Almost 100 years ago, three Frankfurt artists — Agnes Schulz, Maria Weyersberg, and Elisabeth Mannsfeld — travelled to Lesotho as part of the Frobenius expedition to southern Africa. Their mission: to document the region’s rock paintings using watercolours and coloured pencil.
Over the course of two months, they created a total of 63 rock art copies, including a true-to-scale reproduction of the Ha Baroana site — the largest image in the Frobenius Institute's rock art archive, spanning over 10 metres in width.
Facsimiles of these artworks were recently presented to the Morija Museum & Archives as part of a new exhibition in Lesotho. Also on display are historical photographs from the Frobenius archive, newly reproduced from original negatives.
The exhibition, titled SEKOELE Rock Art Exhibition, was opened by the Queen of the ‘Mountain Kingdom’, Her Royal Majesty Masenate Mohato Seeiso, alongside the German Ambassador to South Africa, Andreas Peschke, among others. It also features material from the ARAL project (Analysis of Rock Art in Lesotho) and its impressive documentation efforts in the 1970s and 80s.
The images will remain on view in the Morija Museum’s gallery for another year. They highlight not only the richness of the region’s rock art, but also the alarming deterioration of many of the original sites since 1928. In fact, very little remains of the Ha Baroana rock art today — a stark reminder of the importance of historical documentation in preserving this irreplaceable cultural heritage.
Her Royal Majesty Masenate Mohato Seeiso opening the exhibition together with museum director Mamokuena Makhema
Morija Museum and Archives
HaBaroana copy by Maria Weyersberg and Agnes Schulz 1928 in exhibition
