Major changes came in the Western Cape more than 1700 years ago. Khoikhoi (Hottentot) shepherds, with domesticated sheep and cattle, moved into the region from Botswana. They have also left stone tools, as well as earthenware pots used for cooking and storing dairy produce. The new stock farming economy was attractive to some of the San who left their former lifestyles and joined the Khoikhoi. Others refused to change and remained hunter-gatherers in the mountains.

About 300 years ago the first European colonists ventured beyond the mountains and gradually took over the land for farming. They build stone walls, roads, fences and houses. Colonists displaced both the San and the Khoikhoi and missionaries gradually converted the descendants of the indigenous people. San religious beliefs were lost along with their religious art, but some people (it is not possible to say whether they were San, Khoi or both) painted Europeans. At Vaalkloof you can see wagon wheels, women in long dresses and domesticated animals. Some researchers believe that the artists were expressing their anger and frustration at losing their land to the Colonists; others see the paintings as the work of the medicine men who were using their super natural powers to mediate between the real and the spirit world and to help their people to adjust to changing circumstances. Note that the technique used for these paintings is different from that used by the earlier San. The paint was applied by finger rather, than by brush.

The final chapter of the history book on the rocks at Vaalkloof is the letter H painted in red, next to the San rock art. It symbolises the stamp of authority and ownership of the colonial era over the indigenous legacy of the San and the Khoikhoi.

The San and their religion