Dogs and herders in southern Africa

Photo Credit: Johan Gallant

The geographical origin for the domestic dog is probably Eurasia. While modern dogs may have had a single origin about 15,000 YBP, earlier paleodogs may have been present 33,000 YBP. Dogs in sub-Sahara Africa therefore are most likely to be recent invaders from Eurasia. Currently, the oldest archaeological evidence for the presence of domestic dogs in Africa comes from about 7000-6000 YBP (the Neolithic of Egypt’s Western Desert and along the Nile in Egypt and Sudan). However, dogs do not appear to be widespread or common in African archeological sites until about 1000 YBP. This may be the result of confusion distinguishing between dog remains and jackal remains, or a more recent introduction of dogs.

In a new paper, Peter Mitchell (2014) of Oxford University follows up on an earlier paper on dog use by pre-colonial herders in southern Africa. Mitchell notes that dogs were one of several domestic animals kept by south African herders, but their economic and social relevance is poorly known. He reviews the evidence for the dog’s introduction into southern Africa and assesses the relative strengths of various lines of evidence (osteology; ancient DNA; animal tracks; faunal taphonomy) to identify those instances where the presence of dogs can most convincingly be established on sites used by herders.

The study reports skeletal evidence for herder-associated dogs comes from a handful of sites in the western half of South Africa, Namibia and, possibly, Botswana. A review of previous studies noted the strongest evidence is a nearly complete human burial in a shell midden at Cape St Francis on the Indian Ocean coast (dated 1150 ± 40 YBP) found with the skeleton of a small dog in the lap of the human skeleton. Other evidence suggests dogs have been present in the western regions of southern Africa since about at about the same time. Mitchell suggests that herder communities in the Cape acquired dogs through some exchange-mediated process of diffusion sourced ultimately to farmers in the eastern third of South Africa.

The first documented observation of dogs in southern Africa was made by Vasco da Gama and dates to 7 November 1497 when the Portuguese explorer observed people who were probably hunter-gatherers with dogs. Most observations of dogs with Khoe-speaking herders postdate the onset of Dutch colonization of the Cape in 1652. The dogs were medium height with short hair, long muzzles, and ears that could be erect and pointed or drooping. Analysis of skeletons buried at Zerrissene Mountain and Cape St Francis supports this description. These dogs were small, and more gracile overall than those found at agro-pastoralist sites in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin.

Some commentators suggest that the Khoe-speakers did not value their dogs highly, noting they were few in number and scrawny, and not cared for. But, in 1731 Peter Kolbe wrote more extensively about these people and considered the dogs well taken care of. Dogs of the Korana speaking people were larger and varied from grey to white to brown in color, but interbreeding with dogs introduced to South Africa by Europeans cannot, perhaps, be excluded. Korana dogs were also well treated. They were feed meat and milk.

Mitchell proposes dogs in used by herding cultures acted as companions, guard dogs, defenders of livestock, and as aids in hunting. While the Damara in north-central Namibia apparently ate dogs, there is no evidence to support this in the other cultures. Dogs also played a role in the belief systems of these peoples, to at least a limited degree.

Hendrik Wikar led an expedition to the north of the Cape Colony in the 1770s, and recounts the story of a group of women who chose to sleep on an elephant trail close to a river. Not having dogs with them, and having chosen not to light a fire, two were trampled to death by a passing elephant. Dogs could also alert their human companions to human enemies, Jan van Riebeeck describes this in early conflicts between the Cape Khoekhoen people and the Dutch East India Company in 1659. Dogs also alert people to the presence of predators of livestock. Today in Kenya, for example, annual livestock losses to predators are in the range of 1-6 %, though this understates their possible significance to individual owners.

European farmers in the 19th and 20th centuries employed shooting, traps and poisons to control jackals and reduce their attacks on sheep, precolonial herders must necessarily have depended more heavily upon dogs. Kolbe wrote about this in 1731 and describes how the Khoe-speakers would release dogs at night to guard livestock.

Mitchell suggests when and how dogs came to be part of the lives of southern African herders merits more research. Noting that it might be productive to look at the taphonomy of other faunal assemblages where sheep are prominent to see if there is evidence for canine-induced modification. Sheep do not travel by themselves, they needed to be looked after. Previous authors have proposed that dogs and livestock spread together in the Neolithic Sahara. And, it seems likely that success in a carnivore-rich African landscape would have been very difficult without the help of the dog.

Today, dogs are being used in southern Africa to protect sheep from local predators. There is a dual benefit because the dogs guard the sheep from the endangered cheetah and protect the cheetahs from being shot by the farmers. Anatolian sheep dogs are being used for this purpose. However indigenous dogs are still present in southern Africa, they are free-ranging and still exhibit behaviors involved in guarding livestock. For more on indigenous African dogs see the AfriCanis website; The story of the African Dog by Johan Gallant. And, SOS Dog, The purebred Dog Hobby re-examined by Johan and Edith Gallant.  

Citation

Mitchell, P. (2014). The canine connection II: dogs and southern African herders. Southern African Humanities, 26, 1-19.