Lekhubu Island

Nestled on the fringe of the vast Makgadikgadi Salt Pans in northern Botswana, Lekhubu Island stands as a mysterious and captivating cultural heritage site. This unique, 20-metre-high granite rock formation is dotted with ghost-like Baobab trees rising from the white expanse of the salt flats. Despite its unusual appearance, the island offers a glimpse into the deep history and cultural significance of the region.

Lekhubu Island, like most islands in the area, is made up of ancient sand dunes with boulders stained white by fossilized bird droppings that bear testament to a large bird population that once lived there. The landscape is littered with artefacts spanning the Early Stone Age to the more recent past.

Acheulian stone tools in the form of hand axes indicate that Homo erectus populations were living around the Makgadikgadi palaeolake between 1 million and 300,000 years ago. Evidence for the presence of early anatomically modern humans have been identified by the remains of Middle Stone Age tools such as scrapers and borers dating approximately 80 – 60 thousand years ago and 40 – 35 thousand years ago, respectively. The Island also exposes layers of Leopard’s Kopje tradition ceramics and architecture belonging to agro-pastoral communities who adapted to new types of environments over time.

Today, Lekhubu Island site is co-managed between the Gaing-O Community Trust representing the community of Mmatshumo village and surrounding settlements and the Department of the National Museum and Monuments (DNMM). The trust, established in 1997, offers a vehicle to manage and derive benefits through sustainable utilisation of natural and cultural resources, which is a Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) partnership for environmental conservation and tourism.

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Did you know?

The local community of Lekhubu Island have long considered it to be sacred place. According to tradition, it is the dwelling place of ancestral spirits where communities petition the ancestral deities to bless and protect the inhabitants of the Makgadikgadi region.

Sources

1. Coulson, S.D., Staurset, S., Mothulatshipi, S., Burrough, S.L., Nash, D.J., and Thomas, D.S.G. (2022). Thriving in the Thirstland: New Stone Age sites from the Middle Kalahari, Botswana. Quaternary Science Reviews, 297, 1-15 [Link]
2. Gaodirelwe, I., Masunga, G., and Motsholapheko, M. (2018). Community-based natural resource management: a promising strategy for reducing subsistence poaching around protected areas, northern Botswana. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 22, 2269–2287 [Link]
3. McFarlane, M.J. and Segadika, P. (2001). Archaeological evidence for the reassessment of the ages of the Makgadikgadi palaeolakes. Botswana Notes and Records, 33, 83-89 [Link]
4. Moore, A.E., Cotterill, F.P.D. and Eckardt, F.D. (2012). The evolution and ages of Makgadikgadi palaeo-lakes: consilient evidence from Kalahari drainage evolution. South African Journal of Geology, 113, 358-413 [Link]
5. Moore, A., Flügel, T., Hutton-Squire, T., Hutton-Squire, M., and Humphrey, G. (2016). Size distribution of Baobabs on Kubu Island, Sowa Pan (northern Botswana): an indicator of late-stage evolution of the Makgadikgadi palaeo-lake and climate change? South African Journal of Geology, 119, 535-544 [Link]
6. Nash, D.J., Ciborowski, T.J.R., Coulson, S.D., Staurset, S., Burrough, S.L., Mothualatshipi, S., and Thomas, D.S.G. (2022). Mapping Middle Stone Age human mobility in the Makgadikgadi Pans (Botswana) through multi-site geochemical provenancing of silcrete artefacts. Quaternary Science Reviews, 297, 1-22 [Link]
7. Riedel, F., Erhardt, S., Chauke, C., Kossler, A., Shemang, E., and Tarasov, P. (2012). Evidence for a permanent lake in Sua Pan (Kalahari, Botswana) during the early centuries of the last millennium indicated by distribution of Baobab trees (Adansonia digitata) on “Kubu Island.” Quaternary International, 253, 67-73 [Link]
8. van Waarden, C. (2011). Revisiting Lekhubu. Presentation at the Conference of the Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists Mbabane, Swaziland [Link]