Animal Studies, Decoloniality and San Rock Art and Myth

Abstract

Animals occupy an ambivalent position in relation both to Western capitalist modernity and to decoloniality, one of modernity’s most vehement opponents. Paradoxically, animals are equally central to and yet marginalised by these discourses, both of which are thoroughly anthropocentric. Racist discourses thrive on “animalising” groups of people, which can only work if the status of nonhuman animals is diminished. Modern agribusiness values nonhuman animals merely as resources. The meat industry profits from killing hundreds of millions of animals daily and is one of the main drivers of climate change and environmental destruction. In its relentless pursuit of profit, Western capitalist modernity destroys not only indigenous cultures but also the environments that sustain them, including indigenous fauna and flora. Ngugi argues that Africans prior to colonialism had rich oral literary traditions, often centred on animals, which colonialism dismembered. This article explores the animal figure central to traditional San rock art and myth to see if this can form an imaginative basis for regaining respect for nonhuman animals. Until nonhuman animal lives are respected the attitudes that fuel both racism and environmental destruction will persist.