Ephemeral footprints on the sand today remind us of the eternal, two-hundred-thousand-year-old fossilized footprints discovered at a cave in 1964, and of famous South Africans who have left other footprints on South Africa’s story.
East London, affectionately called Buffalo City by locals, is situated on the Indian Ocean 1000 km north of Cape Town on the southeast coast of South Africa. Lying between the Nahoon River on the north and the Buffalo River on the south, it is the only river port in South Africa. Flanking the city is Mdantsane, South Africa’s second largest township after Soweto, and also crazy about soccer and boxing.
Human dramas have played out against this landscape for centuries. Long before written history, the banks of the Buffalo River and the seashore were inhabited by early man—the Nahoon Footprints have been dated at 200,000 years old, the oldest fossilized human footprints found in the world. In more recent history the area was home to the Khoisan or Bushmen, who were pushed out of the region by later white settlers. The area is also gateway to the land of Nelson Mandela’s childhood and to the mountains where Nguni cattle roam. Nelson Mandela grew up in the village of Qunu, not far from East London. He herded cattle as a young boy in this land of rolling mountains and took his first steps on the long walk to freedom. It was here that he discovered that “after climbing a great hill one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”
Thabo Mbeki, who became president after Mandela, also has his roots in the Eastern Cape. He went to high school in Lovedale until he was expelled for his participation in the struggle for freedom. In addition, this is the region where German and British settlers came up against the Xhosa people in the 1800s in the eternal battle for prime grazing land. A British fort, Fort Glamorgan, was constructed in 1847 to protect the vital river port that supplied the army and settlers in the region. Present-day East London developed around this fort. Land and cattle have always been a key measure of wealth and status in Africa. Traditional Xhosa people pride themselves on their Nguni cattle, which are still found in large numbers in the Eastern Cape. Like rainstorms and sunsets, Ngunis are an integral part of this landscape. Fertile and disease resistant, with distinctive horns and patterned hides; Nguni evolved in Africa over thousands of years. Each hide pattern has an evocative name: a cow with a white belly and white legs is called “Erwanqa,” meaning “as if having walked through milk.” A mottled black and white cow is called “Amalatha,” meaning “like a few unburnt coals lying in the ashes of a dead fire.”
Nguni cattle are the central motif in the Keiskamma Tapestry, a famous embroidered artwork 120 m long, created by Xhosa women to tell the story of the Eastern Cape—starting with the San Bushmen who lived here for thousands of years, and ending with South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994 when Nelson Mandela was elected. In the tapestry a figure like a dune runner is featured as a mystical nature figure surrounded by the creatures of the wild. It’s a fitting portrait for an area well known for its wildlife, malaria-free Big Five game reserves, and oceans rich in dolphins, sharks, and whales. This Keiskamma Tapestry tries to illustrate the layer upon layer of history, culture, and natural beauty close to East London.
With all this history as background, we went searching for the antiquity from the sand. Ephemeral footprints on the sand today remind us of the eternal, 200,000-year-old fossilized footprints discovered at Bat’s Cave in 1964. We stop at Nahoon Beach, just north of the city, to walk on the beach and the boardwalk. East London’s most popular beach is Nahoon Beach, named after a local Xhosa chief. It is home to the East London Surf Lifesaving Club and has a large stretch of uncrowded, unpolluted sand to the north and a rocky bluff to the south, which has an elevated boardwalk reaching all the way round to Nahoon Corner. The beach is renowned throughout the surfing community for producing some spectacular waves and is the venue for many surfing competitions. The Nahoon River flows into the sea here, creating an estuary, which is a favorite among local fishermen and offers safe bathing for people who don’t want to brave the surf.
