Central Tanzania is part of tectonically, isolated granite hills and rocks formed by remnants of the Precambrian basement that extended north to Lake Victoria.
The region have been habited by different ethnics group include Wasi, Wa-Rangi, Wa-Sandawe, Wa-Gogo, Wa-Mbugwe, Wa-Nyiramba, Baribaigi(Wa Mang’ati), Hadzabe(Wa-Habesh or Wa-Tindiga) and Wa-Nyaturu.
Their culture is noted in long history of the region since Stone Age period.
Today, the region is characterized by diverse culture that has evolved through interactions between Khoisan, Bantu and Nito-Hamite.
It is not quite clear which group was the first in the region. What we know is our ancestors occupied the region since middle Stone Age time 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. People have been adopting for many years to the changing condition by adopting at different technology and tradition.
The region is well known for it finest rock paintings, thought to have been the work of ancestors of today’s Sandawe people.
The rock art of Central Tanzania is the most extensive in East Africa and rank the 2rd in the prehistoric art of Africa.
The Stone Age painters recreated the world around them in scenes. The painting extended from Kondoa district to Iramba and northern parts of Singida districts.
Since 2006 Kondoa rock art painting were declared a world Heritage.
VALUE AND FUTURE OF ROCK ART.
Much of the early rock art predates writing and even oral remembered history. It is all that is now left to tell us of our ancestor’s views of their world, the visions of realty, their values and beliefs. The art is in fact a form of early visually communication.
These paintings are not merely symbols; many often portray great skill in their form and determination and demonstrate the artist’s goals and talents of our ancestors.
In spite sun, wind and rain, many of these works have survived for about seven thousand years on the exposed rocks. Almost certainly, the large red and cream colored animal paintings found in central Tanzania represent the oldest existing art in East Africa. How longer will they last, depend very large on us. The art will only survive if the environment is conserved and valued by all who counter it.
WHAT MEANS THE ART
As difficult it is to determine why artist paint it is even more difficult to ascertain what was the purpose of this rock art. Most researchers have suggested symbolic values that expressed the artist’s deepest religious feelings and conceptions of reality. This, it is argued it was shamanic in nature involving control of the elements and community hilling.
However, other underlying purposes of rock art are more obscure, but they may well symbolize objects of reference. If ancient Egyptians used pictorial presentations as a system of writing and keeping records, can’t we say that these also were our ancestor’s form of writing and object of reference?
WHO MADE THE PAITINGS?
The identity of the artists and the date of their work are not clear. However, several scholars have attributed them to Khoisan hunter-gatherers, the ancestors of today Sandawe and Hadzabe population of the region. In the Kaokaveld of northern Namibia mountain “Omukuruwaro” “mountain of Gods” (as known by indigenous), today “Brandberg”(2574m highest in Namibia). There Meek’s cave which it had long been known to Sun as the “Cave of Memory” The cave is thought to have been a ceremonial place. It hosts a giant rock frieze 16ft long and 8ft. high which had been painted on by many generations of artists. The rock painting at Twyfelfontein in Namibia in 2007 was also declared World Heritage by UNESCO.
What is known is that over many millennia, a great diversity of people has come together in East Africa. It is after 3,000 years ago, when we had the earliest cultivating and animal keeping community in the region. Interaction between these people and the hunter-gatherers remain speculative.
HOW OLD ARE THE PAINTINGS?
More than 6,000 years old. The Brandberg at Maack’s shelter rock paintings (famous as “White lady”) in Namibia are estimated be between 2,000 to 4,000 years old.
RAPIDY CHANGE
When Dr. Leakey visited Kondoa 1929 the plains were still rich in games including giraffe, eland, roan antelope, kudu, zebra, etc. But six years later, even dik dik had disappeared; mostly due to the British Admiration tse tse fly campaign. Today, the animals population had bit recovered. This can be seen as one driving from Maasai steppe towards Kondoa and from Kondoa towards East to Manyoni. Although animal’s population faces several circumstances due to the expansion of the human activities in the region.
