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Narrative of Forum Homini
“The dream or vision of Forum Homini is to make the dramatic story of the evolution of man accessible, interesting and fun.” “It’s a story of living people, not fossils and bones, asking the question – what happened? How and why did we change and survive?”
A personal walk through the hotel:
As we turn onto the dirt road that leads to the hotel I could swear that the road sign we just rattled past had “ape-men crossing” on it? I look out for upright walking hominids -Bigfoot, Yeti, The Abominable Snowman Outside the hotel is a 4 meter high sculpture cut out of steel. As we get closer we see that it is an ape head and skull that slowly evolves, steel blade by steel blade, into a modern human profile. (The sum of Us by Marco Cianfanelli)
A series of footprints cast into the concrete floor lead us past the gallery, down into the Hotel. Footprints like those of our ancestors, diverse, different. They remind us of the Footprints Mary Leakey found at Laetoli, made 3.5million years ago in volcanic ash by three upright walking hominids – the same beings who lived right here on the Blaauwbankspruit? (Footprints by Marco Cianfanelli)
To our right we pass a series of tall sandstone totems. The engravings into the stone are in the spirit of the ancient markings left behind on cave walls and rock faces all over the world. Looking closely one can trace human forms coming out of the rock. I imagine what Ron Clark and his research team must have felt as they unearthed Little Foot, a 4 million year old skeleton complete with hand and foot coming ghostly of the rock face in the caves of Sterkfontein. There is something about this long line of totems that I connect to. I am a living product of my ancestors, a traveller through life. And I too will leave only my bones behind when I die
(Sandstone totems by Dave Rousseau)
We are offered a welcoming drink; our baggage is taken to our rooms. We look out the grass growing on the roofs of the hotel, half hiding the presence of humans, half inviting us to explore what is inside. Then we look further, over the valley – the stomping ground of our great great ancestors – we see Africa, acacia trees, waving grassland and eland, wildebeest, zebra…. Did our ancestors see the same picture, would they feel at home, standing next to us? We are escorted to our rooms – decorated in cave chic! A five star modern cave complete with its own stalactite lights under a roof of soil and living veldt grass!
(stalachtite lights by Karen Vermeulen)
Before dinner we meet in the Greekstyle Amphitheatre, it has been transformed in the nightlight by a huge bonfire crackling in the boma. Around the campfire, we hear stories of the characters that once strutted their stuff upon the stage of evolution. We walk past the bonfire, where we leave our own footprints behind in the gravel, lightly. Looking around at my companions and others in the amphitheatre, I delight in knowing that even though we are different, we are one specie, Homo Sapiens. (blade work fire place by Marco Cianfanelli)
Dinner is served in Roots – the fine dining restaurant at Forum Homini. A series of sensual close up photographs on backlit panels set into the textured walls highlight the beauty of the foods we enjoy so easily today. Some foods date from the times the early southern apes had only leaves, berries, nuts and insects, later the hunters added meat, then the early beachcombers got to love the delicacies of the sea, farmers added grains, milk fed lamb and veal and of course the fruit of the vine – wine in all its glory.
After dinner, we are invited to have a drink and share conversations around the three fireplaces in the lounge. The lounge tells its own story: Fire and tools - the Eureka Moment!
For a very long time hominids used sticks and stones to protect themselves, and to help them find and eat food, as well as grunts and groans to communicate while doing these tasks. Someone realised that a sharp stone not only worked better than a normal pebble when trying to find and eat food, but that you could make a round stone sharp by hitting it just the right way with another stone.Making this simple tool was a giant breakthrough. Clan members and children had to be taught how to make tools, and new sounds and languages were created to explain, and pass on this information. Talking, using fire and tools were the cultural steps on our evolutionary path that interacted with our genetic development to result in us. The walls of the lounge show the stunning beauty of stone tools – shapes of pebble tools to artistically knapped hand axes have been imprinted into 1000 terra cotta tiles covering one long wall in front of two flickering fireplaces (handmade stone tool tile done by Peter Mthombeni)
We have port around 3 fascinating coffee tables, the hand made glass tops are pieces of art - and ‘talking pieces’. (coffee tables done by Christel Antonides)
i. a hominid family tree
ii. a map of the world showing the migrations out of Africa
iii. a history of the earth, shown as one year.
Modern Homo sapiens only appears in the last 30 min of December 31!
The conference centre is the forum, the heart of Forum Homini – a space to converse, teach, learn and socialise, a versatile space ideal for meetings, workshops, even weddings.The large high tech conference centre has beautiful lights, reminiscent of the DNA double helix. Human DNA is also the story of The Bright Gene - that small piece of code, which made us survive - and dominate the earth. On the back wall we can not miss the fascinating mural in the style of Miro or Picasso with ape man on the one side evolving to modern man in his pin stripe suit.(DNA double helix lights by Dave Rousseau, Purple hominid mural by Paul du Toit)
The boardroom: a grand space, the headquarters, a place to talk serious business. On the wall of the boardroom hangs a magnificent painting : Childlike in its expression it reminds of the amazing clarity of ancient cave art. (Art by Paul du Toit)
The next morning we go for a relaxing walk past the hippo dam, we hear a fish eagle call. Gazing over the savannah bush veldt we see kudu, impala, zebra and on the grass plains springbok, gemsbok and hartebeest. As the sun rises over Africa, we enjoy our wonderful breakfast. Back at the hotel, some decide to relax at the pool, looking out over the dam and the incredible variety of birds making themselves at home, right in front of our eyes!
Later today we will experience more of our history, see the fossilized remains of our early ancestors – or at least of their cousins! We will hear the stories of those early fossil hunters Drs. Dart, Broom, Tobias and Ron Clark, the “father” of Little Foot. We will go into the cool depths of the Sterkfontein caves and first hand learn about the unique geology of the area that made it possible for the remains of the proto and early humans to be preserved. We will see fossils of the sable tooth tigers, giant hyenas and other extinct animals that shared the Cradle of Humankind with the early humans – and tried their best to have one of them for dinner! We might visit Swartkrans where the remains of more than a hundred robust southern apes were found – the vegetarian hominids with the strong jaws. If we have enough days we could see one or more of the many activities offered by the hotel and the surrounding areas.
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