FORGOTTEN WORLD By Delius, Peter Nicholas St. Martin -

ISBN: 9781868147748

Wits University Press | 01 March 2015

Paperback | 157 pages

The Mpumalanga Escarpment in South Africa saw massive changes in precolonial times. Still visible today is a vast expanse of man-made stone walling, which connects more than 10,000 square kilometers of land into a complex web of circular homesteads, towns, terraced fields, and linking roads, stretching for 150 kilometers in an almost continuous belt. Oral traditions recorded in the early 20th century named the area Bokoni-the country of the Koni people. Few people know much about these settlements, how and when they were created, and why today they are deserted and largely ignored. In "Forgotten World", two leading archaeologists and a distinguished historian provide a rich account that defies the usual stereotypes about backward African farming methods. They show that these settlements were at their peak in the period between 1500 and 1820, that they housed a substantial population, organized vast amounts of labor for infrastructural development, and displayed extraordinary levels of agricultural innovation and productivity. The inhabitants were connected to a trading system which linked them to the coast of Mozambique and to the wider world of Indian Ocean trade beyond. They straddled trade routes, especially in metal, that connected the mineral-rich northern reaches of South Africa to more southerly areas. Most intriguingly, oral traditions allow the authors to reconstruct the epic political and economic struggles that ultimately brought about the downfall and abandonment of the Bokoni settlements.