Antelope Of The Sun

The Kalahari is one of those special places that captures our imagination with its stark beauty.

- Lorraine Doyle

It’s an ancient landscape of rolling, windblown dunes that form the largest continuous expanse of sand on earth. A semi-desert – it receives more annual rainfall than the 50mm maximum which defines a true desert – the Kalahari supports a unique assemblage of fauna and flora. The focus of this article, however, is on one Kalahari inhabitant in particular – the Eland (Taurotragus oryx).

Legend has it that the first animal created by the Santrickster deity Kaggen, and the one which remained his favourite, was the Eland. It features extensively in San art and shamanic rituals because it is believed to possess a mystic potency. San shamans harness this supernatural energy – located most especially in Eland blood, fat and sweat – to enable them to undertake the dangerous journey to the spirit world where they must perform crucial tasks such as fighting off evil spirits, curing the sick and rainmaking. The Eland is also credited with being the animal who returned the Sun from the underworld to the sky, after it had been stolen by the great cannibal goddess of darkness.