were sometimes associated with living areas or sites of symbolic importance. Well-known examples include Nelson Bay Cave in the Western Cape and Border Cave in KwaZulu-Natal.

The deceased were typically interred in a tightly flexed, fetal-like position, with knees drawn up to the chest and arms wrapped around the legs. This posture is believed to symbolise a return to the earth or the womb, echoing themes of rebirth and cyclical life. Some Nguni tribes used a similar form of internment.

Graves were usually shallow pits dug into the floor of the shelter or cave, just deep enough to contain the body in its crouched position. After burial, the body was sometimes covered with soil, stones, or flat rocks to protect it and mark the grave.

Red ochre, a substance rich in symbolic meaning across southern African cultures, was frequently sprinkled on the body or around the grave. In some burials, they included simple grave goods such as shell beads, ostrich eggshell fragments, or stone tools. These have been recovered from sites such as Nelson Bay Cave and Border Cave, indicating a degree of ritual behaviour or symbolic expression.

Burial sites often display signs of ritual care. The presence of ochre and personal ornaments suggests beliefs about the spiritual world, the role of ancestors, and the journey after death. Although evidence of formal ceremonies is limited, these symbolic elements reflect a broader worldview shaped by respect for the dead and the unseen.

The Champagne Valley or Cathkin Park area is an area which has a wide range of ancient Nguni burial sites. Some of these were excavated by archaeologists and paleoanthropologists as far back as the 1930s. These graves have revealed that the Amazizi lived in this area as far back as 1000 years before present (BP), and that the Amangwane later resided in this area when they marauded the region at the beginning of the 18th Century. They were later banished from this area by Zulu impis before the arrival of the Voortrekkers and British Settlers.

One of the nine burial sites excavated by the Witwatersrand team in the Cathkin Park area in the 1930s was Kaybar's Shelter, located in the Bush Reserve Conservation Area. The remains discovered form part of the Raymond A. Dart Archaeological Human Remains Collection at the University of the Witwatersrand. Mr V. Kaybar was the Manager of the Cathkin Peak Hotel at the time. He was fascinated by the ancient Iron Age homesteads and grave sites that exist in the area. He requested Raymond Dart to undertake the archaeological work that was done. Kaybar's shelter was named after him.

The excavation revealed two tombs, one of which contained the burial site of a child and the partial remains of an individual. The other tomb contained the skeleton of what was believed to be an AmaZizi male with some San admixture. The AmaZizi had very peaceful relations with the Drakensberg San and sometimes intermarried.

Anja Meyer, Rita Peyroteo‑Stjerna, Cecile Jolly, Carina M. Schlebusch, and Maryna Steyn recently or in 2021, reassessed these remains and the remains from the other sites excavated in the 1930s in terms of ages, health, diet, and identities, using more modern techniques such as radiocarbon dating, osteology, and stable isotopes.

They concluded that these remains may predate the Amazizi and may have been from an older Nguni tribe. The older burial suggests that population movements into the interior from KwaZulu-Natal occurred earlier than previously understood, or well before 1,000 BP, and that what was previously believed to be the time they moved into the Northern and Central Drakensberg was actually earlier.

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