The case of the Linton Cave

By Gavin Heath; Bachelor of Arts, Higher Diploma in Education, Master’s Degree in City and Regional Planning; Geography Education; Lecturer - School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

This study shows how the territorial labelling of a specific unofficial heritage site in the north eastern Cape Drakensberg, South Africa contributed to a contested, fragile and obscure national identity, in the form of figures on the nation’s coat of arms.

The methodology analysed the language harnessed by both the South African government and the South African Museum in Cape Town, which houses the excised Linton Panels.  Furthermore, a number of maps were analysed to show how the area was, and still is, neglected and marginalized.

Moreover, a few academic papers were studied.  These papers show not only how the cave was cut into, and the panels excised for transport to the South African Museum, but also how no further significance, or protection, was attached to the extremely noteworthy shelter whence the panels came.

The territorial area today is marked by deep spatial and cultural inequalities (extremely vulnerable communities are living in close proximity), despite half-hearted and incipient measures to revive the area’s economy.  Continuer la lecture de The territorial labelling of a heritage site in the north-eastern Cape Drakensberg, South Africa →