Inconspicuously drawn in remote caves in southern Angola, the Tchitundo-Hulo cave paintings are among the country’s most important archaeological remains, but lack of protection threatens valuable heritage.
It is said that they “fell from the sky” – the meaning of Tchitundo-Hulo in the local language – and are located about 130 kilometers from the head of the municipality of Virei, Namibe province, southern Angola, in a desert region at which is accessed by following a sandy path.
Around it, the landscape is sandy and the terrain is dry and stony. Some goats nibble on stunted bushes and the ‘sambos’ (circular pens closed with branches) of the Mucaba shepherds who live there are visible, invisible but vigilant, always attentive to visitors.
“Here no one thinks they are alone, they are always watching. And woe to the strangers who come to visit the caves without showing up! There were some tourists who came to visit the caves without prior notice, but they were not allowed to go ahead and had to go back”, says Paihama Catenga, head of the area of culture and tourism of the Municipal Administration of Virei, who accompanied a team from Lusa to the place.
It is not known exactly who left the drawings, or why. Some resemble animal shapes, guessing fish and turtles, others are circles and abstract shapes that could be representations of the sky and stars.
Experts estimate that the perpetrators were Khoisan or Cuisses-Tua, ancestral peoples who were already settled in southern Angola before the arrival of the Bantu, the majority ethnic group in the country.
The ‘soba’ Ananás, from Virei, says that it was his ancestors, “thousands of years ago”, but adds that there are other theories.
“Some elders say that it was not man-made, that it is supernatural. When the whites came here and asked who did it, they said: we found it like this, it came from God, it came from heaven”, explains the representative of the traditional authorities.
Above all because “the paintings were covered and no man paints to cover them later,” he argues.
The cacique assures that before the place was respected, following the rules of the mucubales, “but the current culture no longer follows the old ones”, accelerating degradation due to the combined effect of climatic agents and human action.
The prehistoric drawings, of which there are more than a thousand, scattered between the interior of the two caves and the granite hill that make up the complex, began to be studied in the 1950s by the Portuguese geologist Camarate França.
But to this day its meaning remains an enigma and the decipherment may never come due to the risk that the engravings will disappear, access to which is not controlled and are exposed to the elements.
The lower cave (Casa Maior) is easily accessible and was once fenced off by the Angolan authorities, who want to upgrade the complex to World Heritage status, as UNESCO requires free access.
The removal of the fence does not please Ildeberto Madeira, a sociologist and member of the Association of Naturalists and Friends of Namibe, who warns about the risks of destroying ancient art without protection to defend it.
“These paintings are more than 2,000 years old, they must be preserved,” he appeals, arguing that access must be controlled.
“The oxen come from all sides, they go in there, they play with their horns and they destroy the paintings. We are in a place where the lives of the people are oxen. They are loose, the young can enter with the herds in search of pastures and the horns are spoiled ”, he exemplified.
In some places, the engravings appear already stained by contemporary inscriptions and there are also tourists and foreigners who remove the granite slabs, which are easily detached, to take paintings.
“I had information that tourists break stone slabs to remove the paintings and take them away, since they are very easy to remove,” laments the specialist, now retired.
Ildeberto Madeira points out that access to caves or protected heritage in other countries is very different and suggests that it could even generate income.
Virei’s head of culture and tourism, Paihama Catenga, also regrets that the heritage is not protected and agrees with the idea of sealing the site.
He even assures that there were more engravings in the caves, but erosion, infiltration and runoff of water and the wear and tear of time do not forgive.
“You really have to protect them,” he exhorts.
Source: Observadora
