The Concession - Human History

The Pafuri area has been inhabited by humans from as far back as 1.7 million years in the Early Stone Age. These first inhabitants (probably Homo erectus, a man-ape with our stature but smaller brain) left behind hundreds of thousands of stone tools – beautifully crafted hand-axes known as Acheulean axes. Tools of the Middle Stone Age that followed are also common, particularly on hilltops, used by these humans as lookout spots for game.

The area is covered with evidence from the cultures that characterise the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of the modern humans of the Latest Stone Age. Iron Age Bantu-speaking pastoralists moved into the area around 2000 years ago and rock art from this period is abundant all over Pafuri.

From around 1200, a great cultural civilisation arose in the region, as is evidenced at such sites as Mapungubwe in the western corner of Limpopo Province. These early civilisations represented the rise of one of the greatest trade networks of the day, with interactions and trade with Muslim traders and the creation of a trade centre that produced gold and ivory and traded for glass beads and porcelain from as far away as China!

The end of Mapungubwe occurred at the same time as the rise of an even greater trading and architectural civilisation: Great Zimbabwe, which flourished for more than a hundred years. The centre of power then shifted to the south at a site known as Khami (near present-day Bulawayo). Around 1550, groups moved south across the Limpopo and founded numerous flourishing settlements in the Pafuri region, including that of Thulamela on the southern bank of the Luvuvhu River. Thulamela was one of several walled cities that existed in the Pafuri triangle; almost every hill in the area has evidence of significant occupation during this period.

Thulamela and the other cities flourished at about the same time that Portuguese trade began on the eastern coast of southern Africa. Their wealth and sophistication is evident from the beautifully crafted gold jewellery, Arab glass beads and Chinese porcelain found in the sites and accompanying burials of sacred leaders. The Thulamela culture ended around 1650.

Less than two hundred years later, the Makuleke people settled in the area, founding their home at the confluence of the Luvuvhu and Limpopo rivers.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the confluence of the two watercourses had become the meeting point of three colonies: South Africa, Britain’s Rhodesia (today’s Zimbabwe) and Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique). This remote site passed into legend as “Crooks’ Corner,” where outlaws were able to escape the attentions of one colonial power by simply crossing the river to their country of choice – or moving the border beacon a few metres either way!