Background - A Short Safari Adventure Among Africa's Thorny Bushveld Wildlife - page 3

physiology and anatomy not shown any evidence of natural selection for advantageous traits?
Is it because we have unique genetic traits and homeostatic mechanisms that tend to bring us
back to a basic unity of physiology and anatomy? On the Lebombo plain hunter-gatherers lived
a life of relative luxury while others, particularly the amaTonga, eked out a living by
scavenging and stealing meat from lions. Eventually they were overrun by the Shangaan tribe,
an Nguni tribe that fled Shaka Zulu with their Chief Shoshangaan, who promptly killed
Portuguese traders and missionaries in the Kingdom of Monomatapa, the early Shona nation
and traders of gold at Great Zimbabwe. Today, illegal Shangaan and amaTonga immigrants
continue to be the prey of lions, and Southern Africa's Terrible Twelve (lions, leopards,
elephants, rhinos, buffalo, snakes, crocodiles, hippos, sharks, diseases, hyenas, and Homo
sapiens) continue to take a high toll in killing and frequently eating humans.
In the Ngwenya (crocodile) Mountains, a cavern named Lion cave is believed to be the
world's oldest mine, dating back at least 43,000 years according to famed archeologist
Professor Raymond Dart's analysis. Some speculate that 2,000 years ago Komate seafarers
from Southern India mined for gold in the area and others speculate that Phoenician Himyaritic
sailors mined gold for King Solomon here in 1000BC. Portuguese sailors (Vasco De Gama in
1498), traders and hunters followed the Komati River up through a gap (poort) in the Lebombo
Mountains where the Komati and Crocodile rivers cut through at Komatipoort to exploit the
Lowveld Lebombo Plain. Europeans later rediscovered gold in 1879 beneath the shadow of
Kamhlabane at Piggs Peak and Jeppes Reef, one corner of the Barberton Greenstone System. In
the early 1820s onwards, the pastoralist hordes of the later-named Swazi, Sotho and Zulus
tribes battled each other on the plain.
Southern Africa topography