Events

The Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits in collaboration with the SFF Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE) at the University of Bergen, Norway, have developed an installation of an exhibition, Origins of Early Sapiens Behaviour.

Curated by Petro Keene, Craig Foster and Jos Thorne, the exhibition is on from 10 May to 31 August 2018 at the Spier Wine Farm, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa.

It is part of a broader museum exhibition and education programme to be established at the De Hoop Nature Reserve in 2019. 

Origins of Early Sapiens Behaviour showcases 25 years of archaeological research in the southern Cape, undertaken by Professor Christopher Henshilwood and Dr Karen van Niekerk and their research team at Blombos Cave and Klipdrift Shelter.

Henshilwood is Distinguished Professor and South African NRF SARChI Chair in Modern Human Origins at the ESI at Wits. He is also director of a Research Council of Norway funded 10 year Centre of Excellence, the Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE) at the University of Bergen, Norway.

 

Displays of the Origins of Early Sapiens Behaviour have been designed to explore key aspects of archaeological research linked to our human origins and innovations and they illustrate the rich archaeological record of the southern coast of South Africa. 

Themes focus on and explore the concept of ‘we are all one’. This enables the viewer to engage with the knowledge that Homo sapiens originated from the continent of Africa and promotes an understanding of our common ancestry. 

Daily life of Homo sapiens captured on film

Artefacts have been finely replicated and displayed to highlight the fascinating discoveries from the Blombos Cave and the Klipdrift Shelter sites. These comprise 16 display panels including four videos by the filmmaker, Craig Foster.

The videos illustrate the remarkable scientific work of archaeologists and recreate scenes of the daily activities of our early human ancestors, Homo sapiens, who lived in caves along the southern coast of South Africa over 160 000 years ago.

One of the many exciting finds presented is a 100 000-year-old ochre-processing toolkit from Blombos Cave. This find is evidence of the manufacture of red ochre-rich paint that was mixed and stored in the first known containers, abalone shells. The people living in the cave made beads out of tiny estuarine shells, engraved abstract designs on ochre and created intricate stone and bone points.

In the De Hoop Nature Reserve at Klipdrift Shelter, more than 100 deliberately engraved ostrich eggshell fragments were recovered in layers that date from 65 000 to 59 000 years ago. These artefacts provide evidence for early complex behaviour and the capacity for symbolic thought.

Origins of Early Sapiens Behavior showcases replicated engraved eggshell fragments and engraved ostrich egg water flasks as well as replicas of finely crafted stone tools. These are among the earliest remnants of hunting tools and evidence of a highly sophisticated and technologically minded people.

Current genetic evidence and a ‘people’s history’ is portrayed at the Origins of Early Sapiens Behaviour exhibition to educate learners and visitors about their past and instil a sense of pride in our common African origins. Thus, the experience of learning about our early ancestors is enhanced by the ‘power of place’ – by being situated within the very area in which they once thrived.

The Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival, Tap Your Afro Source Code, has announced the line-up of its 2018 programme promising to yet again transform Johannesburg into a celebration of technology, creativity and innovation from across the African continent.

The full program of activities running from 18 August to 29 September 2018, Fak’ugesi will take place at Tshimologong Precinct sharing activities in 2018 with Wits Art Museum and the Point of Order.

 

About Fak’ugesi

Fak’ugesi - Joburg’s one and only African Digital Innovation Festival will take place in September 2018, with the theme ‘Tap your Africa Source Code’. The 2018 festival will focus on bringing to the table important African visions and futures, by tapping into the sources of African tradition and culture alongside technology, creativity and innovation.  Explore how local culture can move and change the future of technology. What would you call a vernacular algorithm? What is algorithm in IsiZulu? In 2018 Fak’ugesi Festival calls on you to explore the algorithms, patterns and fractals of Africa! In digital art, music, games, VR, digital makers or the way you braid your hair.

Fak’ugesi, which means “Switch it on” or “add power” in urban Zulu, is focused on making young adults aware of digital innovation. It is an opportunity for young adults, with or without formal education, to learn or engage with tomorrow’s technology.

According to an Impact Report commissioned by the British Council ConnectZA- Fak’ugesi is believed to be the most important digital creativity festival in Africa.

http://fakugesi.co.za/

About Wits University’s Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct

Setswana for “new beginnings”, Tshimologong is one of Johannesburg’s newest high-tech addresses in the vibrant inner-city district of Braamfontein, where the incubation of start-ups, the commercialisation of research and the development of high-level digital skills for students, working professionals and unemployed youths takes place. The Precinct was launched in September 2016 with strategic support from major companies including Microsoft, Cisco, TIA, Teraco, BCX, ACSA and MMI. Gauteng Province through its Department of E-Government and the City of Johannesburg have also provided significant support. The Precinct also houses the prestigious IBM Research’s Lab Africa – one of only 12 such facilities in the world. Website: www.tshimologong.joburg

This talk addresses the question of what it means to think fluvially, even as we are faced with the prospect of not fire, but water, the next time. How does water affect thinking when one lives by the sea? Or does it? Or is it taken for granted, as in Borges’s remark that there are no camels in the Koran? Professor Dilip Menon from the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa will discuss the above and his current project which engages with the question of water, oceans and floods as central to the imagination of history and region.

 

Can wealth shocks have intergenerational health consequences? In this talk, Fourie will use the partial compensation slave owners received after the 1834 slave emancipation in the British Cape Colony to measure the intergenerational effects of a wealth loss on longevity. Because the share of partial compensation received was uncorrelated to wealth, we can interpret the results as having a causal influence. We find that a greater loss of slave wealth had a negative effect on the longevity of both the generation of slave owners that experienced the shock and their children, but not for grandchildren. We speculate on the mechanisms for this intergenerational persistence.

30 Aug 2018, WITS vs UL, Wits Stadium, 16:00*

*TV Game