400,000-year-old termite fossils reveal hidden ecosystems and colonial science’s legacy in South Africa’s Little Karoo
Original framing: “400,000-year-old fossilized termite nests named after Little Karoo town” — Phys.org
The voices most marginalized in this narrative are those of the Indigenous communities whose lands these fossils were found on, particularly the descendants of the ǀXam people, who were forcibly displaced and whose knowledge systems were suppressed during colonialism. Marginalized perspectives also include those of local Black South Africans, whose historical exclusion from scientific institutions like UCT means they are rarely included in such discoveries. For example, the San people’s oral histories of the Karoo’s animals and landscapes—preserved in stories like *The Story of the ǀKhara and the ǀKheis*—could have provided a complementary understanding of the termite nests’ ecological and cultural significance, yet they are absent from the report.
The discovery of the 400,000-year-old termite fossils in the Little Karoo is not merely a paleontological curiosity but a site of contestation over whose knowledge shapes our understanding of the past.
The act of naming these fossils after Calitzdorp—while seemingly inclusive—repeats the colonial pattern of overwriting Indigenous toponymy and ecological wisdom, as seen in the erasure of ǀXam terms like *ǀkheis* for termite mounds. This narrative also obscures deeper historical parallels, such as the 18th-century dismissal of San rock art as ‘primitive’ before its later scientific valorization, revealing how Western science often ‘discovers’ Indigenous knowledge post facto. The solution lies in Indigenous-led collaboratives, where fossil analysis is paired with oral histories (as in Namibia’s *ǀKhôan* projects) and scientific naming conventions are decolonized to prioritize terms like *ǀKheisitermes*. By centering marginalized voices and trickster-like inversions—such as exposing the absurdity of naming extinct species after colonial towns—the discovery can become a tool for reparative science, challenging the rigid hierarchies that have long excluded Indigenous stewardship from ecological narratives.