WHAT WERE THE EARLIEST FORMS OF COMMUNICATION?
Early people probably communicated through a combination of primitive sounds and basic sign language. Languages may have evolved through a need for survival — warning others of danger, for instance. They developed gradually as people used the spoken word for instruction and entertainment. Oral communication, particularly through story-telling, was and still is an important part of a society's culture.
Making sounds such as grunting or guttural sounds at a low pitch or high pitch would indicate either social communication or be a warning sign. Body language was also used as communication at this time. Later written communication came about when humans realised the need to record their daily life activities. Further down the line this progressed to meeting the needs of bartering and exchanging of goods. The ancient Egyptians were amongst the first people to use symbols as a form of written communication which later developed into the alphabet system that we know today.
Cave drawings were murals that people painted onto the walls of caves and canyons to tell the story of their culture. They would tell stories of battles, hunts and culture. Storytelling was used to tell stories, both fiction and nonfiction, before there were books. It was a way for families and communities to pass on information about their past.
Drums were one way to send signals to neighbouring tribes and groups. The sound of the drumming patterns would tell them of concerns and events they needed to know. Smoke signals were another way to send messages to people who were not close enough to use words with. Can you imagine living without your telephone? We sure have come a long way!
For many years it was widely believed that the only reliable form of knowledge was the written word. Books, diaries, documents, and newspapers.These commanded respect because their words could be preserved. But the printed word can be misleading. For example, certain history books taught, inaccurately, that Africans arrived in Southern Africa at more or less the same time as European settlers landed in the Cape. Some books emphasised differences amongst people. And while most textbooks acknowledged that the Khoisan had lived in South Africa for a very long time, the writers saw them as 'primitive', and paid very little respect to their history.
When European settlers arrived in South Africa, most of them could read and write. They valued the written word as a precious form of knowledge. But European scholars made the mistake of thinking that writing was the only way that knowledge could be passed on. Where they did not find books in Africa, they simply assumed that Africa had no history.
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