This is an obituary of Professor Michael Wessels (1958-2018), author of Bushman Letters (2010) an... more This is an obituary of Professor Michael Wessels (1958-2018), author of Bushman Letters (2010) and other important studies of historical Bushman (San) oral literature. His work is excepcional in that, among other things, he used the tools of literary criticism no analyze narratives that belong to an oral tradition. Bushman Letters focuses on the /xam narratives in the Bleek-Lloyd Collection, held at the University of Cape Town
In 2007, in order to facilitate the building and operations of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), ... more In 2007, in order to facilitate the building and operations of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the Astronomy Geographic Advantage Act proclaimed a large 'astronomy reserve' in the central Upper Karoo, a roughly rhombic space covering some 120,000 square kilometres. As it happens, this geographic reserve coincides almost exactly with a region described by |Xam prisoners of the mid 19th century as |Xam-ka !au, their homeland. We show how archival records indicate that jXam descendants are still living in the space now reserved for astronomy and how the claims of the Kalahari communities represented in the South African San Council of having once lived in the area lack substance. We compare the |Xam and the SKA notions of landscape, describe the historic evolution from the one to the other and suggest that benefit for local communities can only be in the form of bottom-up discussions about the planning of future developments and the distribution of tangible benefits.
Folkloristika: Journal of the Serbian Folklore Association, 2018
The 19th |xam Bushmen of the Upper Karoo, South Africa, told stories about a protean being ca... more The 19th |xam Bushmen of the Upper Karoo, South Africa, told stories about a protean being called !khwa: (“water”), one of whose many shapes was that of a bovine they called “the water bull”, which ritual specialists captured in order to cause rain over the land. This water-creature has been variously interpreted by scholars as a metaphor, a symbol of the dangers of water or a death-wielding divinity. This
article seeks to demonstrate that for the |xam and their contemporary descendants the water-creature was, and still is, water itself, considered to be a living being when present in large concentrations, such as dams, rivers or permanent waterholes, or certain accumulations of clouds. Because of this the water-creature is a tangible entity connected with a vital substance, but whose dealings with human beings are always
fraught with danger.
This article presents for the first time an almost unknown map drawn by //kabbo, a /xam Bushman (... more This article presents for the first time an almost unknown map drawn by //kabbo, a /xam Bushman (San) around 1872–1873. Some additional information is given in connection with the context in which the maps in the Bleek-Lloyd Collection were drawn. Since the map shows what appears to be the core of //kabbo's !xoe ('place'), this crucial concept is discussed in detail.
We present previously unpublished comments made early in 1875 by Dia!kwain, a |xam man, on George... more We present previously unpublished comments made early in 1875 by Dia!kwain, a |xam man, on George William Stow's copies of San rock paintings and engravings. The comments are contained in two overlooked documents that are part of the Bleek and Lloyd Collection housed at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. These two documents provide comments on rock paintings from South Africa's Eastern Cape Province, and on rock engravings from the well-known site of Driekopseiland in the Northern Cape Province. We describe how Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd, who elicited testimony from |xam San interlocutors in the 1870s and 1880s, became interested in soliciting comments on rock art. We provide a chronology of these explanatory remarks and discuss the acquisition by Lucy Lloyd of Stow's copies. The contents of the two overlooked manuscripts—one catalogued as E1.1.8, the other a loose sheet of paper that we call the 'Driekopseiland manuscript' included within notebook L.V.3—are given in full together with the Stow copies on which the comments were based. We recognize that the comments themselves are data that require explanation and that Stow's copies are not facsimiles of the rock art. We therefore provide annotations for each of the 14 Stow copies about which the comments were made and comment on the relevance of Dia!kwain's remarks to rock art research.
Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa, 2016
This paper, based in textual analysis and in unpublished manuscript sources, reconstructs the pro... more This paper, based in textual analysis and in unpublished manuscript sources, reconstructs the process of creation of J. M. Orpen's landmark 1874 article "A Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen", from his conversations with Qing in December 1873 to the publication of the article in the Cape Monthly Magazine in June 1874. It also throws light on the relationship between J. M. Orpen and George Stow, of whose work Orpen did not have a high opinion. The paper also shows that Orpen, whose interests were mainly focused onthe history and culture of the Basotho, did not give a special importance to his 1874 article.
Flywhisks are a common motif in southern African rock art, both in paintings and engravings. This... more Flywhisks are a common motif in southern African rock art, both in paintings and engravings. This brief article gathers most of the data on flywhisks in the Bleek-Lloyd Collection of /xam San (Bushman) ethnography and suggests connections between certain /xam narratives featuring segis (elephant shrews) and a panel featuring sengis and human figures with flywhisks in Springbokoog's main site.
An excerpt from one of my contributions to the yet unpublished book "Karoo Cosmos". This narrativ... more An excerpt from one of my contributions to the yet unpublished book "Karoo Cosmos". This narrative is of great ethnographic value among other things because is one of the few indigenous accounts of the use and function of rock gongs in an area laden with rock engravings. The narrative was told in November 1879 by /xam storyteller /han=kass'o, who had heard the story from his wife, who was present during the cataclismic flood that almost wiped out the Karoo town of Victoria West in the night of 27-28 February 1871.
This article explores the unique perspectives and uses of a traditional Upper Karoo Bushman tale ... more This article explores the unique perspectives and uses of a traditional Upper Karoo Bushman tale retold in a cultural setting by a traditional teller. The role of the folklorist is dedicated to preserving and studying Bushman oral tradition (past and present) and the use of story for a violence prevention project by a contemporary nontraditional storyteller .
Serena Renier (67 years), now living in Beaufort West, Western Cape (South Africa) was born and r... more Serena Renier (67 years), now living in Beaufort West, Western Cape (South Africa) was born and raised in a farm in the Nieuweveld mountains of the Great Karoo. As an example of her exceptional storytelling gifts one of her stories is included here. It tells of an experience of her mother with the waterslang (watersnake), a being considered real by most of the area’s native inhabitants and the represents the ambiguity of water as bringer of life and death in a very dry region. The story is widespread in southern Africa, and it is often told in connection with the initiation ritual of traditional healers.
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the largest radio telescope facility in Africa when it i... more The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the largest radio telescope facility in Africa when it is completed which is estimated to be a decade into the future. The |Xam group of the San people of South Africa lived in the region of the Karoo Desert where the Square Kilometre Array is being built. Several European countries are part of the SKA collaboration (Spain, , Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Malta, France), Asian countries (China, India, Japan, and South Korea), the Americas (Brazil, USA, and Canada), Russia, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, making up 20 major partners (SKA Communication and Outreach Team, 2015). In the 1870s the folklore, cultural practices and way of life of the |Xam were documented through interviews with a handful of |Xam individuals, mostly men that were serving prison sentences in Cape Town. Considered extinct since the early 1900s, in 2011 de Prada-Samper discovered that |Xam folklore, although transformed, is alive in the Afrikaans-speaking "Coloured" population in that region of the Karoo. In 2014, the SKA created the “Shared Sky” art exhibit to highlight the celestial art of the indigenous people of South Africa along with those of Australia where the second part of the telescope is being built. It offered the authors an opportunity to collect interviews with storytellers in the Karoo focused on local astronomy and skylore. Among the information the storytellers gave, they included details of the Milky Way, the Pleiades, and how to predict weather by the moon, but no mythological narratives about these heavenly bodies were recorded. An analysis of the information recorded points to the connections still present with the 19th century lore, though the original language has been lost and contemporary elements have been incorporated.
In 1929 D. F. Bleek wrote that |xam people she encountered in the Upper Karoo two decades before ... more In 1929 D. F. Bleek wrote that |xam people she encountered in the Upper Karoo two decades before were unable to tell her a single story, and that their folklore `was dead’ and so was, by extension, their culture and sense of community, thus encouraging the notion that the |xam people had become extinct. Archival research and fieldwork in the area by the author in 2011-2014 shows that no such extinction took place and that a rich oral tradition, with strong connections with that documented by Bleek and Lloyd in the 19th century, is still very much alive in the area.
This paper, written in collaboration with Katriena Swartz and Marlene Winberg, includes the trans... more This paper, written in collaboration with Katriena Swartz and Marlene Winberg, includes the translation into English of a story told by Katriena Swartz in 2011, which is a contemporary version of a story already documented in the 19th century by Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy C. Lloyd. It provides also an introduction that places the narrative in context and tries to explain why in the early 20th century, Dorothea Bleek failed to realize that the inmediate descendants of her father's and aunt's informants were still carrying a rich oral tradition.
This paper discusses the possible connections between two hills in the farm Arbeidsvreug in the N... more This paper discusses the possible connections between two hills in the farm Arbeidsvreug in the Northern Cape and a testimony dictated by //Kabbo, a /Xam Bushman (San) man in Cape Town in 1873 which deals mostly with "presentiments" or signals felt by people in their bodies warning them of the proximity of game, or of other people. As argued by the author, the beggining of the testimony mentions explicitly the rock engravings that abound in the former territory of the /Xam, and which are present in the above-mentioned hills, and which could have been seen by the late 19th century /Xam as vehicles channel the "presentiments/signals and bring the game closer to the hunters.
This paper presents for the first time two texts that deal with the ethnobotany of the /Xam, a no... more This paper presents for the first time two texts that deal with the ethnobotany of the /Xam, a now extinct San (Bushman) group. The discussion of the texts is focused on the concept of So-/õä, a term which, as it is proved in the paper, was generic and meant "medicine" The plant known until now as So-/õä was really called //kurraken//kurraken, and was used mainly in scarification rituals.
Transcription of a /xam narrative dictated by /han=kass'o in October 1879 that was not listed by ... more Transcription of a /xam narrative dictated by /han=kass'o in October 1879 that was not listed by L. Lloyd in her 1889 report, as it was written in one of Wilhelm Bleek's notebook. The story is a beautiful rendering of the final episode in the eland creation myth, in which Mantis (/kaggen) creates the Moon by throwing an ostrich feather to the sky.
This is an obituary of Professor Michael Wessels (1958-2018), author of Bushman Letters (2010) an... more This is an obituary of Professor Michael Wessels (1958-2018), author of Bushman Letters (2010) and other important studies of historical Bushman (San) oral literature. His work is excepcional in that, among other things, he used the tools of literary criticism no analyze narratives that belong to an oral tradition. Bushman Letters focuses on the /xam narratives in the Bleek-Lloyd Collection, held at the University of Cape Town
In 2007, in order to facilitate the building and operations of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), ... more In 2007, in order to facilitate the building and operations of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the Astronomy Geographic Advantage Act proclaimed a large 'astronomy reserve' in the central Upper Karoo, a roughly rhombic space covering some 120,000 square kilometres. As it happens, this geographic reserve coincides almost exactly with a region described by |Xam prisoners of the mid 19th century as |Xam-ka !au, their homeland. We show how archival records indicate that jXam descendants are still living in the space now reserved for astronomy and how the claims of the Kalahari communities represented in the South African San Council of having once lived in the area lack substance. We compare the |Xam and the SKA notions of landscape, describe the historic evolution from the one to the other and suggest that benefit for local communities can only be in the form of bottom-up discussions about the planning of future developments and the distribution of tangible benefits.
Folkloristika: Journal of the Serbian Folklore Association, 2018
The 19th |xam Bushmen of the Upper Karoo, South Africa, told stories about a protean being ca... more The 19th |xam Bushmen of the Upper Karoo, South Africa, told stories about a protean being called !khwa: (“water”), one of whose many shapes was that of a bovine they called “the water bull”, which ritual specialists captured in order to cause rain over the land. This water-creature has been variously interpreted by scholars as a metaphor, a symbol of the dangers of water or a death-wielding divinity. This
article seeks to demonstrate that for the |xam and their contemporary descendants the water-creature was, and still is, water itself, considered to be a living being when present in large concentrations, such as dams, rivers or permanent waterholes, or certain accumulations of clouds. Because of this the water-creature is a tangible entity connected with a vital substance, but whose dealings with human beings are always
fraught with danger.
This article presents for the first time an almost unknown map drawn by //kabbo, a /xam Bushman (... more This article presents for the first time an almost unknown map drawn by //kabbo, a /xam Bushman (San) around 1872–1873. Some additional information is given in connection with the context in which the maps in the Bleek-Lloyd Collection were drawn. Since the map shows what appears to be the core of //kabbo's !xoe ('place'), this crucial concept is discussed in detail.
We present previously unpublished comments made early in 1875 by Dia!kwain, a |xam man, on George... more We present previously unpublished comments made early in 1875 by Dia!kwain, a |xam man, on George William Stow's copies of San rock paintings and engravings. The comments are contained in two overlooked documents that are part of the Bleek and Lloyd Collection housed at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. These two documents provide comments on rock paintings from South Africa's Eastern Cape Province, and on rock engravings from the well-known site of Driekopseiland in the Northern Cape Province. We describe how Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd, who elicited testimony from |xam San interlocutors in the 1870s and 1880s, became interested in soliciting comments on rock art. We provide a chronology of these explanatory remarks and discuss the acquisition by Lucy Lloyd of Stow's copies. The contents of the two overlooked manuscripts—one catalogued as E1.1.8, the other a loose sheet of paper that we call the 'Driekopseiland manuscript' included within notebook L.V.3—are given in full together with the Stow copies on which the comments were based. We recognize that the comments themselves are data that require explanation and that Stow's copies are not facsimiles of the rock art. We therefore provide annotations for each of the 14 Stow copies about which the comments were made and comment on the relevance of Dia!kwain's remarks to rock art research.
Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa, 2016
This paper, based in textual analysis and in unpublished manuscript sources, reconstructs the pro... more This paper, based in textual analysis and in unpublished manuscript sources, reconstructs the process of creation of J. M. Orpen's landmark 1874 article "A Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen", from his conversations with Qing in December 1873 to the publication of the article in the Cape Monthly Magazine in June 1874. It also throws light on the relationship between J. M. Orpen and George Stow, of whose work Orpen did not have a high opinion. The paper also shows that Orpen, whose interests were mainly focused onthe history and culture of the Basotho, did not give a special importance to his 1874 article.
Flywhisks are a common motif in southern African rock art, both in paintings and engravings. This... more Flywhisks are a common motif in southern African rock art, both in paintings and engravings. This brief article gathers most of the data on flywhisks in the Bleek-Lloyd Collection of /xam San (Bushman) ethnography and suggests connections between certain /xam narratives featuring segis (elephant shrews) and a panel featuring sengis and human figures with flywhisks in Springbokoog's main site.
An excerpt from one of my contributions to the yet unpublished book "Karoo Cosmos". This narrativ... more An excerpt from one of my contributions to the yet unpublished book "Karoo Cosmos". This narrative is of great ethnographic value among other things because is one of the few indigenous accounts of the use and function of rock gongs in an area laden with rock engravings. The narrative was told in November 1879 by /xam storyteller /han=kass'o, who had heard the story from his wife, who was present during the cataclismic flood that almost wiped out the Karoo town of Victoria West in the night of 27-28 February 1871.
This article explores the unique perspectives and uses of a traditional Upper Karoo Bushman tale ... more This article explores the unique perspectives and uses of a traditional Upper Karoo Bushman tale retold in a cultural setting by a traditional teller. The role of the folklorist is dedicated to preserving and studying Bushman oral tradition (past and present) and the use of story for a violence prevention project by a contemporary nontraditional storyteller .
Serena Renier (67 years), now living in Beaufort West, Western Cape (South Africa) was born and r... more Serena Renier (67 years), now living in Beaufort West, Western Cape (South Africa) was born and raised in a farm in the Nieuweveld mountains of the Great Karoo. As an example of her exceptional storytelling gifts one of her stories is included here. It tells of an experience of her mother with the waterslang (watersnake), a being considered real by most of the area’s native inhabitants and the represents the ambiguity of water as bringer of life and death in a very dry region. The story is widespread in southern Africa, and it is often told in connection with the initiation ritual of traditional healers.
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the largest radio telescope facility in Africa when it i... more The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the largest radio telescope facility in Africa when it is completed which is estimated to be a decade into the future. The |Xam group of the San people of South Africa lived in the region of the Karoo Desert where the Square Kilometre Array is being built. Several European countries are part of the SKA collaboration (Spain, , Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Malta, France), Asian countries (China, India, Japan, and South Korea), the Americas (Brazil, USA, and Canada), Russia, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, making up 20 major partners (SKA Communication and Outreach Team, 2015). In the 1870s the folklore, cultural practices and way of life of the |Xam were documented through interviews with a handful of |Xam individuals, mostly men that were serving prison sentences in Cape Town. Considered extinct since the early 1900s, in 2011 de Prada-Samper discovered that |Xam folklore, although transformed, is alive in the Afrikaans-speaking "Coloured" population in that region of the Karoo. In 2014, the SKA created the “Shared Sky” art exhibit to highlight the celestial art of the indigenous people of South Africa along with those of Australia where the second part of the telescope is being built. It offered the authors an opportunity to collect interviews with storytellers in the Karoo focused on local astronomy and skylore. Among the information the storytellers gave, they included details of the Milky Way, the Pleiades, and how to predict weather by the moon, but no mythological narratives about these heavenly bodies were recorded. An analysis of the information recorded points to the connections still present with the 19th century lore, though the original language has been lost and contemporary elements have been incorporated.
In 1929 D. F. Bleek wrote that |xam people she encountered in the Upper Karoo two decades before ... more In 1929 D. F. Bleek wrote that |xam people she encountered in the Upper Karoo two decades before were unable to tell her a single story, and that their folklore `was dead’ and so was, by extension, their culture and sense of community, thus encouraging the notion that the |xam people had become extinct. Archival research and fieldwork in the area by the author in 2011-2014 shows that no such extinction took place and that a rich oral tradition, with strong connections with that documented by Bleek and Lloyd in the 19th century, is still very much alive in the area.
This paper, written in collaboration with Katriena Swartz and Marlene Winberg, includes the trans... more This paper, written in collaboration with Katriena Swartz and Marlene Winberg, includes the translation into English of a story told by Katriena Swartz in 2011, which is a contemporary version of a story already documented in the 19th century by Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy C. Lloyd. It provides also an introduction that places the narrative in context and tries to explain why in the early 20th century, Dorothea Bleek failed to realize that the inmediate descendants of her father's and aunt's informants were still carrying a rich oral tradition.
This paper discusses the possible connections between two hills in the farm Arbeidsvreug in the N... more This paper discusses the possible connections between two hills in the farm Arbeidsvreug in the Northern Cape and a testimony dictated by //Kabbo, a /Xam Bushman (San) man in Cape Town in 1873 which deals mostly with "presentiments" or signals felt by people in their bodies warning them of the proximity of game, or of other people. As argued by the author, the beggining of the testimony mentions explicitly the rock engravings that abound in the former territory of the /Xam, and which are present in the above-mentioned hills, and which could have been seen by the late 19th century /Xam as vehicles channel the "presentiments/signals and bring the game closer to the hunters.
This paper presents for the first time two texts that deal with the ethnobotany of the /Xam, a no... more This paper presents for the first time two texts that deal with the ethnobotany of the /Xam, a now extinct San (Bushman) group. The discussion of the texts is focused on the concept of So-/õä, a term which, as it is proved in the paper, was generic and meant "medicine" The plant known until now as So-/õä was really called //kurraken//kurraken, and was used mainly in scarification rituals.
Transcription of a /xam narrative dictated by /han=kass'o in October 1879 that was not listed by ... more Transcription of a /xam narrative dictated by /han=kass'o in October 1879 that was not listed by L. Lloyd in her 1889 report, as it was written in one of Wilhelm Bleek's notebook. The story is a beautiful rendering of the final episode in the eland creation myth, in which Mantis (/kaggen) creates the Moon by throwing an ostrich feather to the sky.
ADAM AND THE WATER MAIDEN: TRADITIONAL STORYTELLING FROM THE OLIFANTS RIVER VALLEY AND THE CEDERBERG, 2022
A long time ago, lions ambushed Springbok Maiden when she travelled
with her baby. In more recent... more A long time ago, lions ambushed Springbok Maiden when she travelled with her baby. In more recent times, but still blue years ago, Jan Van Riebeeck stole land from the Khoisan by measuring it with a prodigious ox-hide. Long after, a sheep-thief escaped from the police by turning into an anthill. Closer still to the present, a man committed suicide after a ghost whispered something in his ear, and a stargazer, one with no schooling, astonished the neighbouring farmers by accurately predicting the weather. A subtle web of stories floats above the Olifants River Valley and the Cederberg region, connecting places and people, the present and the past. This landscape, imbued with meaning, is populated by dangerous old women and shape-shifting tricksters, ghosts and sorcerers, living waterholes and talking animals. While some of these stories are relatively new arrivals to southern Africa, others convey ideas and images that have been present in the region for a very long time. In 2015, and again in 2019, José M de Prada-Samper made video recordings of the narratives included in this book as told by some of the best storytellers to be found in the valleys and mountains. These form but a small sample of the Archive of Traditional Narrative in Afrikaans. A collection of Karoo stories from this archive, The man who cursed the wind/Die man wat die wind vervloek het, was published in 2016 and is available from the African Sun Press. There is an Afrikaans edition of this book with the title Adam en die Waternooi: Tradisionele vertellings uit die Olifantsriviervalley en die Sederberge
A collection of sixty-one oral narratives recorded in different areas of the Karoo from Afrikaans... more A collection of sixty-one oral narratives recorded in different areas of the Karoo from Afrikaans-speakers of Khoisan descent. Many of them are contermporary versions of narratives otherwise only recorded in the 19th century by Bleek and Lloyd from their /xam teachers.
Published in 2016 (Johannesburg: Standard Bank), this book is an annotated critical edition, base... more Published in 2016 (Johannesburg: Standard Bank), this book is an annotated critical edition, based on the original manuscript, of J. M. Orpen's crucial article "A Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen" (1874). In addition to the annotated text, it contains contributions by John Wright, Jeremy Hollmann, Jill Weintrobut, Menán du Plessis and Justine Wintjes on different aspects of the text and its context.
This is chapter One of the book "On the Trail of Qing and Orpen" (Johannesburg: Standard Bank, 20... more This is chapter One of the book "On the Trail of Qing and Orpen" (Johannesburg: Standard Bank, 2016). It is co-authored with John Wright, Jill Weintroub, Jeremy Hollman, Menán du Plessis and Justine Wintjes. The chapter gives the background to the project, summarizes the different contributions to the book and explains the general principles followed by the team of contributors during their work in the project.
Published in 2016 (Johannesburg: Standard Bank), this book is an annotated critical edition, base... more Published in 2016 (Johannesburg: Standard Bank), this book is an annotated critical edition, based on the original manuscript, of J. M. Orpen's crucial article "A Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen" (1874). In addition to the annotated text, it contains contributions by John Wright, Jeremy Hollmann, Jill Weintrobut, Menán du Plessis and Justine Wintjes on different aspects of the text and its context.
G. R. von Wielligh's Boesman-stories (1919-1921) are considered by some as an indepedent, if faul... more G. R. von Wielligh's Boesman-stories (1919-1921) are considered by some as an indepedent, if faulty, collection of genuine /xam Bushman narratives. I argue that most of Von Willieghs narratives are based on texts and information found in Bleek and Lloyd's 1911 classic Specimens of Bushman Folklore. Yet even then, Von Wielligh's stories are of great literary value and show his remarkable mythopoeic imagination.
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Papers by Jose Manuel de Prada-Samper
article seeks to demonstrate that for the |xam and their contemporary descendants the water-creature was, and still is, water itself, considered to be a living being when present in large concentrations, such as dams, rivers or permanent waterholes, or certain accumulations of clouds. Because of this the water-creature is a tangible entity connected with a vital substance, but whose dealings with human beings are always
fraught with danger.
Malta, France), Asian countries (China, India, Japan, and South Korea), the Americas (Brazil, USA, and Canada), Russia, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, making up 20 major partners (SKA Communication and Outreach Team, 2015). In the 1870s the folklore, cultural practices and way of life of the |Xam were documented through interviews with a handful of |Xam individuals, mostly men that were serving prison
sentences in Cape Town. Considered extinct since the early 1900s, in 2011 de Prada-Samper discovered that |Xam folklore, although transformed, is alive in the Afrikaans-speaking "Coloured" population in that region of the Karoo. In 2014, the SKA created the “Shared Sky” art exhibit to highlight the celestial art of the indigenous people of South Africa along with those of Australia where the second part of the telescope is
being built. It offered the authors an opportunity to collect interviews with storytellers in the Karoo focused on local astronomy and skylore. Among the information the storytellers gave, they included details of the Milky Way, the Pleiades, and how to predict weather by the moon, but no mythological narratives about these heavenly bodies were recorded. An analysis of the information recorded points to the connections still present with the 19th century lore, though the original language has been lost and contemporary elements have been incorporated.
extinct San (Bushman) group. The discussion of the texts is focused on the concept of So-/õä, a
term which, as it is proved in the paper, was generic and meant "medicine" The plant known until
now as So-/õä was really called //kurraken//kurraken, and was used mainly in scarification
rituals.
article seeks to demonstrate that for the |xam and their contemporary descendants the water-creature was, and still is, water itself, considered to be a living being when present in large concentrations, such as dams, rivers or permanent waterholes, or certain accumulations of clouds. Because of this the water-creature is a tangible entity connected with a vital substance, but whose dealings with human beings are always
fraught with danger.
Malta, France), Asian countries (China, India, Japan, and South Korea), the Americas (Brazil, USA, and Canada), Russia, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, making up 20 major partners (SKA Communication and Outreach Team, 2015). In the 1870s the folklore, cultural practices and way of life of the |Xam were documented through interviews with a handful of |Xam individuals, mostly men that were serving prison
sentences in Cape Town. Considered extinct since the early 1900s, in 2011 de Prada-Samper discovered that |Xam folklore, although transformed, is alive in the Afrikaans-speaking "Coloured" population in that region of the Karoo. In 2014, the SKA created the “Shared Sky” art exhibit to highlight the celestial art of the indigenous people of South Africa along with those of Australia where the second part of the telescope is
being built. It offered the authors an opportunity to collect interviews with storytellers in the Karoo focused on local astronomy and skylore. Among the information the storytellers gave, they included details of the Milky Way, the Pleiades, and how to predict weather by the moon, but no mythological narratives about these heavenly bodies were recorded. An analysis of the information recorded points to the connections still present with the 19th century lore, though the original language has been lost and contemporary elements have been incorporated.
extinct San (Bushman) group. The discussion of the texts is focused on the concept of So-/õä, a
term which, as it is proved in the paper, was generic and meant "medicine" The plant known until
now as So-/õä was really called //kurraken//kurraken, and was used mainly in scarification
rituals.
with her baby. In more recent times, but still blue years ago, Jan Van
Riebeeck stole land from the Khoisan by measuring it with a
prodigious ox-hide. Long after, a sheep-thief escaped from the police
by turning into an anthill. Closer still to the present, a man committed
suicide after a ghost whispered something in his ear, and a stargazer,
one with no schooling, astonished the neighbouring farmers by
accurately predicting the weather.
A subtle web of stories floats above the Olifants River Valley and the
Cederberg region, connecting places and people, the present and the
past. This landscape, imbued with meaning, is populated by dangerous
old women and shape-shifting tricksters, ghosts and sorcerers, living
waterholes and talking animals. While some of these stories are
relatively new arrivals to southern Africa, others convey ideas and
images that have been present in the region for a very long time.
In 2015, and again in 2019, José M de Prada-Samper made video
recordings of the narratives included in this book as told by some of
the best storytellers to be found in the valleys and mountains. These
form but a small sample of the Archive of Traditional Narrative in
Afrikaans. A collection of Karoo stories from this archive, The man who
cursed the wind/Die man wat die wind vervloek het, was published in
2016 and is available from the African Sun Press.
There is an Afrikaans edition of this book with the title Adam en die Waternooi: Tradisionele vertellings uit die Olifantsriviervalley en die Sederberge