Tsodilo won�t let me in the Python Cave, again

Xontai Ghao guide at Tsodilo in the mouth of Horned Serpent Natural Cistern PIC: THALEFANG CHARLES
Xontai Ghao guide at Tsodilo in the mouth of Horned Serpent Natural Cistern PIC: THALEFANG CHARLES

Last week Mmegi’s intrepid staffer THALEFANG CHARLES went back to Tsodilo Hills on his third attempt to enter the highly revered serpent cave that 10 years ago changed the world’s understanding of human ritual history. He reports from the place dubbed ‘Mountains of the Gods’

The Python Cave is mankind’s oldest known ritual site. A colossal discovery by Associate Professor Sheila Coulson, from the University of Oslo in 2006 revealed that the modern human, homo sapiens, performed advanced rituals at Tsodilo over 70,000 years ago. Up until Coulson’s sensational discovery, scholars had largely held that modern man’s first rituals were carried out just over 40,000 years ago in Europe.

In 2010 when I first entered Python Cave, I had no information about the significance of the cave and I did not follow proper courtesy to accordingly pay respects to this ancestry of human rituals. It was the year that I had walked to Tsodilo Hills from Samuchima near Shakawe, on a charity walk organised by Y-Care Charitable Trust. The walk was a grueling 40 kilometres that left me with sore muscles and gory blisters. I still vividly remember the pains and emotions when I reached Tsodilo Hills that evening before I collapsed due to what the medics diagnosed as low sugar levels. It was under such severe exhaustion that I first met these Mountains of the Gods.

Editor's Comment
Routine child vaccination imperative

The recent Vaccination Day in Motokwe, orchestrated through collaborative efforts between UNICEF, USAID, BRCS, and the Ministry of Health, underscores a commendable stride towards fortifying child health services.The painful reality as reflected by the Ministry of Health's data regarding the decline in routine immunisation coverage since the onset of the pandemic, is a cause for concern.It underscores the urgent need to address the...

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