N!ai PDF
N!ai PDF
N!ai PDF
M EE NN TT AA RR YY
Film Guide
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for N ! a i , T h e S t o r y o f
a ! K u n g Wo m a n
T he Sa n i n Tr a n sit ion
The Kalahari Desert of northeastern Namibia and northwestern
Botswana is a harsh land. In November and December, temperatures soar high above 100 degrees Fahrenheit; in May and June, the
mercury may drop below freezing. For many thousands of years,
groups of hunters and gatherers have made this land their home,
adapting to its physical extremes and utilizing plant and animal resources. These foraging peoples once numbered hundred thousand,
and lived throughout the whole of southern Africa.
When Dutch settlers first arrived in southern Africa in 1652, they
called the original inhabitants Bushmen. For the next two centuries, the European newcomers waged a grim and successful war
of extermination in the south, in what is presently the Republic of
South Africa. To the north, the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert
escaped the fate of their southern cousins, probably because of the
inaccessibility and relative uselessness of their dry land to the European settlers. Today, only about 40,000 Bushmen remain, living
in the Republic of Botswana (formerly British-ruled Bechuanaland),
Namibia (the South Africa-ruled territory that was formerly German South West Africa), and to a lesser degree in Angola, Zambia,
and Zimbabwe.
Before 1950, the Ju/wasi of the Kalahari Desert had little sustained
contact with Europeans, although they had traded and occasionally
fought with Bantu peoples in the area, particularly Herero pastoralists to the east. In 1951, the first Marshall family expedition visited
the area: retired Cambridge businessman Laurence Marshall, his
wife Lorna, and their children Elizabeth and John. The Marshalls
found the Ju/wasi living much as their ancestors had, hunting antelope and other game, gathering wild plant foods, and moving with
the seasons from camp to camp. During their initial visit, the Marshalls spent six weeks with a Ju/wasi band that lived around a large,
permanent water pan known as Gautscha. There they met Toma, a
respected leader of the band, who was to become a valuable contact
in future expeditions. There too they first encountered little N!ai,
then an engaging and rambunctious nine-year old, along with other
members of Tomas band.
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The intent of the Marshall expedition, sponsored by the Peabody Museum of Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution, was to study one of the last remaining groups of hunting and
gathering peoples in the world. In the years that followed the initial
expedition, John Marshall returned several times to film at Gautscha
(1952, 1955, 1958). This was the beginning of an extended film
portrait of a culture and a way of life, and of a single individual,
N!ai. Twenty years later, Marshall again received permission to visit
the !Kung in Namibia. Returning to the field in 1978, he sought to
capture on film the tremendous changes that Ju/wasi society had undergone by focusing on the life of N!ai. N!ai was then 38 years old,
the devoted wife of /Gunda, and the mother of five children. She
was also thoroughly absorbed in life on the government reservation
at Tshum!kwi, a life about which she spoke with bitterness. Death
is dancing me ragged, she sings.
R E S O U R C E S
What was the quality of Ju/wasi life in the 1950s, and how had it
changed by 1978? Images of San hunters tracking a giraffe, conveyed in Marshalls 1958 film, The Hunters, have been inexorably affected by other, jarring images of contemporary San realities. N!ai.,
The Story of a !Kung Woman documents a kind of change that is
occurring throughout the world as hunters and gatherers, like tribal
peoples and other ethnic minorities, are forced to adjust to the more
powerful peoples, classes, and institutions that surround and no
longer ignore them. Adjustments take a multitude of forms. In the
case of the Namibian Ju/wasi , sedentism, horticulture, and pastoralism appeared to be attractive possibilities in the 1960s and 1970 As
the film reveals, however, life at Tshum!kwi in 1978 was filled with
fighting and sickness, demoralization and dependency.
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T he Ju /wa si in t he 50s
By the 1950s, many groups of San had become incorporated
into the larger society: working as laborers or squatting on European
farms or Bantu cattle-posts, raising cattle and goats, or, in the case
of one group, fishing. The Ju/wasi, at this time, remained to a large
extent autonomous. Like other hunters and gatherers, the Ju/wasi
lived in flexible bands, numberinq about thirty persons. A band
formed around a core group of relatives, usually siblings or first
cousins and their spouses and children. Parents and affines might
attach themselves to the core group for periods of a year or longer. Bands moved according to the season: when water was scarce,
groups coalesced around the few permanent waterholes, such as
Gautscha, that graced the scrubby sand and thorn desert. When the
rains came and filled the semipermanent and occasional waterholes,
groups dispersed to move across a wider territory. This was a time
of visiting between friends and family, a time to exchange gifts and
gossip, and perhaps to arrange the marriage of ones children. Even
without environmental pressures, however, movement was common, as band members came and went according to their pleasure
or group discord.
The immediate family, consisting of parents and their children,
generally lived and ate together. Men brought home meat from the
hunt, while women gathered plant foods. The latter constituted
about 75% of the diet. Women gathered in groups, enjoying each
others company, and divided the gathered food among members
of their immediate family. If they chose, they could also share some
gathered food with other relatives and friends. Meat, on the other
hand, was distributed formally to all members of the band. Although it formed a small portion of the diet, it was valued most and
often craved. People spoke of having meat-hunger. The traditional
diet was both varied and nutritious, ranging from protein-rich mangetti nuts, berries, wild melons, and water-bearing roots to giraffe
and various forms of antelope (kudu, gemsbok, wildesbeest, duiker),
as well as numerous small animals such as warthog or tortoise. In
spite of its nutritional value, this diet did not ensure good health or
long life. One-third of all !Kung children died before the age of five,
and half did not live to be fifteen years old.
R E S O U R C E S
N!a i
N!ai was born in April of 1942, the only child of Di!ai and
Gumza. Di!ai, her mother, had been married once before to a man
named Toma. They had had two children, both of whom died,
and Toma was murdered in a fight in 1938. In 1940, Di!ai married
Gumza, N!ais father, a man from a group across the border in Botswana (then Bechuanaland). Soon after N!ai was born, her parents
were divorced, in part because Gumza did not get along with Di!ais
older sister, a sharp-tongued woman named !U. Di!ai also said she
felt lonely for her own people, and so she went home to Gautscha
when Gumza returned to Botswana. In 1944, Di!ai remarried, to
a man named Kxao. Kxao already had a wife, but because he was
considered a steady man, Di!ai was willing to accept the role of
co-wife. Kxao died of tuberculosis in1975. By the time of filming
in 1978, N!ai was living with her mother, her aunt !U, !Us husband
Toma (the informal band leader), and various other relatives and
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half-siblings.
N!ais was a typical Ju/wasi childhood. As a girl , she played with
her friends in the band, such games as melon-tossing, or imitations
of house and gathering. Occasionally she went gathering with
adult women. Judging from Nisa s account, some of this early play
may have been sexual , although by the time N!ai was married at the
age of eleven she had no interest in sex with her young husband /
Gunda. Her marriage, like all !Kung marriages, had economic implications. Parents tried to marry their children to members of bands
with access to good resources, for in times of scarcity one could visit
and eat with relatives elsewhere. A son-in-law was particularly desirable, as he performed brideservice for his wifes parents, proving his
hunting skill and providing his in-laws with meat for at least several
years.
A son-in-law usually formed strong ties with other men in his wifes
group, toward which he had an enduring social responsibility. Upon
marriage men acquired obligations to distribute meat throughout
the band, to forge a network of cooperative relations beyond the
conjugal family. Marriage for girls, on the other hand, as Collier and
Rosaldo have argued (1981 , did not really represent a change in
status. Girls principal obligation as new wives was to provide their
husbands with gathered foods. Womens roles became more circumscribed in marriage; mens roles expanded. This, Collier and Rosaldo
suggest, may be the reason why !Kung girls seemed to desire mar
all the crucial ecological and social flexibility that it provided, began
to be limited in radically new ways after 1959. In that year, the
first Bushman Affairs Commissioner, Claude McIntyre, arrived in
Ju/wasi territory. N!ais life, and the lives of /Gunda and other !Kung
at Gautscha were to be dramatically affected.
McIntyre represented the first official South West African government presence in the area, although he had visited unofficially eight
years earlier. A professional civil servant with a long standing interest in the Bushmen, McIntyre had escorted the original Marshall
expedition in 1951 . At that time he told the Ju/wasi that someday
the government would come. In fact the government did intervene on several occasions in the 1950s, when Herero pastoralists
tried to settle with their cattle on !Kung lands. During this period
white farmers also came to the area, persuading the Ju/wasi to come
to farms and forcing them to remain as laborers. (This blackbirding of the Ju/wasi is the subject of the film An Argument About a
Marriage.)
In 1959 Claude McIntyre and his wife Beryl entered the area,
with a small budget, a two-wheel-drive pick-up truck, and little
else. The Marshalls gave them a four-wheel -drive vehicle and
strong expedition tents. A decision was made to settle at a site called
Tshum!kwi, where a Ju/wasi band was already living, because of its
centrality in relation to other settlements . McIntyre began to visit
groups in the area to encourage people to join him at Tshum!kwi,
where he hoped to help them begin a new life of pastoralism and
gardening. He spoke of goats and a mealie land, a large garden in
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By the end of the first decade, when the McIntyres left, the settled
population of Tshum!kwi had grown to about 700 Ju/wasi. The
1970s were marked by a series of white administrators with continually shifting policies. Hatting, for example (1969-71), tore up
Beryl McIntyres vegetable garden and during his time the number
of goats declined. He was followed by a certain Roberts, whose
short-lived stay at Tshum!kwi was more devoted to mining bat guana from Botswana than to the welfare of the !Kung. He in turn was
followed by Jonker, the administrator filmed in 1978. In spite of
administrative inconsistency, however, the population of Tshum!kwi
continued to grow after 1970. In part this may be attributed to the
declaration of Bushmanland in 1970.
The delineation of borders for Bushmanland was part and parcel
of South Africas apartheid system, which until this time had virtually ignored the !Kung. Even during the McIntyres days, Tshum!kwi
had simply been a neglected, borderless government settlement. The
declaration of the homeland in 1970 removed two important hunting and gathering areas from the !Kung (see map). To the north and
south of Tshum!kwi, vast tracts of well-watered land along the limestone ridge that separates Namibia and Botswana were lost, respectively, to Kavangoland and Hereroland East. Until 1978, when
pass laws were revoked in Namibia, a person could not legally leave
a homeland without risking arrest and imprisonment. The reduction
of Ju/wasi ancestral lands and waters in 1970 only served to further
concentration at Tshum.kwi, as traditional subsistence possibilities
declined. The dependence of the !Kung on the new government and
alternative forms of livelihood continued to grow.
The new forms of livelihood included a little gardening, goatherding, and cattle husbandry, but none of these were universally
accepted or successfully practiced among the Tshum!kwi Ju/wasi.
Other forms of labor were also introduced by McIntyre, as Ju/wasi
men cleared fields, built roads, and did a variety of menial chores.
At first payment for such labor was in kind (mealie, sugar, or
tobacco), but after several years McIntyre began to pay with cash.
The more general use of cash spurred the development of the trade
store, and Tshum!kwi people discovered that they could rely on
purchased supplies, rather than spend days digging roots or tracking
spore in the bush. The administration also initiated a ration system,
whereby laborers as well as old people and tuberculosis patients were
given name tags which entitled them to fixed quantities of mealie,
salt, sugar, and tobacco. The film opens with the scene of rations
distribution: a colored employee of the administration spoons out
mealie meal. N!ai, a tuberculosis patient, receives rations.
Changes in settlement and subsistence that began in the 1960s
were accompanied, from the beginning, by the accoutrements of
civilization in the form of church, school, and store. Ferdie Weich,
the first Dutch Reformed missionary, arrived soon after McIntyre.
In 1961 Weich built a house in which the store was located, and
a church which also housed the schoolroom. Weich studied the
Ju/wasi language, and translated the Gospe According to St. Matthew.
R E S O U R C E S
No one, however, could read it. The church never became a significant local institution, to Weichs disappointment, except for a short
flurry of popularity during several months in 1971 and 1972, and
again in 1973 when about 200 people converted. The latter mass
conversion took place following a church-sponsored ritual drama,
in which a man was covered with dirt, blindfolded, and bound
hand and foot. He was then cleaned up and dressed in fresh white
clothing, illustrating (to the faithful) the transformative powers of
Christianity, and (to some) that if one joins the church one receives
free white clothing(Die Suidwester).
Conversions such as these were, however, short-lived. Interest in
Chri.stianity apparently waned when Weich tried to correct the
common impression that Jesus had three wives. The Ju/wasi were
also extremely skeptical about the truth of Marys immaculate conception. Eve, on the other hand, was admired as the discoverer of
foods of the bush. Weich, disillusioned, stopped holding church services at Tshum!kwi in 1974 (and now missionizes among the !Kung
at South African army camps). Weich was replaced by Reverend
Swanepole and a Kavango acolyte who translated the sermons (both
shown in the film). The acolyte was arrested in 1981 for transporting liquor to army camps and selling it for 200% profit.
The school, which was taken over from the church by the government in the early 1970s, did not fare much better. Attendance in
the late 1970s varied between three and forty children, all boys.
Most children who attended did so sporadically, even with the
added attraction of a government lunch program. Five grades were
taught, concentrating on Afrikaans literacy and counting. With the
exception of one popular, Ju/wasi -speaking black teacher, who was
quickly dismissed by his white supervisor, all the other teachers have
been white Afrikaans-speakers.
If church and school had problems, the store did very well. From
the beginning, it clearly had something to offer. The store is now
owned and operated by a single Kavango entrepreneur with financial backing from the First National Development Corporation.
Sugar, mealie, eggs, canned chicken, and many other foodstuffs may
be bought there, as well as blankets, clothing, even chairs and tea
sets. In 1981, the store began to carry liquor.
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as N!ai earned cash from their work with film crews or tourists, and
a Ju/wasi in the Ministers Council earned the unprecedented salary
of R900 a month. Curiously, this mans residence at Tshum!kwi
consists only of a grass scherm wrapped in a sheet. However, as
Claire Ritchie notes, he is hardly ever at home, having as he does a
house in the fashionable suburb of Klein Windhoek, paid for by the
Democratic Turnhalle Alliance. When he is in Tshum!kwi, he parks
his Mercedes (or rather his chauffeur/bodyguard does) next to his
grass hut! In recent years, the South African army has contributed
to the flow of cash and inequalities, paying wages of R500 a month
to !Kung recruits.
Money by 1978 had created new kinds of problems for the Ju/wasi.
N!ai for example, typically spent what she earned on great quantities
of blankets and clothing, highly visible acquisitions that flaunted her
relative wealth and provoked the resentment of many of her fellow
!Kung. Other Ju/wasi invested in cattle. When slaughtered, beef was
sometimes sold to other Ju/wasi as food. The contrast between the
older ideology of meat as a symbolic tie between band members and
even outsiders, and the commercial sale of slaughtered, privatelyowned cattle could not be more striking. Meat had become the
object of a new kind of economic and social transaction.
The impact of the new economy and society on the symbolic value
of meat and meat-sharing was but one aspect of changes that had
begun to occur in other, less tangible dimensions of the culture.
Healing, for example, continued to be practiced through traditional
trancing at Tshum!kwi in 1978, and the inner healing force called
n/wn was felt to be extremely powerful. Yet trance curing had also
come to be objectified as a cultural curiosity. At a government-sponsored evening of entertainment, South African tourists photographed the natives who mimed a curing trance. The Ju/wasi, who
received a small payment for their services, willingly performed.
The performance aspect of traditional culture at Tshum!kwi is
revealed not only in the film scenes where the Ju/wasi mime trance
or don loincloths and pose with bows and arrows for tourists, but
also in the making of the feature film within the film. Marshall happened to be in the field when a South African film crew arrived to
shoot The Gods Must Be Crazy, now a box-office hit in South Africa.
The film concerns the contamination of the Bushmens simple lives
by an intrusive object from the modern world; a Coke bottle, tossed
carelessly from an airplane, brings the corruption and discontent
of civilization to the pristine bush. After much turmoil among the
natives, a lone hunter journeys to the edge of the world (the mountains), where he throws away the bottle. The scene-in-progress here
shows the hunter returning from his mission. Nothing about this
suburban-style family reunion resembles the quiet way in which a
Ju/wasi. would return from the hunt.
R E S O U R C E S
Mi lit a ri z at ion
The !Kung may view such cinematic exercises as somewhat amusing, even desirable for the cash they provide. More deadly, however,
are the implications of another recent introduction in Bushmanland: the military. In July 1978, as Marshall and his crew were
preparing to leave Namibia, the first South African army recruiters
arrived at Tshum!kwi.
The background to the militarization of the San begins with the
colonial history of Namibia, until 1920 a German colony known as
South West Africa. Following World War I, the territory was given
to the Republic of South Africa as a League of Nations mandate.
Not only the San were affected by South Africas control : thousands
of Hereros, Namas , and Ovambos were forced off their land, some
into the desert, others to become laborers for white farmers, or migrant miners and railroad workers. In 1948, South Africa extended
the principle of apartheid to the one million people of Namibia.
Whereas other League of Nations-mandated territories have long
since gained independence, South Africa has consistently refused to
relinquish control of Namibia, a land rich in diamonds, uranium,
and other mineral resources. The South West African Peoples Organization, or SWAPO, was founded by black Namibians in 1960
as an anti-colonial movement. By 1966 SWAPO became engaged
in a guerrilla struggle with the South African army, and gradually
won support throughout the world and throughout the Namibian
population. The World Court invalidated South Africas mandate
three times (1950, 1966, 1971). In 1966 the United Nations General Assembly voted to terminate the mandate; in 1972 the General
Assembly recognized SWAPO as the sole legitimate representative of the Namibian people; in 1976 the Security Council passed
a resolution demanding the withdrawal of South Africas illegal
administration. To date, the South Africans have resisted both local
and world pressure.
In the early 1970s, as SWAPO escalated its armed struggle, South
Africa moved 50,000 troops into northern Namibia, and built a
massive base and airfield at the town of Grootfontein, 145 miles
west of Tshum!kwi . In 1975, a secret army base called Omega was
established in the Western Caprivi strip, offering food and shelter
to San refugees from the Angolan war across the border to the
north. Many of these San had fought with the Portuguese against
the Angolan insurgents, and were forced to flee following Angolas
independence. At Omega, the San were utilized for their expertise
as trackers, and also trained in counterinsurgency and the use of
automatic weapons. This base became the nucleus of the 31 , or
Pied Crow Battalion.
The South African campaign to expand the recruitment of the
San continued in July 1978, with the opening of a base at Luhebo
(see map) , to which Angolan and Caprivi San were also recruited.
Soon afterward a base was set up at Tsjeka, about 30 miles west of
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Tshum!kwi. This became the center for a newly formed 36 Battalion of Namibian !Kung. Initial recruitment brought about 50
!Kung into the ranks, and by September 1981, 140 Tshum!kwi
men, or 47% of the men between the ages of 15 and 45, had joined
the army. The men brought their families to the camps. Elsewhere,
several hundred San, including Angolans, were stationed at seven
major bases in Bushmanland. According to the armys own figures,
one out of every four !Kung San in Namibia is now linked to the
army, either as a member of the military or as a dependent. Richard
Lee has noted: In relative terms, this is the highest rate of military
service of any ethnic group in the world, much higher, for example,
than that of the Gurkhas of Nepal or the Montagnards of Vietnam
(1982:7). Marshall and Ritchie report that the rate is even higher,
estimating that 39% of Bushmanlands population is supported at
army camps, while indirect support in the form of food, clothing,
and money is spread throughout the whole of Bushmanland and
several communities in Botswana.
The !Kung, once popularly known as the harmless people, are
now receiving intensive military training. The homicide rate, according to Lee, has tripled in the post-military era. As if to compound the irony, only the army appears to be concerned with the
development and welfare of these erstwhile hunters and gatherers,
running a farm at one camp at which 300 cattle and nearly 100
goats are owned by !Kung soldiers. With this development scheme
goes a cultural imperialist ideology that coexists with military
strategy, as revealed in the following passage from the Windhoekk
Advertiser, quoted by Lee (1980:1-2).
Deep in the dense Caprivi bush a colony of Bushmen are being
taught a new culture and a new way of life by the White man. More
than a thousand Bushmen have already discarded the bow and arrow for the RI rifle and their wives are making clothes out of cotton
instead of skin. Gone are their days of hunting animals for food and
living off the yield. They now have braaveis [sic. barbecue] and salads with salt and pepper while the men wear boots and their ladies
dress in the latest fashions. Their children go to schools and sing in
choirs ... The men are being trained as soldiers while their womenfolk learn how to knit, sew, and cook. Well-built wooden bungalows
in neat rows are their homes although some of them still prefer to
erect shanties next to them ... It is an open camp and the people
may come and go as they please, but most of them prefer to stay.
One does not have to look far to find out why. In 1981, a soldiers
average pay was R350/month; in 1982, the wage rose to R500/
month, plus rations for three additional family members. Around
Tshum!kwis administrative center, the average monthly wage for
labor was R200. Until January 1982 there were two army doctors
(now both are gone), and each army camp has its own (slightly
trained) medic. The educational standards required for joining
the army have been lowered for the San, as a special dispensation
since they are such excellent trackers. !Kung men have chances for
training and advancement within the army; in 1982, for example,
there were 3 !Kung medics. In contrast, the !Kung at Tshum!kwi
R E S O U R C E S
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Milk and Milk Products Are Now Part of the Diet of Gautscha
sugar and mealie meal at the Tshum!kwi store, from which they
easily manufactured a home-brewed beer.- The effects of mealie beer
on the !Kung at Tshum!kwi may be suggested by Lees description
of the situation of the Dobe !Kung, in Botswana, where drinking
began with the creation of a store in 1967 (1979:418):
Drinking is confined to the hottest hours of the day, beginning at
10 in the morning and continuing to late afternoon. The hot sun
overhead must speed the alcohols effect because most people are
thoroughly drunk by 2 in the afternoon. !Kung drinking parties
are loud and rowdy, with shouting and laughter that can be heard
a good distance away. Sometimes they take a nasty turn and fights
break out, like the brawl at !Kangwa in which a mine returnee gave
another man a blow with a club that fractured his skull. By nightfall the party-goers have finished for the day and disperse to eat the
evening meal or to sleep off a drunk.
In 1973, Lee witnessed the arrival of a supply truck which was
greeted with jubilation as its cargo was unloaded. Of a total of four
tons, almost three tons consisted solely of bags of sugar for making
beer--enough sugar to make almost 3000 buckets of home brew!
(1979:419).
Milk and Milk Products Are Now Part of the Diet of Gautscha
from the Portuguese, the Namibian San are being drawn into a war
which means little to them, and yet on which they are unknowingly
staking their very survival and their land.
The Liquor License
There are other, perhaps more immediate threats to survival in
Bushmanland. Since filming in 1978, alcoholism has become a
pressing problem. For many years, the Ju/wasi had been buying
The frequent fights and accidents that Lee witnessed as a result (in
part) of drinking were also typical of Tshum!kwi in the 1970s. At
Tshum!kwi, however, the alcohol problem acquired a new dimension with the approval, in March 1981, of a liquor license for the
store. With the license, the store could sell everything from gin to
brandy. The granting of the license was the subject of great controversy in Bushmanland for most of the previous year, with opposition
ranging from the local to the national level . Local support came
from the Ju/wasi rada, a council of old men appointed by a government ethnologist in 1968, and from the highest ranking !Kung
politician, Jo/oa (known as Geelboi or Yellow Boy in government circles). Jo/oa, the man with the Mercedes and a sheet-covered
grass scherm, is Minister of Water Affairs in Windhoek, and one
of two !Kung representatives in the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance
(DTA) Cabinet. Jo/oa succeeded in persuading the authorities that
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Unc er t a in Fut u re s
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While the liquor license was hotly debated, less attention was
paid to another proposed change that may have equally devastating consequences for the survival of the !Kung. This is a government plan to convert the entire eastern half of Bushmanland into
a Nature Conservation Area, or meat-country in the Ju/wasi
translation. The plan, if realized, would severely restrict both hunting and cattle husbandry throughout the only habitable part of
Bushmanland. Only bow-and-arrow hunting would be permitted,
in fact encouraged, as a tourist attraction. Although hunting no
longer retains the importance it once had in !Kung society, it does
provide an occasional and nutritious supplement to a diet of tinned
food and mealie meal. And the possibility of hunting still offers
an alternative (if unutilized) to absolute dependence on handouts
or cash. The effects of the game reserve on husbandry would be
to prevent the !Kung from watering their cattle at any waterholes
other than Tshum!kwi. In short, the plan would further ghetto-ize
the Ju/wasi into the already overcrowded settlement. The plan is
strangely contradictory to the army program of subsidizing cattle
purchases by the !Kung, and in fact the army is not in favor of the
proposed reserve. Among the Ju/wasi themselves, however, there has
been little opposition until recently.
The initial move was short-lived. Two months later, all the members of Tomas band returned, despondent, to Tshum!kwi. In
December, however, the group left again, this time consisting of 54
people and bringing 42 head of cattle. N!ai remained at Tshum!kwi,
although she encouraged her husband /Gunda to go with Toma.
Arriving at Gautscha, the people immediately built an enclosure, or
kraal, for their cattle. When elephants trampled it, they replaced it
with another, stronger kraal. When the shelters or scherms became
termite-infested, the group moved some distance away and began
to build more solid, Bantu-style huts. The men quickly returned to
hunting. In the initial weeks, the diet seemed to improve dramatically: three kudu were shot with bow and arrow, and other food
included wild pig, porcupine, game birds, and nine different kinds
of bush food. At the beginning, only a little mealie meal and no
beer was consumed.
Since the move to Gautscha, four other groups have followed To-
One of the factors that has made more enduring stays in the bush
a possibility is the growing interest in and availability of cattle. In
part this is due to the efforts of John Marshall, who believes that the
Ju/wasi must reclaim their lands although not by merely returning to a culture and an economy that is now quite past. Through a
cattle fund established by Marshall, the !Kung are able to obtain
cows from the administration, provided that each owner builds a
good kraal , milks the cow, and works free for the administration on
anything related to the administration herd.
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Tra nscript
In 1970, the South African government established a reservation
on the Namibia/Botswana border which restricted 800 !Kung to an
area one-half the size of their original territory.
The reservation lacks sufficient food and water for the !Kung to
continue their gathering/hunting life.
Young N!ai Shares a Drink With Her Baby Brother
N!ai
I get mealie meal for five kids. And Im a tuberculosis person
too. Were all T.B. people.
3rd man
4th man
N!ai
11
C omment a r y
The scene is the monthly distribution of rations: mealie meal
, tobacco, sugar, salt, and tea, to the approximately 70 !Kung at
Tshum!kwi who are officially old or tubercular. N!ai, who suffers
from tuberculosis, receives mealie meal for her five children., In the
background, the administrative complex is visible: a court, a meeting hall , offices, a generator, and a police station. In 1978 the complex was still under construction. A private white contractor hired
colored and black Ovambo workers, who lived in Tshum!kwi for
the duration of the project. No construction jobs were available for
the Ju/wasi, who were employed at Tshum!kwi only in unskilled
capacities.
N!ais narration, here and throughout the film, was culled from a series of interviews conducted with her by Marjorie Shostak in 1975,
and further interviews, which drew on Shostaks work, conducted by
anthropologist Patricia Draper in 1978. N!ai also spoke frequently
with John Marshall , whom she knew well, as he was filming behind
the camera. Because of the extensive narratives, it was decided to
combine Nais own voice (with subtitles) and an English voice-over.
N!ais English voice is spoken by Letta Mbulu, a black South African singer now in Los Angeles. N!ai and other !Kung speak throughout the film in the Ju/wasi language. Only about fifteen Ju/wasi
speak enough Afrikaans to work as translators, in such places as the
medical clinic.
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out gathering. But when the men went hunting and saw an animal and
hit--yah! My father was such an expert. When hed get up to go hunting
because people hadnt eaten meat, the animal was as good as dead. Even
a giraffe. Wed be eating meat just like that!
Narration
The San were the gatherer-hunters of southern
Africa. San have lived here in the Western Kalahari Desert for at least
20,000 years. In 1952, the !Kung, an independent San people, still occupied an area of 15,000 square miles. We met and talked with !Kung
people from 23 separate bands.
N!ai
When we were all living in the bush., I was a child, just a
little child, only so big. Ye gathered so many different things. We picked
/oley berries, and struck down na.
I loved to follow my mother. The two of us would be right beside each
other. If my mother went gathering without me, I would cry, because I
was just a little girl.
When we hit the na tree, the sweet berries fell. Wed all pick them up
and pile them together to take home. I was such a big little woman
then. Most things we dug. Our arms ached. We pried out the ubbee
root and dug koa, the water root from deep in the ground. In the forest
we gathered //ga--mangetti nuts. There was so much tsi in the fall, and
maa, the wind fruit. We had to taste things. Some of them were bitter.
Some people ate plums. Some people didnt. In winter the berries dried
but there was cucumber in the spring. And the beans you call wild coffee, and different insects. And when the year grew warm, the trees oozed
sap which we call xum and you call gum. Xum was so sweet.
R E S O U R C E S
Narration
!Kung territories had no boundaries. Territories were
defined by inherited rights to waters and to places where plant foods
could be gathered. From the !Kung we learned of more than 90 edible
species of plants.
In the winter months from May to August, no rain falls, the temperature drops below freezing, and the Ju/wasi stay close to their
permanent waters. During the heavy rains from January through
March, water.collects throughout the desert in pans, pools, and the
hollows of trees. Then people travel more freely through the territory, visiting distant friends and relatives.
N!ai
That was the food we ate. Those were the things that made us
good and full and gave us many different tastes. My mother would open
the baobab fruit and ask if we wanted some. Even if you hadnt worked,
if hunger grabbed you, you could eat. And when we used up all the food
and the year turned hard and hot, we traveled to another place. Those
things we did long ago, before we knew about money. Now we live at
Tshum!kwi. Here we eat one thing-mealie meal. And mealie meal and I
hate each other.
N!ais people at Gautscha are blessed with among the finest waterholes in the !Kung territory. Less fortunate are other San peoples,
such as the /Gwi, who inhabit the absolutely waterless central
Kalahari. The /Gwi, shown in the film Bitter Melons, depend for
their water entirely on tsama melons, of which they eat up to ten
each day, and more rarely on the liquid squeezed from the rumen of
hunted animals.
When I was little and men hadnt killed meat, thats when people went
Narration
It took four men five days to track the wounded
giraffe. The little arrows could hardly make an impression on an ani-
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mal that big. The poison on the arrows enters the bloodstream and
works slowly. in the winter, the ground is hard, the tracks difficult
to see. Toma had to practically think his way to the giraffe. It took
three hours to kill the giraffe. She weighed more than half a ton and
provided enough meat for 50 people to eat sparingly for 10 days.
Gathering is womens work, although men may also participate.
Children often come along as wel1, depending on their whims. Although every adult woman is responsible primarily for gathering for
herself and her dependents, women prefer to gather in small groups
of close kin or friends. N!ais mother, for example, typically gathered
with her sister !U and with another pair of sisters. By following her
mother on these expeditions, N!ai, like other !Kung children, gradually learned to identify a great variety of different roots, seeds, and
fruits. Roots are dug with a simple digging stick made from a sharpened, fire-hardened branch. Men make these sticks as well as the
leather carrying bags, or karosses, used by women. These consist of
the entire hide of a gemsbok, with the forelegs used to tie and fasten
the kaross over one shoulder. The women observed by Richard Lee
carried from 15 to 33 pounds of vegetable foods in their karosses
R E S O U R C E S
tions, all !Kung men hunted. When not tracking spore or stalking
game, men talked endlessly about past and future hunts. Women
were excluded from the hunt and required to observe avoidances
such as not touching male hunting equipment, in order not to
diminish the power of poisoned arrows.
D!ai, N!ais Mother, With Her Co-wife And Two Of Their Children
on their return journeys, in addition to small (and sometimes notso-small) children. In the course of a day, Lee calculated, a Kung
woman walked from 2 to 12 miles; in the course of a year, 1,500
miles (1979:310).
N!ai
When the men came back vith the meat., and the insides of
the animal, and the intestines and the heart, they would distribute it
to all of us. We would pound it and cook it. Women from other bands
would take a share in their karosses. We would have meat to dry and fat
to spare to rub on ourselves.
Although gathered plant foods formed between 70 and 80 percent
of the !Kung diet, meat was the most desired food, and the hunt
was more highly valued than the gather. Giraffe were actually far less
13
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me so my feet wouldnt touch the ground, because that could make a girl
thin too, when shes getting married.
It was an evening in the early winter when they brought me to the marriage hut. Naturally, I didnt sleep with /Gunda that night. I went home
and slept with my mother. And, of course, /Gunda and I didnt live
together for many, many rains.
May 1953
A description of Ju/wasi girlhood and early sexuality is found
in Marjorie Shostak s Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman (
1981 ) , as Nisa herself provides a vivid account of childhood games
and sexual discoveries. By the time of marriage, Nisa, like Nai, was
unwilling to accept her husband sexually. In 1953 N!ai was eleven
years old (not eight as the filmmakers originally thought), but still
just a child who would not menstruate for another six years.
The preparations for Nai s marriage and her simple wedding rite
are described by Lorna Marshal (1976:271 -79) . In the film, the
scene in which little N!ai is rubbed with fat and some powdered red
stone is actually an enactment (filmed in 1951) of the preparations
for a girls first menstruation rite. An almost identical procedure is
used to signify the transition to marriage, and so this footage was
used here. The only elements that distinguish the marriage from
the menstrual rite are the wait until nightfall to bring the girl to
the marriage hut, and the lighting of a fire from the girl s and the
boys parents fires. The marriage footage itself was shot at N!ai s
wedding in May, 1 953. Marshall described her perception of N!ai
passage into marriage (1976:276) :
That morning she appeared to turn into a housewife as though it
were her next blithe step. When the women went to gather plant
foods , she put on her own littl e duiker-skin kaross , took her digging stick, and went with them. At the end of the day, when they
We didnt even like to play with little boys. Boys always wanted us to
play getting married. They were after us! Theyd steal our ball and wed
have to chase them. Wed say, Youre boys and we dont want you. We
only want to be girls playing together. We dont want you boys bothering
us all the time.
But my family prepared me for marriage anyway. They washed me and
they put fat on and painted me so I would never get thin. My cousin
Tsamko said, Hey, thats your husband over there. 1 said, That red
face? Why are you saying thats my husband? And when my mother-inZawgreeted me with, Hey, my little in-law, 1 said, In-laws I dont
need.
You cant imagine how fearful I was of that man /Gunda. They brought
him--his friends brought him to the marriage house our mothers had
made for us. I thought, What have people done to me? My heart doesnt
want this. But my cousin and my sister came to me and covered me, so
the sunlight wouldnt fall on me and make me thin. And they carried
N!ai is to the left of the opening of the Marriage Hut; /Gunda sits to the right.
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returned in the slanting sunset light, she had two big roots. She
went straight to her own fire, blew on the embers, added wood, and
sat down. Her digging stick and three ostrich eggshells full of water
were her household goods. These she arranged beside the shelter
/Gunda came and sat down opposite her. She smiled at him and set
the roots in the ashes to cook. In reality, as N!ai experienced it, the
transition was far more difficult.
Febr ua r y 1958
Narration
N!ai and /Gunda were married in 1953, when
she was 8 and he was 13. By 1958 /Gunda had begun to live with
N!ai and hunt for her parents in brideservice.
N!ai
When we finally had to live together, /Gunda and I, we
slept with my bottom near his head., his head near my bottom so
there was everything between us. I refused him! I said in my heart,
Give me someone else. This /Gunda I dont want. Maybe it wasnt
/Gunda himself I rejected. I just didnt want a husband. I thought
that when I was grown up, I would find another husband. Somebody I myself had chosen. I refused to sleep with /Gunda or even
play with him under the blanket. My heart refused it.
When we girls get our breasts and begin to grow, our mothers praise
us. Hey, they say, Look at you showing. Now youre doing what
women do. They encourage us about being women. We tease each
other and joke about whats happening to each other and compare.
But were scared. Many of us are scared about sleeping with men
and having babies. Because of the pain and danger--women die.
My friend Shag//ai was afraid of childbirth. Her stomach was lying
there. I didnt know what the matter was, but I thought, That
woman is terrified of the childbirth.
Healing
15
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N!ai
Finally this is how my thoughts came to care for /Gunda.
The old people took me and said., Listen, Short Face, this man
wont hurt you. Look at him learning to cure people. The owners of
N!ai
My uncle and her brother went into half-death to cure Shag//
ai - They tried so hard. She lived but the baby had died inside her.
Mother told me I mustnt fear because when a woman fears childbirth,
her baby dies. Her own blood kills it. I thought and thought about that,
but I didnt become brave right away. Even my uncle /Ti!kay chided me
because I still refused my husband.
/Ti! Kay
N!ai
Ti!kay
N!ai
And when I was older it got worse with my husband because
I did not choose him myself. I slept with other men. I cheated. People
were furious. My husband wanted me, but I said, No. I am going to
love the man I want. My husband did not know for years. My husband
suspected but he did not know.
I did the tasks of a young wife, but I felt terrible inside. I didnt laugh
or smile. Sometimes he would have food. I didnt want to touch it. I
tormented him. People told me, Hes your husband. Once the two of
you know one another, his thoughts will be to you like your mothers and
fathers thoughts. I didnt listen to that.
And in those same years /Gunda began to find his medicine. He began
to trance. And when /Gunda began to trance, it was worst of all. I
thought, He Is crazy! I watched and thought, Im living with a madman. My husband has gone insane and I am married to him. Id look
at him in half-death and think, This man is positively dangerous.
N!ai
/Gunda
N!ai
/Gunda
N!ai
/Gunda
Actually, /Ti!Kay is not N!ais uncle, with whom she would have
to practice a respectful avoidance, but a distant relative with whom
it is acceptable to joke sexually.
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births. The fact that women no longer have to carry their children
enormous distances could not explain such a rapid change. Dietary
changes, on the other hand, have reduced the previously extended
years of nursing, as milk, soft porridges, and other weaning foods
are now available at Tshum!kwi. Whatever the precise mechanism by
which fertility changes are effected, it is clear that they may lead to
unprecedented population growth within a formerly mobile society
(see page 11 for a discussion of the high death rate, however, which
offsets population growth). Less measurable consequences may also
ensue. If nursing is reduced in frequency and duration, for example,
how does this affect the emotional structure of the family, the
traditionally close bonding between mother and child? How does a
greater number of children affect womens work?
N!ai, sitting in front of her daughter-in-laws Bantu-style house at
Tshum!kwi, picked up a stringed instrument, a pluriarc, and spontaneously sang the song that she had apparently been composing for
some time. The use of song to express emotions and the invention
of original compositions on the pluriarc were characteristic of Ju/
wasi tradition in former days as well. The pluriarc, called a //gwashi,
Tshum!kwi, 1981
N!ai
I didnt eat yesterday either, so lay off me! You got as much
mealie meal as I did!
17
R E S O U R C E S
Young mother Some people get mealie meal while others starve. But
nobodys begging from you, N!ai.
N!ai
!U
N!ai
Thats how it is now. People claw at me. When white people take
pictures of me and pay me, everyone is jealous. They are hungry for food
and money. You see, today we are not eating. Hunger is grabbing us all.
Now we must go far to hunt. Tsamko, my cousin, was already a man
when his father bought a horse. Now he is a horsehunter.
Young !Kung woman
!Kung woman
N!ai
But we are afraid. When we hunt with a horse, the white
people say we steal the meat. They say the hunters may go to jail.
Mr. Jonker, the Bushman Affairs Commissioner at Tshum!kwi
from 1976 to 1978, sits with his wife behind his massive desk and
complains about the Bushmens laziness. At payday, average wages
were R30 a week, or about US$28. These wages were used primarily
to buy mealie meal, great quantities of which were brewed into beer.
At the time of filming, about sixty men were on the payroll , the
majority employed to clear trees and grass for fire-breaks in the fireprone countryside. A few men, such as Toma , were more steadily
employed and received higher wages. Toma cleaned the yard, fed
Jonkers geese, and received between R60 and R100 a week. Another
permanent employee, seen inside the Commissioners house, was
/Gishay, dressed in white and dusting the administrators artifacts.
/Gishay began as houseboy for the first administrator, Claude McIntyre, and maintained his job through successive administrations.
The artifacts consist of Kavango tourist art and a !Kung //gwashi,
probably decorated to heighten its tourist appeal.
In the yard, moments later, the sounds of urban, South African pop
tunes fill the air, as !Kung children dance around a battery-powered
victrola .
Narration
We asked the game warden to explain government policy about hunting. He said, A while ago I drove to
Xaolwa to see the giraffes. I could see them perfectly and take
pictures. They are very rare and beautiful. That was before the horse.
Today I saw three. I saw many vultures. And I know if the Bushmen
go on like this, youll see no more giraffes in the land. The Bushmen themselves must decide if they want their grandchildren to see
giraffes.
Tsamko If I try to spear her again shell kick the horse. She isnt running now. Shell kick! Shell fall just now.
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Narration
youre guilty
E D U C A T I O N A L
R E S O U R C E S
Soldier Look, we want three of those arrows. And we can give all these
tins of meat.
N!ai
money
N!ai
Maybe my T.B. is back. They said I was healthy. So now
health is killing me?
Artist
Narration
We told the doctor that this baby had been sick
since she was born. We asked what the infection might be.
Tshum!kwi Doctor
As far as Im concerned., theres no obvious evidence of any infection in that childs chest at the moment.
Clear enough that child is coughing. I think the main problem
being is living in their little grass huts their fires within the huts and
this constant exposure to respiratory irritants is probably the biggest
causative factor as far as the coughing in amongst the Bushmen is
concerned. I think the Bushman accepts coughing as being something thats quite normal whereas we tend to regard it as a pathogenic symptom. In other words, all that they really need is just some
form of a cough mixture just to try and depress the irritation. That
is the way I see it.
2nd Soldier
3rd Soldier
Those soldiers are Bushmen too. They fight SWAPO.
How come youre scared? You think SWAPO will shoot you?
I really have too much work.
3rd Soldier
/Gunda The baby isnt hearing me. I cant reach her. A terrible illness!
N!ai
The baby died within the month. Our oldest son died like this, here at
Tshum!kwi., here in my arms. But my son was almost a man.
He was of the age, the difficult, lazy age we call edi kxausi, the owners of the shade.
Death is ruining me. Death is stealing from me. Death is dancing me
ragged.
Narration
In August 1978, the South African army established
the first military base near Tshum!kwi. They came to recruit and to
carry out operations against the guerrilla forces of the South West African Peoples Organization, or SWAPO.
In Preparation For Imitation of A Trance Dance, Small Boys Fasten Rattles To a Friends Ankles
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tion from the concerned film crew, Gao allowed his granddaughter
to receive an injection of antibiotics but was unwilling to continue
the treatments, seeing little difference between antibiotics and the
useless cough syrup. Gao and the family then turned to older forms
of healing as the babys condition worsened, and /Gunda entered
trance in an effort to grapple with the spirits and save the childs life.
Both Western and traditional medicine ultimately failed, and the
Ju/wasi explained the childs illness and death as a result of sorcery.
Artist SWAPO will shoot me.
Ist Soldier
3rd Soldier
Well teach you to lie in the grass. When SWAPO
walks by you shoot him.
Artist
3rd Soldier
N!ai
People are saying I have many things and they have nothing.
They say these South Africans take my picture because they think I am
beautiful. Thats why I get paid.
Im supposed to be the wife in the hut. Do they want the hunter with
me? They never make sense.
Director Yah, just take it slower
N!ai
19
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N!ai
From these white people in one day I made three Rand. I am
a woman who can buy things. But people say I am hiding things. Sometimes I share but sometimes I dont want to give to other people because
my children are full of wanting to eat.
/Wi
N!ai
/Wi
N!ai
Im not hiding anything! You see all I have. These are my
childrens blankets!
/Wi
N!ai
So now, when people are jealous, they remember. They are saying that
my daughter has slept with a stranger--for money. I am a person who
has work. Thats why people lie about my daughter, to hurt me.
//Gau
Hwan//a
//Gau Your mother N!ai taught you whoring. Youd screw your
brother.
N!ai
Thats what I was talking about. But people are really yelling
at me because of the work I have with you and other white people.
Those people didnt see my daughter fool around. Her husband believes
it.
//Gau
N!ai
!U
We dont need anything from you., N!ai. Are you and your
daughter both in heat?
R E S O U R C E S
N!ai
Look! I don It know if my daughter screwed around. People
say it. My husband thinks it. I know people are jealous because I work.
But I fear my husband! Maybe I am to blame.
Womans voice
Hwan//a
Young mother
Narration
We joined N!ai at church. The lesson was John IV, the
story of the Samaritan woman:
Jesus and his people had traveled far and came to the well. Jesus sat
alone. But he had no cup to get water. While he waited, a woman
came from the village to get water. Jesus asked her for water. She
said, I cant give you water, youre Jewish. I But Jesus had looked
closely at the woman. Before Jesus asked for water he looked deep
into her heart. He saw she was a bad woman. You must help this
woman. So he spoke with her, saying, Go call your husband. I
have no husband, I she replied. I know, said Jesus. You have five
men. You take a man to help you, and fight with him, then take
another. People abuse you. People make you grieve. I Jesus doesnt
want to give us just food and clothes and water. Jesus says, You
know who God is? You can ask for anything. God can give it to you.
He can help you. Jesus said, I am God. I am Gods son.
Arguments of this kind had become increasingly common at
Tshum!kwi by 1978. Money, blankets, shoes, and food were objects
of bitter contention. N!ais own relationship to John Marshalls film
crew presented problems, for her extra income of five rand a day
exacerbated jealousies and charges of hoarding. I am a person who
has work, Nai says. Thats why people lie about my daughter, to
hurt me. Before settled life at Tshumkwi, with its store, handouts
of mealie meal , cash, and the army, every Ju/wasi man and woman
had work. Only in recent years did the idea of life without work,
now a scarce and specialized activity, become a possibility.
The issues of sharing and hiding, of unequal distribution of
goods, money, and work, are intertwined with sexual accusations in
this argument. The story behind this particular argument concerns
a young Ovambo man, assisting John Marshall, who liked to take
!Kung children for rides in his truck. He once took N!ais daughter
Hwan//a, and gave her a piece of candy. A maternal relative of N!ai,
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For the Bushmen are used to the veZdt and especially to tracking and
survival. They are brave, they are really brave. But at this stage, they
look up to, to white leadership in action for they believe that the white
men are more intelligent and the white man knows all and the white
man knows what to do. They believe in the white man.
The sermon, which followed the argument about N!ai s daughter, seemed to be explicitly directed at N!ai, Typically, the Dutch
Reformed sermons are exceedingly somber and moralistic, admonishing the people not to fight or commit adultery. Typically, the
white Reverend Swanepole delivers his message in Afrikaans and the
Kavango acolyte, Celestino, translates. The white schoolteacher and
his wife sit at the back of the church. What is somewhat atypical in
22
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pot with SWAPO. But these soldiers are the owners of fighting. They
fight even when they play and I fear them. I wont let my children be
soldiers, the experts at anger. The soldiers will bring the killing. This I
know.
Narration
We told the captain about some of the aggression we saw and asked him to compare his soldiers with the people at
Tshum!kwi.
!Kung voices
R E S O U R C E S
N!ai
Now people mock me and I cry. My people abuse me. The
white people scorn me. Death mocks me. Death dances with me. Dont
look at my face. Dont look at my face.
Captain
This I also take back to the training. I think its the
only reason they are much more developed and more educated than the
people at Tshum!kwi.
Marshall
army?
Captain
Marshall
Whats going to happen when you go? The South
Africans--whats going to happen to these people?
Toma, 1952
Captain
Well, I never thought of going. I intend to stay here all
my life. I cant see that we will go. And if we had gone, I suppose that
the Bushmen will go with us. For in the whites they find friends and
they find help. They find a future living.
Fi lm Cred it s
Toma was visiting the army camp on the invitation of the officers
who still hoped to win his approval. Toma watched, but he did not
change his mind about the experts at anger, the owners of fighting.
N!ai
too?
Death, yes. Death is stealing from me. Will death steal me,
/Wi
And my niece, take care of her. Well have some coffee when I
get back.
Marshall How long are they going to be, how long do they sign up for?
Soldier Ah, yah. As long as they want. Most of them will stay the rest
of their lives there.
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23
D O C U M E N T A R Y
E D U C A T I O N A L
R E S O U R C E S
Production assistants: Michel Negroponte, Anne Fischel, Ross McElwee, Stan Leven, Bonnie Deutsch, Barry Dornfeld, Sarah Goodman, Jonathan Haar, Martha Lightfoot
1980 The Kalahari San: Montagnards of South
Africa? TCLSAC Reports. September. Toronto: Toronto Committee
for the Liberation of Southern Africa.
1981 Politics, Sexual and Nonsexual , in an Egalitarian Society: The !Kung San, in Social Inequality: Comparative and
Developmental Approaches, ed. G. Berreman. New York: Academic
Press.
Awa rd s
Cine Golden Eagle
American Film Festival, Blue Ribbon
International Film and Television Festival of New York
Grand Prize, Cinima du RjeZ., Paris
News Coverage Festival, Luchon, France
Bibliography
Collier, Jane and Michelle Rosaldo
1981 Politics and Gender in Simple Societies, in
Sexual Meanings: The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality,
eds. S. Ortner and H. Whitehead. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Die Suidwester
1974 Bushmen See Eternal Light at Tshum!kwi,
Windhoek, Namibia. May 15,
Draper, Patricia
1975 !Kung Women: Contrasts in Sexual Egalitarianism in Foraging and Sedentary Contexts, in Toward an Anthropology of Women, ed. R. Reiter. New York: Monthly Review Press.
1982 SWAPO: Best Hope of the San, ARC Newsletter
6:1. Boston: Anthropology Resource Center.
Marshall, Lorna
1959
29.
1976 The !Kung of Nyae Nyae. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press.
Shostak, Marjorie
1981 Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Smuts, Gary
1981 Bushmen Leap into the Space Age, The Sunday
Times. Johannesburg.
Thatcher, Gary
1981 Bushmen: The Hunters Now Hunt Guerrillas,
Christian Science Monitor. March 19.
Thomas, Elizabeth Marshall
1959 The Harmless People. New York: Knopf.
Helmoed-Romer, Heitman
1980 36 (Bushmen) Battalion, in Armed Forces, June,
pp. 13-15.
Howell, Nancy
1979
Academic Press.
Katz, Richard
1982 Boiling Energy: Community Healing Among the
Kalahari !Kung. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Lee, Richard B. and Irven DeVore, eds.
1976 Kalahari Hunter-Gatherers: Studies of the !Kung
San and Their Neighbors. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Lee, Richard B.
1979 The !Kung San: Men, Women, and Work in a Foraging Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
24
Fi lmography
In addition to N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman, John Marshall
has directed a number of other films about the !Kung San. All are
available from Documentary Educational Resources, 101 Morse
Street, Watertown, MA 02472, (617) 926-0491, unless otherwise
noted. Background and film descriptions are to be found in Films
From D.E.R., available for $3.00.
An Argument About a Marriage* (color, 18 minutes)
Baobab.Play* (color, 8 minutes)
Bitter Melons* (color, 30 minutes)
Children Throw Toy Assegais* (color, 4 minutes)
A Curing Ceremony (bw, 8 minutes)
Debes Tantrum (color, 9 minutes)
A Group of Women (bw, 5 minutes)
The Hunters (color, 72 minutes. Available from Films Inc., Wilmette
IL)
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D O C U M E N T A R Y
E D U C A T I O N A L
Honora r y Member
Her Majesty Queen Margrethe of Denmark
Boa rd of Directors
David Maybury-Lewis, President Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University
Evon Z. Vogt, Jr., Clerk Professor of Social Anthropology Harvard
University
Irven DeVore, Treasurer Professor of Anthropology Harvard University
Lester Anderson
Harvey Cox Victor Thomas Professor of Divinity Harvard Divinity
School
Leon Eisenberg Dean School of Social Medicine and Health Policy
Harvard Medical School
Advisor y Boa rd
Bruce Bushey, Esq.
Alexander & Green
Now York City
Roberto Cardoso de Oliveira
Professor of Anthropology
Universidade de Brasilia
Harold 1. Coolidge
Environmentalist
Robert Hahn
Anthropologist
John Marshall
Ethnogruphic Film Producer
Alfonso Ortiz
Professor of Anthropology
University of New Mexico
Francesco Pellizzi
Anthropologist
Louis B. Solin
Professor of International Law
Harvard University
Stefano Varese
Professor of Anthropology
Direccion General do Culturas Populares,
Mexico
Volu nteers
St a f f
Theodore Macdonald, Phl). Projects Director
Jason Clay, Phl). Research Director
Pia Maybury-Lewis 'Executive Secretary
R E S O U R C E S
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D O C U M E N T A R Y
E D U C A T I O N A L
R E S O U R C E S
Ack nowledgment s
This guide could not have been written without John Marshall and
Claire Ritchie, who returned to Namibia in 1980 to undertake a
demographic study of the !Kung, and who, over the past two and a
half years, have generously shared their insights and intimate knowledge of the Namibian !Kung, past and present.
I would also like to thank Sue Marshall Cabezas, Judith Nierenberg,
Robert Gordon, and Lorna Marshall for helpful comments and
suggestions. Sue Marshall Cabezas and Judith Nierenberg deserve
special thanks for their continuing support of this project at D.E.R.
Lorna Marshall, John Marshall, and Claire Ritchie generously
provided photographs spanning thirty years. Jason Clay made possible the publication of this volume as a Cultural Survival/ D.E.R.
collaboration. Finally, my debts to scholars of the San are acknowledged in the text; in particular, the works of Lorna Marshall and
Richard Lee have been indispensable.
Toby Alice Volkman
Documentary Educational Resources
Note on Orthography
There are four clicks in the !Kung San language, produced by
pressing the tongue against specific areas on the roof of the mouth
or the back of the teeth., and sharply pulling it away to create an
ingressive air stream. The standard click symbols, as described by
Marshall (1976:xx), Are:
/ dental click
The sound produced by release of the tongue may
be compared to a mild reproach in English or tsk tsk.
alveolar click
Marshall describes the sound as a snap, sometimes accompanied by a slight sucking sound.
! alveopalatal click Results in a loud pop.
// lateral click
A fricative sound, similar to that used in spoken
English to urge on a horse.
26
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D O C U M E N T A R Y
E D U C A T I O N A L
R E S O U R C E S
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