Through the Klipkoppiestreek (region of small, rocky hills) where I feasted on wild fruit like !khounibe (a wild berry with a dry, fruity taste), chasing rabbits barefoot through the kliprandjies (rocky edges in the landscape). Back among these familiar mountains I recall the sweet-sour odour of taaibos – and the days I spent grazing goats with my grandfather.
I am on a story that takes me to the heart of the Nama cultural revival. Today, close to end of the 20th century, the Khoe, and in particular the Nama people situated in the Richtersveld, are reclaiming their traditional ways. And they are staking their claim to the status of indigenous people.
Defining who indigenous people are is forbidding. Africans, as distinguished from white, Asian and so-called coloured people, can, and to some extent do, claim indigenous status.For this reason, Joe Little, Director of the Cape Cultural Heritage Development Council, uses the term First Nation rather than indigenous. The argument is based on archeological research that reveals the presence of San people at least 25 000 years ago. The Khoe (Nama, Gruiqua and Koranna) arrived later with their stock and Bantu-speaking people (the preferred term for black Africans used by historians and socio-linguists) following thereafter.
The term indigenous is used by the United Nations and the debate around the appropriateness of the term in South Africa will have to be resolved there first.
The general policy of the ILO 169 states that indigenous people are people “who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations who inhabited the country… at the time of conquest or colonisation or the establishment of present state boundaries and who… retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions.”
The Khoe lived among the moonscape mountains of Namaqualand long before Van Riebeeck’s ships came. And the stock farmers of the Richtersveld still live the life of the Khoe ancestors, who trekked to the harsh piece of land with their herds of goats and sheep.
The Nama have been dogged by questions over where the reclaiming of traditional cultures and identities suddenly comes from. One criticism has it that the Nama have been content with their identities as coloureds all these years, and only used the Nama identity to reclaim access to land. Once that was achieved, they continued life in their westernised ways while the Nama traditions were put back on the shelf, only to be taken and dusted off for display to the media, tourists and anthropologists.In defense, the Nama claim the constitution now allows and protects communities to observe their traditional heritage. Under the oppressive laws of apartheid, Khoe and South African people were forced to register and adopt and identity as coloured people.
Mrs Farmer, who we met in Kuboes remembers: “In the early 50’s a government official conducting the census, Gert O’Neill, reclassified us as coloureds.” The apartheid laws dispossessed the Nama of any right to traditional land ownership since they were considered of “mixed descent.”
Apart from loosing their land, the Nama suffered a systematic process of ethnocide. The Khoe and San share a history of oppression as the relics of a colonial war against the Nama in the early 1900’s in Steinkopf testify.
In this town too, lies the grave of the man who’s surname I carry, Albert von Schlicht. An immigrant from Germany, he came to the region in the late 1800’s searching for copper. The Khoe had to adopt Christian names and the surnames of the white farmers who employed them. Some of these farmers conceived children with Nama woman, legitimising the adoption of white names, although few such instances were in matrimony.The Nama language and culture was stigmatised as primitive, not only by the outside world, but by the younger generation as well, as they were increasingly exposed to western fashion and technology.
Mrs Farmer recalls being banned from speaking Nama in schools. Even parenting mirrored the custom and language of the white oppressor, as parents saw only intensified discrimination and hardship for their children should they speak Nama instead of Afrikaans as mother tongue.
In the Kuboes churchhall I hear the famous Nama choir rehearse. I ask them about being Nama, and the cultural revival. The choir is directed by Oom Adam Swartbooi, the only person in town able to write the Nama language. He explains that many people still refuse to acknowledge their Nama identity. “They do not know what it all is about,” he declares.
This year, like every year, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) met in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries. At its June 1989 session a convention called ILO 169 was ratified by 135 countries. This is officially cited as the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, and aims to outline and protect the rights of first, indigenous and tribal people.
Indigenous Rights are special rights says Nigel Crawhall, a socio-linguist working with the South African San Institute – they are not included under human rights.
Indigenous rights carry the principle of self-regulation so once they acquired indigenous people will be allowed to manage their own affairs. Crawhall notes” This means if an indigenous group is a minority, they would have certain rights that could override the majority, like the right to choose language of instruction, use their own place-names, and elect their own local government.
South Africa is not a signatory to the ILO 169 convention. According to Crawhall, South Africa as not formally acknowledged the concept of an indigenous population yet, although they are now considering it. Should South Africa subscribe to ILO 169, the constitution will have to be slightly adapted to realise the rights of the Khoe and San people.
Anthony Le Fleur, President of the National Grigua Forum raises the issue of access to land. Indigenous status would allow communities to get back the traditional land expropriated from them from the first era of colonialism. So land taken from indigenous people before the 1913 date set by the Restitution of Lands Rights Act could be reclaimed. But here niggling worries creep in. There are fears that the rise in Nama identity and calls for self-regulation and preservation could swing South Africa back to apartheid style Bantustans. Echoes of homelands and a volkstaat (separate or exclusive nation state within a country) threaten the harmonious objective of nation building.
It remains to be seen to what extent the revival of Nama traditional culture will influence future generations, especially once the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous People is ratified. Khoe and South African delegates attend the International Labour Conference yearly lobbying for indigenous rights to take effect but the call will only be taken up if the youth choose to be an integral part of the struggle.
The process of saying goodbye to Namaqualand is a long one. I request the Kuboes Choir to sing a song in Nama. The women stand up. Oom Adam prepares to direct. They start singing. I see that wide open field playing in front of my eyes. That longing feeling comes back, as strong as ever. I gulp a knot in my throat, and consciously try and think of other matters to fight the tears welling up.
As we leave Kuboes in the dust of our car I know only one thing: I need to come back. I had a glimpse of the deeper waters flowing, but it is still unknown to me. I have seen part of my roots. One last glance back through the dust and I see Kuboes fading into the valley of the mountain that guards over it.
- text republished from the Land & Rural Digest, August/September 1998
- images courtesy of Paul Weinberg, Port Nolloth Tourism and www.suedafrika.net
This year, like every year, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) met in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries. At its June 1989 session a convention called ILO 169 was ratified by 135 countries. This is officially cited as the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, and aims to outline and protect the rights of first, indigenous and tribal people.Indigenous Rights are special rights says Nigel Crawhall, a socio-linguist working with the South African San Institute – they are not included under human rights.
Indigenous rights carry the principle of self-regulation so once they acquired indigenous people will be allowed to manage their own affairs. Crawhall notes” This means if an indigenous group is a minority, they would have certain rights that could override the majority, like the right to choose language of instruction, use their own place-names, and elect their own local government.
South Africa is not a signatory to the ILO 169 convention. According to Crawhall, South Africa as not formally acknowledged the concept of an indigenous population yet, although they are now considering it. Should South Africa subscribe to ILO 169, the constitution will have to be slightly adapted to realise the rights of the Khoe and San people.
Anthony Le Fleur, President of the National Grigua Forum raises the issue of access to land. Indigenous status would allow communities to get back the traditional land expropriated from them from the first era of colonialism. So land taken from indigenous people before the 1913 date set by the Restitution of Lands Rights Act could be reclaimed. But here niggling worries creep in. There are fears that the rise in Nama identity and calls for self-regulation and preservation could swing South Africa back to apartheid style Bantustans. Echoes of homelands and a volkstaat (separate or exclusive nation state within a country) threaten the harmonious objective of nation building.
It remains to be seen to what extent the revival of Nama traditional culture will influence future generations, especially once the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous People is ratified. Khoe and South African delegates attend the International Labour Conference yearly lobbying for indigenous rights to take effect but the call will only be taken up if the youth choose to be an integral part of the struggle.
The process of saying goodbye to Namaqualand is a long one. I request the Kuboes Choir to sing a song in Nama. The women stand up. Oom Adam prepares to direct. They start singing. I see that wide open field playing in front of my eyes. That longing feeling comes back, as strong as ever. I gulp a knot in my throat, and consciously try and think of other matters to fight the tears welling up.
As we leave Kuboes in the dust of our car I know only one thing: I need to come back. I had a glimpse of the deeper waters flowing, but it is still unknown to me. I have seen part of my roots. One last glance back through the dust and I see Kuboes fading into the valley of the mountain that guards over it.
- text republished from the Land & Rural Digest, August/September 1998- images courtesy of Paul Weinberg, Port Nolloth Tourism and www.suedafrika.net
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