Since Europeans first attempted to settle the region of the Tarka river valley in today’s Eastern Cape, South Africa, during the late eighteenth century they were opposed by Indigenous groups. The disruptive nature of the colonial project meant that people from different ethnicities sought safety together and launched a wave of attacks, characterized by stock theft against the settlers. This resistance often came with such a degree of success that the settlers were forced to flee the area and retreat within the colony. The different members of these raiding groups would have had a variety of reasons to turn to banditry. These included the loss of hunting, gathering, and pastoral land, mistreatment by their colonial employers and attacks by colonial forces on their kin – indeed many were survivors of these assaults. That some of these groups included people of San descent is evident in the appearance of fine-line rock art in the region dating to this time period. However, the images are not of the traditional shaded polychrome variety. Instead they are of an unshaded “poster-style” and also include rough brush work and finger painting, a likely reflection of the mixed nature of these groups. Indeed, the lack of conventions in depicting subject matter, like horses, is likely testament to the painters’ diverse backgrounds. These paintings show scenes that appear to be concerned with the raiding of livestock. Rather than being the mere depictions of raids, they are likely bound up within a suite of beliefs relating to protection and rain control that multiethnic bandit groups drew upon to assist them with their clandestine activities.

自从欧洲人在18世纪后期试图在今天的南非东开普省定居塔卡河谷地区以来，他们就遭到了原住民团体的反对。殖民项目的破坏性性质意味着不同种族的人们一起寻求安全，并发起了一波攻击，其特征是针对定居者的股票被盗。这种抵抗通常伴随着一定程度的成功，以至于定居者被迫逃离该地区并在殖民地内撤退。这些袭击小组的不同成员会出于各种原因而转向盗匪。其中包括丧失狩猎，采集和牧区土地，殖民雇主对他们的虐待以及殖民势力对其亲属的袭击-实际上，许多人幸免于难。这些群体中有一些人是圣血统的人，这可以追溯到该时期的细线岩石艺术。但是，图像不是传统的着色多色图像。相反，它们是不带阴影的“海报样式”，还包括粗糙的笔刷和手指画，这很可能反映了这些群体的混合性。确实，在描绘主题（如马）方面缺乏惯例很可能证明了画家的不同背景。这些画的场景似乎与掠夺牲畜有关。它们不仅是对突袭的描述，而且还可能捆绑在与保护和防雨有关的一系列信念中，多种族土匪团伙利用这些信念来协助他们进行秘密活动。