THE ‘White Lady’ rock painting in the Brandberg mountain in the Erongo Region was first discovered in 1917 by the German explorer and topographer Reinhard Maack.
He had been surveying the upper reaches of the Brandberg when he descended down the Tsisab Gorge and stumbled upon the grotto with the paintings. In honour of his find the site is named Maack’s shelter. Maack was impressed by the main figure of the painting, which he described as ‘a warrior’. In his notes, he wrote that ‘the Egyptian-Mediterranean style of all the figures is surprising’. He made several hand-drawn copies of the painting, which were later published in Europe.In 1929 a French priest, Abbe Henri Breuil, saw Maack’s colour copy and decided that the central figure was definitely a young girl of Mediterranean origin. In 1947 Breuil came to Namibia and visited the site and declared that the central figure was a young Cretan girl dressed in the costume of a bull jumper. In 1955 he published a book entitled ‘The White Lady of the Brandberg’ and since then the rock painting has been known as the ‘White Lady’.In 1975 Harald Pager, a rock art authority, made a copy of the whole frieze. He closely studied the paintings and his meticulous copy work established that the figure was indeed a man. Excavations at the site have also revealed that the figures are not of foreign origin. The ‘White Lady’ and the adjacent figure are both male. They have penis decorations and their antelope-tail fly whisks, knee and arm straps and dancing rattles show that they are performing a ritual.They also have body markings or ritual sweat, shown on the ‘White Lady’ as droplets and streaks. Both men are medicine men or ritual specialists. Each medicine man in the Maack Shelter is different, indicating that they are depicting specific individuals. The ‘White Lady’ medicine man was therefore a real person who practised as a healer in the area. The painting has suffered severe damage since it was first discovered. For a few decades, tourists used to pour water and other liquids on the painting to make the colours more clearly visible in their pictures, thus causing the painting to fade quickly. The site is now a protected heritage site, and visiting is only permitted with official guides.The rock painting is polychrome, meaning that it was painted with more than one colour, and dates back to about 4 000 to 6 000 years. There are also several monochrome or one-colour paintings found in the shelter. In the Brandberg area about 45 000 examples of prehistoric rock art have been discovered in 1 000 shelters and caves.
