Boop! Snail.
Feb 08, 2018
Oh, the deliberations this page caused me!
What I had in mind here was the site of Blombos Cave, which is one of the earliest (possibly THE earliest?) material example of anatomically modern humans doing quintessentially abstract human things. The beads and ochre are (very) roughly 70,000 years old. For reference, that's tens of thousands of years earlier than the famous examples of cave art in Europe.
As soon as you try to depict a person from the past, especially from this foundational African society that is only accessible through the echoes and whispers of their material culture, you're projecting so many preconceptions of your own era and understanding. Would they *really* have clothes? Would they look so clean? Would their hair be like that? What colour skin should they have? Etc etc.
I suppose my in-fiction get out clause is that this entire scene is in Halisi's imagination!
Joanne Kwan
Top comment
That's a good way about it! Your imagination expressed through Halisi's imagination
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