Humans in the Kruger National Park – Part 1
The natural history of the Kruger National Park is what brings one million visitors through its gates every year. The biodiversity the Park offers is impressive and the innumerable animal and plant species that call Kruger their home have attracted nature lovers for over 100 years. But there’s another kind of history that shouldn’t be overlooked, and that is the fascinating history of the humans that have over time associated themselves with the area we now know as the Kruger National Park.
It starts as far back as prehistoric man – Homo erectus – who lived in the Kruger area some 500000 years ago. Thereafter, the Park was inhabited by the Middle Stone Age man of 50 000 years ago. The Late Stone Age people and their San descendants, the Iron Age man of 1 500 years ago, followed with finally the European explorers and settlers into latter day. Numerous sites of San rock art have been discovered in the Kruger and partaking in either the Bushmans or Wolhuter Wilderness Trail will afford you the best opportunity to see these up close.
The first European to reach the Transvaal interior is believed to be Francios de Kuiper, a Dutchman under the employ of the Dutch East India Company, who led an expedition in 1725 to evaluate the prospect of gold mining in the area. Setting off from Delagoa Bay (present day Maputo) they traversed the Lebombo Mountains and crossed the Crocodile River into the Kruger. According to de Kuiper’s diary, after approximately 30km they came under fierce attack by local tribesmen at a place called Gomondwane between present day Crocodile Bridge and Lower Sabie Rest Camps and after surviving the onslaught, retreated to the coast. A memorial plaque marks this spot on the H4-2 tar road close to Crocodile Bridge.
The 19th century saw further infiltration into the Lowveld. Seeking to disassociate themselves from tensions with the British in the Cape, a flood of Boers known as the Voortrekkers – the forerunner to South Africa’s indomitable Afrikaaner –moved north-east into the Transvaal. In 1836, the first known organised expeditions of white men to cross the Lowveld were those led by the Voortrekker leaders Hans van Rensburg and Louis Trichardt, both seeking routes to Delagoa Bay on the Indian Ocean. Both parties were unsuccessful with van Rensburg’s group massacred by Chief Manukosi and Trichardt’s succumbing to malaria. A plaque marking Trichardt’s passing can be seen at the junction of the H1-3 tar road and S33 and S37 sand roads a short distance north of Tshokwane picnic spot.
In roughly 1850, the first permanent residence by a European in the Kruger Park was taken up by João Albasini, a Portuguese trader who set up a trading post at Ngomeni near the confluence of the Phabeni creek and the Sabie River, north of today’s Pretoriuskop Rest Camp. The ruins of his mud brick house are still there and can be visited by anyone passing through the Phabeni Gate.
I’ve only just touched on the beginnings of the Kruger’s social history and sadly, I doubt I’ll manage to cover every account to come out of the Park. But over the next few blogs, I’ll introduce some of the characters who have come to play a role in the Kruger’s story, all of whom have had an absorbing contribution to the tale. I hope you’ll enjoy them.
