The Madikwe region has been witness to human settlements and struggles for tens of thousands of years. Several Stone Age and Iron Age sites are located on the reserve. Artifacts discovered at the Marico River date as far back as the Early Stone Age, between 250 000 and a million years ago.
More recently, Madikwe was the site of African tribal migration and thereafter European colonial settlement. Indeed, the complex and dynamic human struggles that have shaped the historical and cultural heritage of present-day South Africa have all, in some way or another, been experienced and contributed to upon the land that is today one of the most beautiful nature game reserves in the world. In fact, it was here that Sir David Livingstone, the famous discoverer, first met and later married Mary Moffat.
It is more fitting, in the context of the Mateya Safari Lodge, to highlight this historical instance of harmony and romance, for therein is a metaphor for the programme of human and ecological development which today is shaping the prosperous future of this beautiful stretch of land.
See also: Madikwe Game Reserve