How ancient Africans dealt with pandemics

Prof Shadreck Chirikure says one of the ways to deal with the challenges was through social organisation.

Have you wondered how ancient African societies dealt with the outbreak of pandemics over the course of history? Yes, indeed we’re not the first to experience the devastation a pandemic can bring, although we’re slightly more advanced technologically and medically. Prof Shadreck Chirikure, Professor in Archaeology, at the University of Cape Town, currently in Oxford, joined Joanne Joseph on the line to elaborate on how ancient societies responded to these massive disruptions.

Pandemics are part of being human so it makes sense that people had to have strategies for managing them.

Prof Shadreck Chirikure, Professor in Archaeology - University of Cape Town

Closer to home, there is that place called K2, which is part of the Mapungubwe World Heritage site. Archaeologists started work there way back in the 1930s. The evidence that came from there shows there is an unusually high number of skeletons, in some cases mostly dominated by infants.

Prof Shadreck Chirikure, Professor in Archaeology - University of Cape Town

The settlement was abruptly abandoned. That shows that there are some of these invisible things that just appear and that as humanity [it is a challenge] how you respond to that.

Prof Shadreck Chirikure, Professor in Archaeology - University of Cape Town

Human beings would have dealt with them using means at their disposal, one of them being organisation.

Prof Shadreck Chirikure, Professor in Archaeology - University of Cape Town

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