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As South Africa marks Heritage Month in September as it tries to recover from lockdown for a coronavirus pandemic, communities like the Khoisan have been reflecting on and questioning their fractured identity.
King Khoisan South Africa at Union Buildings in Pretoria, on September 22, 2020. Image: AFP.
PRETORIA – A giant bronze statue of Nelson Mandela dominates a large black canvas tent that has become a fixture on the emerald lawn of the South African president’s office in Pretoria.
The tent houses activists from the Khoisan indigenous people, the first inhabitants of South Africa, whose presence in this country has been dated by archaeologists to thousands of years.
For the past two years, activists have camped outside the government headquarters, demanding official recognition of their languages and negotiating ownership of the land.
They also want the word “colored,” the mixed-race label they have worn since apartheid and still used heavily in official documents, to be removed.
The group arrived here in 2018, walking 1,000 kilometers, in an attempt to secure an audience with authorities.
“We will wait here until we have what we came for,” said one of its leaders, who calls himself King Khoisan South Africa.
The Union Buildings is an imposing 110-year-old structure that has housed colonial, apartheid and democratic leaders, including Mandela and now President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The white methacrylate signs in front of the store carry various messages.
One has inscriptions in Afrikaans that say Ramaphosa doesn’t give a damn: “We’ve been here for over a year and what is he doing? Nothing!”
Last year, Ramaphosa enacted the Khoi-San and Traditional Leadership Act, which gives more autonomy to the Khoisan community.
But some of the Khoisan remain dissatisfied and see the law as the starting point for a constitutional and cultural struggle.
But it is unclear how many Khoisan there are, out of a population of 59 million, and their identity is also up for debate.
“We are talking about Khoi herders and San hunter-gatherers, but archaeologically it is difficult to tell them apart,” explained Tammy Reynard, curator of the Origins Center at the University of the Witwatersrand.
LANGUAGE AND EARTH
As South Africa marks its heritage month in September as it tries to recover from lockdown for a coronavirus pandemic, communities like Khoisan have been reflecting on and questioning its fractured identity.
The Khoisan have been referred to in the past as “Bushmen”, and when Dutch settlers landed in South Africa in the 17th century, they were called Hottentots, a word derived from the famous clicks in their languages.
In one of the darkest episodes of colonial times, a British doctor brought a Khoisan named Sarah Baartman to Europe in the early 19th century and exhibited her as an anatomical phenomenon: the “Hottentot Venus”, which people could see and touch. for a fee.
Battered and ill, she died in poverty and her remains were exhibited in a museum in Paris. They were returned to South Africa in 2002 and buried with honor in the Eastern Cape. Her story is described in Black venus, 2010 French film directed by Abdellatif Kechiche.
“Classifieds of color want to know who they are; they are coming together like never before,” said Anthony Philip Williams, founder of Indigenous First Nation Advocacy SA.
The virus “the blockade put a magnifying glass on the inequality we have inherited,” said Denver Toroga, a Khoisan-language activist and poet.
“But I think it also helped us move beyond the need to acquire wealth and seek a different kind of cultural wealth.”
One of the Khoisan languages, which is written as “N | uu”, is listed by UNESCO as endangered, with only three fluent speakers remaining.
In a speech marking the country’s heritage day on Thursday, Ramaphosa said the nation “is firmly protecting” that and other indigenous languages.
For many activists, land is the key.
The much publicized issue of the return of farmland seized during white supremacy must include restitution for the Khoisan as well as for the black communities, King Khoisan said.
“You can’t talk about identity off the ground,” Williams said.
“We must involve the government in what is called a negotiated agreement,” he said.
“A part of that settlement should be the land that we access, where we can live, where we can produce it and use it for cultural purposes, to access resources. The resources on this land belong to our ancestors.”
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