Background

This dissertation forms part of a broader research project on ‘Semiotics of the encounter,’ which is headed by Keyan Tomaselli of the Graduate Programme in Cultural and Media Studies (CMS). Information was available not only from the four field trips in which I participated, but from three before, to Botswana (1995), Eastern Bushmanland (1996) and again to Botswana (1999). Unpublished studies arising out of these are available on www.und.ac.za/und/ccms. Contributors to the growing body of research for this project include Gibson Boloka (2001), Belinda Jeursen (1996; 1995), Jeffrey Sehume (2000; 1999) and Keyan Tomaselli (2001a/b; 2000; 1999a/b/c/d; 1997; 1996; 1995).

My participation in the project on ‘staged authenticity’ in its various manifestations in the Kalahari and in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa began with a weekend field trip to the cultural village, Shakaland, in Kwa-Zulu Natal in 1998. Here, my interest in cultural tourism was first piqued. My first long-distance field trip was to the Kagga Kamma Private Game Reserve (South Africa) in April 1999 and took place before I had conceived this particular research project. At Kagga Kamma, I was inspired by the individuals that I met and sought to investigate further into the circumstances that create their identity as Bushmen or San. Subsequent research was conducted on CMS field trips, in which I participated, to Ngwatle (Botswana) in July 2000, to the Northern Cape (South Africa) in September 2000 (many of the ≠Khomani previously at Kagga Kamma had relocated here) and again to Kagga Kamma in April 2001. Keyan Tomaselli headed all field trips. In April 1999, Jeffrey Sehume (Ph.D. student) and Merrideth Regnard (Tomaselli’s Australian niece) joined the research team. In July 2000, the group included Jeffrey Sehume and Caleb Wang (Honours student), as well as Wafola Nerubucha, a Kenyan mechanic who we had befriended in Jwaneng (Botswana) where we had been stranded for a week with car trouble. In September 2000, Chantel Oosthuysen (intepreter and researcher), Alexandra von Stauss (Masters student) and Ntokozo Ndlela (Masters student) accompanied. Finally, in April 2001, the group included Chantel Oosthuysen, Deanna Powers (Masters student) and Nelia Oets (co-interpreter and interested observer).

Research partners or interviewees at Kagga Kamma in 1999 and 2001 include ≠Khomani members living and working on the Reserve, Gert Swart, Pien, Hendrik and Jon Kruiper, as well as Kagga Kamma staff Danie Jacobs, Greg Grant, Gary Trow, Daan Raath, Andries Ras and Heinrich de Waal. Interviews were also conducted with visitors to the Reserve, for example tourists, Peter Reber and Harriet Charles and tour guide, Ella Bauer. At Ngwatle (1999), interviews were conducted with community members Miriam and Pedris Motshabise, Kaptein Mangau Madietsane, Tshomu, Kaki Matlakala and Vista Nxai, as well as Amber Pollock (from Safaris Botswana Bound or SBB). Robert Waldron (filmmaker and long time visitor to Ngwatle) was interviewed at a later stage in Durban, South Africa. Contact was also made with members of the Nqwaa Khobee Xeya Trust with which Ngwatle co-operates in a joint tourism project with the safari company, Safaris Botswana Bound. On the trip to the Northern Cape (2000), information was offered by ≠Khomani and other individuals involved with the community: Dawid Kruiper, Paul Witbooi, Sagraan Kruiper, Anna Swart, Ouma !Una, Ouma Kys, Anna Festus, Belinda Kruiper, Jakob Malgas, Roger Carter and Petrus Vaalbooi (as well as Magrietha Eiman and Aubrey Beukes at the Oudtshoorn National Khoisan Consultative Conference in 2001). Additional research material was also utilised from previous Cultural and Media Studies field trips to Ngwatle (1995 and 1999) in which I did not participate.

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