THE rock paintings, popularly referred to as “Bushman paintings”, of Southern Rhodesia are confined to the granite areas where the smooth and sheltered faces of the rocks provide an ideal canvas. Naturally the caves, which formed the most suitable places for prolonged habitation, provide the most outstanding examples, but it is hardly too much to say that almost every kopje will be found, on close inspection, to carry one or two figures, even though many of them have been rendered indistinct by prolonged exposure.

The subject is a big one and bristles with problems, and this is hardly the place in which to deal exhaustively with it. The most that can be attempted here is to record the work done by those who have interested themselves in it, and to indicate some of its difficulties. It can be approached from the standpoint of the artist who naturally looks at it from the aesthetic angle, and is mainly interested in form, technique and colour; from that of the ethnologist who seeks data connected with native custom and raiment, and looks for what evidence he can find for the working of the native mind; and from that of the prehistorian whose main concern is with the cultural association of the paintings and their correct sequence, and it is obviously his task to synthesise all the information he can gain from whatever angle. For any person to do full justice to every aspect of the paintings is perhaps rather more than can be expected but there can be no doubt that each and every aspect is important and can help to contribute to a proper understanding of the subject as a whole.

The paintings have been objects of interest during the whole of the period under review, and a good deal of attention has been focused upon them. The first paper contributed to the Proceedings of the Rhodesia Scientific Association in 1899 was a note on rock paintings in the Tuli district by Mr A. J. C. Molyneux. Between that year and 1912 accounts of rock paintings located were furnished to the Association by Messrs F. Eyles, F. W. G. Brown, F. White, F. P. Mennell, E. C. Chubb and A. E. Zealley.