Case file · High strangeness
Van der Post's curse at Tsodilo
Laurens van der Post wrote that when his 1955 expedition broke a San taboo by hunting near the Tsodilo Hills, cameras jammed and swarms of bees attacked, until he buried a letter of apology to the spirits.
1955 CE · -18.76, 21.74 · status: account
The account
The story is told in The Lost World of the Kalahari (1958), the book and BBC series that made the hills famous. His San guide had warned that the spirits would be angered.
The sceptical view
Van der Post's biographer J. D. F. Jones showed he often embellished his life story, and the episode rests on his word alone.