Posted on January 25, 2012
Southern Africa's history can be traced back to the very beginning of human development, some 2.5 million years ago as shown by the Cradle of Humankind. The region was inhabited by honey-skinned carriers of the oldest human genetics on the planet, the San, and it shelters the greatest storehouse of rock paintings and engravings in the world. The San's history in the area can be traced back to the Later Stone Age, from about 40,000 years ago. Archeological findings indicate the increasing use of a wide range of bone and wooden tools and plants, the latter to make rope, string, nets, mats, etc.
A visit to the !Khwa ttu San Culture and Education Centre situated along the R27 on the West Coast, less than an hour's drive from Cape Town) offers its guests contact with the descendants of these ancient San people. Through a San guided-experience, a fascinating insight into their rich culture, heritage, knowledge and modern-day life is provided. Themed, the San Spirit Discovered / A Celebration of San Culture; Past-Present-Future, !Khwa ttu presents a one-and-a-half-hour tour where San guides demonstrate their skills by tracking animals, identifying plants and share their ancient knowledge about oral history. Visitors also see a replica traditional San village, learning more about San hunting traditions by observing the use of tools such as bows and arrows, while getting a chance to witness the unique skills of San women as they produce ostrich eggshell jewellery and demonstrate the usage of digging sticks and gathering bags.
It is easy to see that San guides take great pride in their work as Andre, a member of the '¡Khomani community from the southern Kalahari explains, "I like culture and nature. I am a guide and assist with marketing at the working place of my dreams". It is striking to note that none of the tour-guides is wearing traditional San clothing but contemporary clothing with traditional motifs. Carlos, a Khwedam-speaking guide from Angola, explains: "I think it is very important to tell people from far away about our tradition and also the stories my grandfather told me a long time ago. The !Xun, Khwe, !Xõà and '¡Khomani have built !Khwa ttu. !Khwa ttu is also important to the San from other countries."
In order to provide a combination of traditional and formal education for the San children, youth and adults living and working at !Khwa ttu, the Education Support Programme has recently been established. The programme consists of a créche and kindergarten for the children aged one to three years, after-school care for primary school learners and the Adult-based Education and Training [ABET] course for adolescents and interested adult employees.
Most visitors are not informed that today's San continue to suffer greatly from poverty, discrimination and marginalization. In fact, over the years, the San, have been exploited by the tourist industry and various commercial enterprises who have ruthlessly capitalized on our appearance, arts, crafts and cultural identity. Very little has been received by our San communities in terms of acknowledgement and payment for our work and knowledge.
In 2000, San representatives at the annual general assembly of the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA) named the San Culture and Education Centre '!Khwa ttu', which means 'water pan' in the extinct |Xam language. Khwa ttu is now the only San-owned culture and education centre in the Western Cape of South Africa. It is a joint-venture owned by the San people in partnership with the Swiss UBUNTU Foundation. !Khwa ttu as a legal entity is a 50/50 joint venture between the San, as represented by WIMSA , and UBUNTU. The joint venture is contained within two registered companies: Meerkat Community Development and !Khwa ttu San Culture and Education Centre, both of which are registered not for gain (in terms of Section 21 of the Companies Act). The companies both have identical full legal standing with constitutions covering management, control and ownership of the project. The companies consist of 5 members elected by the San and 5 members elected by UBUNTU Foundation. The San, as beneficiaries and partly resident owners, are fully consulted with regards to every policy or development decision.
!Khwa ttu has been established to celebrate the San experience and rightfully so, but very little, and understandably so given the sensitive nature thereof, has been done to portray the history of oppression the San endured and are still experiencing. Many tourists visiting Southern Africa wish to learn more about San history, and this is an area !Khwa ttu lacks somewhat! Dealing with the collective 'memories of pain' is crucial for the process of healing, and cannot simply be swept under the carpet, rather it should find a space for engagement and in so doing it allows for redressing past inequities and facilitates the process of symbolic even material restitution.
Why has the West always been so fascinated by these people of antiquity? And are places like !Khwa tti, characterizing the 'natural' state of humankind still fueling the ongoing general public fascination today, meanwhile the corpses and remains of the San ancestors are still kept in hidden vaults of Museums? These are questions I would like the reader to probe.
History speaks for itself. The San suffered greatly with devastating effects at the hands of migrating Africans on foot from the north from around 300AD and the Europeans who arrived later by sea. Names given to them by outsiders emphasize their assigned them collective 'otherness', and signified a lack of understanding of the complex and sophisticated nature of the hunter-gatherer existence in contrast to the practice of agro-pastoralism. During the time of European invasion and settlement, the practice of displaying human differences, which can be traced back to the country fairs of the 16th century, as curiosities gained popular worldwide appeal and later became institutionalize for amusement and profit. Fascination about the 'exotic' and 'pure' nature of the San grew so tremendously, resulting in them becoming the most researched people on Earth. European interest reflected the notions that the San were less than human, to be collected, dissected, preserved as specimens and displayed as curiosities and then later a more romanticized view as the ideal 'noble savage' was adopted.
Although !Khwa ttu is a joint venture it is essentially San owned, which is important, contrasting to the numerous examples of how the West engaged in San exhibitionism in the recent and distant past. Some cases of this exhibitionism are highlighted in Voices of the San compiled by W. LE Roux and A. White (2004). At times the highly popularized story of Sarah Baartman, on account of her condition of 'steatopygia', very often over-shadows other similar instances. At the time when the West was fascinated with the origins of the European, which, in turn, led to the study of the 'original man', museums like the Barnum's American Museum, and 'Freak Circuses', displayed San people as 'alleged anomalies'. In 1860 a San women named 'Flora', who was first exhibited in England, was taken to the American Museum, where she was displayed as the 'Troglodyte Bushmen or Earthmen'. Huge amounts were paid for artifacts and even body parts, and many San were taken to Europe to be displayed naked in front of huge audiences. Still the corpses of many San people are found hidden in Museums worldwide, like in 1851 two San children were taken along the !Gariep River and after being dissected by English human anatomists, their remains were, and is still to this day, kept in the British Museum of Natural History, along with more then 20 000 skeletons.
The 20th-century, 'White' South Africa exhibitions of San culture speak volumes. These include the 'Live-Bushmen' display at a missionary conference in 1907 in Cape Town, along with Coenraad McDonald's 'Big Game Hunter' exhibition; the 1939 Donald Bain's Live Bushman Display at the Johannesburg Empire Exhibition; the 'Living History' 1952 exhibition by P.J. Schoeman at the Van Riebeeck Festival. In 1968 art students brought San from Namibia to an Arts Festival; in 1975 a group of Naro and Au//eisi San from Botswana were displayed at the Rand Show in Johannesburg to attract tourists as a feature for a craft sales venture; in 1993 during the Captour mini-trade festival in its tourist information centre in Adderley Street, a group was brought in tourist contact 'with nearly forgotten past'; and the controversial 1996 'Miscast' exhibition by Pippa Skotnes in Cape Town which. All instances where the San were exhibited by others and not for their own gain!
!Khwa ttu has done well to create work and educational programs for the San communities in Southern Africa and must be applauded for that. Although one has to admit that it was still European currency that initially paved the way, the joint venture is a turning point. One would like to see the Swiss UBUNTU Foundation partner donate their shares to the San communities in full to turn !Khwa ttu into a fully-fledged San venture from which they derive full financial benefit.
Bradley van Sitters writes in his personal capacity
