Publications
History, Identity, Representation: Public-Private-Community Partnerships and the Batlokoa Community
Mooi Loop Vetkat Regopstaan Kruiper
Cultural Tourism and Identity
Cultural Tourism and Identity: Rethinking Indigeneity
Studies of cultural tourism and indigenous identity are fraught with questions concerning exploitation, entitlement, ownership and authenticity. Unease with the idea of leveraging a group identity for commercial gain is ever-present. This anthology articulates some of these debates from a multitude of standpoints. It assimilates the perspectives of members of indigenous communities, non-governmental organizations, tourism practitioners and academic researchers who participated in an action research project that aims to link research to development outcomes. The book’s authors weave together discordant voices to create a dialogue of sorts, an endeavour to reconcile the divergent needs of the stakeholders in a way that is mutually beneficial. Although this book focuses on the ?Khomani Bushmen and the Zulu communities of Southern Africa, the issues raised are ubiquitous to the cultural tourism industry anywhere. 
Go to http://www.brill.com/cultural-tourism-and-identity to purchase the book.
Rural Development in Practice? The experience of the ‡Khomani Bushmen in the Northern Cape, South Af
PhD Thesis
Rural Development in Practice? The experience of the ‡Khomani Bushmen in the Northern Cape, South Africa.
By Julie Grant (2011)
Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh
This thesis analyses the dynamics, complexities and numerous obstacles that serve to constrain rural development within the ‡Khomani Community of the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Following the end of Apartheid, given the disparity in wealth evident among the country’s population, in 1994, the South African Government embarked on a process to address inequality. In regard to the rural poor, who constitute the majority of the country’s poor, the Government envisioned that a more equitable distribution of land would result in economic development and poverty alleviation for land reform beneficiaries. Consequently, a Land Reform Policy was introduced, which was used by the ‡Khomani Bushmen to reclaim ancestral land in South Africa’s rural Northern Cape in 1999. More than ten years on, however, the living conditions of the ‡Khomani have not improved, and the Community continues to live in poverty. Despite the award of land and financial input from government and development agencies, the ‡Khomani have no basic services and are unable to significantly diversify or increase livelihood strategies. Multiple factors including a lack of Community cohesion and capacity, limited opportunities due to remote rural location, and the inability of government and development actors to successfully apply effective interventions, serve to constrain development, and maintain ‡Khomani disempowerment. The thesis argues that governments, development institutions and actors must recognise the need for a multidimensional approach to development to alleviate poverty, while recognising the limits of external actors and the role of communities in this regard. Essentially, sustainable rural development will only ensue when communities are able to make effective decisions based on meaningful choices.
Registered at the university of Edinburgh, Grant worked also in association with the Rethinking Indigeneity Project being conducted by The Centre for Communication, Media and Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal, under the leadership of Prof Keyan Tomaselli.
Issues of Identity in Relation to the Kalahari Bushmen of Southern Africa
Issues of Identity in Relation to the Kalahari Bushmen of Southern Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Two Different Bushmen Groups during the late 1990s and into 2001
Author: Anthea Simoes
Date: 2001
Published. No
Type of Product: MA Dissertation, Centre for Cultural and Media Studies, University of Natal, Durban
Copyright: CMS and Author
INTRODUCTION
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.
The Sustainable Livelihood Approach: A Vulnerability Context Analysis of Ngwatle’s !Kung Group
The Sustainable Livelihood Approach: A Vulnerability Context Analysis of Ngwatle’s !Kung Group, Basarwa, Botswana
By Nyambura Gachette Njagi
Abstract
This thesis uses aspects of the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) to investigatehow global trends and national eco-political factors in Botswana impact the livelihoodstrategies or actions of a group of individuals who identify as !Kung Group Basarwa in a small village called Ngwatle, located in the south western Kalahari. These global and national forces produce and reproduce institutions, structures and processes thatconstitute the particular vulnerability context in which Ngwatle is couched. The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, a key component of SLAs, is used here as a tool of analysis to identify barriers and constraints to livelihood aspirations. Basarwa, known as Bushmen or San people more generally, have a history of strainedrelationships with more powerful majority groups including the Setswana (or Tswana) who account for 79% of the population as well as wealthy cattle owning minority groups. This history, understood in a wider global context, makes livelihood construction extremely difficult for people living in Ngwatle. The research is exploratory in nature and seeks to contextualize a problem or a set of problems given a particular set of circumstances rather than establish categorical causality between variables.
The approach of this research has been methodologically investigated by answering three primary research questions. The first question seeks to establish the major activities undertaken in Ngwatle households that help people in the community to make a living. In this regard, the research clearly establishes that several specific livelihood actions, such as making crafts and conducting cash-generating entrepreneurial activities are performed on a daily basis in Ngwatle. The second research question asks whether resources (assets) are constrained by institutions, structures and processes and if so, how. In fact, resources are constrained by these factors and are informed by historical precedence. The third research question focuses on how institutions, structures and processes impact livelihood strategies in Ngwatle in more detail. Links are established between the macro (global), meso (national) and micro (community) economic and political environments. The suggestion is that aspects of capitalism and neo-liberalism at the global and State levels have informed and strengthened various mechanism of control designed to manipulate and direct the movement of individuals (bio-politics). In essence prejudices and discriminatorypractices have served to radically alter Basarwa social systems and seriously undermine livelihood strategies.
I Paint Therefore I Am
I Paint therefore I am: An Exploration of Contemporary Bushman Art in South Africa and Its Development Potential
By Shanade Barnabas
Abstract:
In this research the contemporary art of the !Xun community in Platfontein, Kimberley is used as a case study to ascertain whether contemporary Bushman art, contrary to the mid-nineteenth century perception that it was child-like, and the present-day sense that it belongs to the past, is based on recognisable aesthetic principles. A functional-semiotic approach is applied, which takes the signs in painting, separates and categorises them in order to locate a painting’s iconic, indexical and symbolic signs. This analysis is done to assess whether or not contemporary Bushman art can be validated as a valuable area of contemporary art and whether creative individuals among the !Xun community may be viewed not as relics of a past people but as legitimate contemporary artists. This argument is revealed through post-structuralist analysis of the individual artworks of two particular !Xun artists.
Interviews with !Xun artists uncovered the ways in which they represent themselves in their art, not only for themselves but for the viewers of that art. The constituents of the power relations between art dealers and the artists are also considered. The problematics of ‘authentic Bushman art’ is discussed and ‘authenticity’ in this regard is shown to be a contestable issue. The research then moves to an examination of the impact of modernity on the Bushmen and their art. Mindful of the economic exploitation of these artists in the present day, recommendations are made concerning forms of development which include teaching the artists about art markets, in order to empower them to engage effectively with dealers. Further recommendations are made toward the creation of a code of conduct which would apply to indigenous arts and the relationships between artists, dealers and consumers of the art.
Representations of Zulu Cultural Identity in Cultural Tourism
Representations of Zulu Cultural Identity in Cultural Tourism: A case study of Izintaba Zulu Cutural Village
By Ntoko Fortunate Ndlela
The Un/changing Face of the `Khomani: Representation
This dissertation involves a longitudinal study of the promotional materials of !Xaus
Lodge, a community-owned lodge in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. The study
engages with stakeholders of the Lodge in order to assess its promotional materials in
terms of marketing, identity and development issues.
The Circuit of Culture (Du Gay et al. 1997) covers and examines the process of
meaning-making which forms the basis for understanding the textual and reception
analyses. This, along with pertinent tourism theories, which discuss issues such as the
concept of ‘authenticity’, the notion of the ‘other’ and various modes of
representation, form the basis of the theory pervading the dissertation.
The textual analysis is based on Tomaselli’s Phaneroscopic Table (1996), through
which the promotional materials are examined. The reception analysis thematically
discusses target market and past visitors’ opinions about the materials and the Lodge,
facilitated through the process of coding. The informants’ opinions were collected
through a number of focus groups conducted with the target market of !Xaus Lodge
and through online questionnaires sent to past visitors. A comparison between the
textual and reception analyses is conducted in order to identify similarities found and
explain divergences.
The analyses refer to all aspects of the promotional materials, but tend to concentrate
on ?Khomani representation within the materials and the feedback about the
?Khomani cultural tourism experience at the Lodge. At the moment, the ?Khomani
express a romantic identity which relates well to similar expectations of many
tourists, but the ‘reality’ of ?Khomani society does not allow these !Xaus employees
to meet the idealistic expectations of some visitors.
Click here for full pdf
The Tourist Viewer, the Bushmen and the Zulu:
The Tourist Viewer, the Bushmen and the Zulu: Imaging
and (re)invention of identities through contemporary
visual cultural productions
Abstract
The thesis is an ethnographic exploration of the visual performances of the (?Khomani) Bushmen of the Northern Cape and the Zulu from KwaZulu-Natal of South Africa. I investigate how the ?Khomani and the Zulu involved in the cultural tourism industry are using archetypical tropes of ethnicity, and how they recreate these in the process of formulating context-specific identities in contemporary South Africa. The Bushmen and Zulu iconography that is ubiquitous is read against the modern day quotidian lives of the people concerned. The role and participation of tourists and researchers (anthro-tourists) in the performative culture of cultural tourism is investigated. An opportunity is also taken to critique the artistic creations of Vetkat Kruiper which partly arise because of the need to satisfy a tourism industry interested in Bushman arts and artefacts. Similarly his wife’s ‘biographical’ book Kalahari Rainsong (2004) is critiqued interactively and allows me to appreciate my encounters with people and text in the Kalahari. My visits to cultural villages where either the Zulu or the Bushman self-perform permit me to indulge in critical performative writing in which I also investigate the role and place of (anthro)tourists in thereinvention of site-specific identities.
Water Stories
———————————————————-
Water Stories
The first print of Water Snake Stories told by the ‘Eiland’ women of Upington is available. The collection includes the original stories transcribed from the colloquial Afrikaans and notes and translations in English. Illustrations in the book include drawings of the Gariep/Orange River by the ‘Eiland’ women. The preface is written by Mc Gregor Museum archaeologist, David Morris.
…Aspects of the stories contained in this very book, their content as well as the idiom through which they are expressed, add to the body of clues that could inform a better appreciation of some of the tangible heritage that survives from the much deeper past.
Equally clear is the fact that the contexts of these ‘traditional’ stories and the ritual practices with which they are linked are complex and situational: formerly pre-eminently KhoeSan, they have a
currency today across conventional ethnic boundaries (brief biographical and contextual notes provide a sense of this); and one sees here also their accommodation alongside Christian beliefs, and in contexts where sangomas also have a role. The stories thus reflect both continuity and change. And because of this they serve as a challenge to those who would use them for clues about the past. (from Preface by David Morris)
All profits will go to the ‘Eiland’ women and their issue. The cost of the book will be is. Payment to be made into The Circle Connnection NPO 024-006 bank account.
TITLE: WATER STORIES
AUTHORS: Lange, M.E.L; De Wee, J; van Rooi, M; Malo, M; Sixaxa, E; Hlopezulu, M; Saaiman, N.P
Preface: Morris, D.
PUBLISHER: Mary Elizabeth Lange (mel)
ISBN 978-0-620-40275-0
For further information contact: Mary E Lange, Durban, South Africa
Cell: 0826527091
Email: marylange@telkomsa.net
Explorations of ethnicity and social change among Zulu-speaking San descendents
Abstract
This thesis is an ethnographic exploration of the people of the Drakensberg Mountains of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa that trace Zulu and San or Bushmen ancestry. I found that as these people attempt to reclaim rights lost through colonization, assimilation and Apartheid they are creating new rituals and attaching new significance to rock art sites. I also found that the contemporary ethnography of the Drakensberg peoples in general can aid interpretations of the rock art and also challenges established hegemonies of interpretation. The research also challenges the ethnic/cultural distinctions that are assumed to be salient between different peoples of South Africa and adds to the ‘Kalahari debate’ by questioning notions of an either or situation of assimilation or subordination.
The ethno-historical record indicates a much more complex web of relations existed historically than is related in the dominant academic discourses. The extent that these people will be recognised as aboriginal remains to be seen, and currently they are creating social and political links with San organizations with the hopes of future gains and political recognition of their rights and identity.
Reading Modern Ethnographic Photography
A Semiotic Analysis of Kalahari Bushmen Photographs by Paul Weinberg and Sian Dunn.
Kalahari Project Outputs
These outputs have arisen from a long-term research project funded by the National Research Foundation, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Smaller grants were made available by the Smithsonian Institution and WennerGrenn for particular projects. (Last updated: 3 October 2012).
Close Encounters with the First Kind
What does Development mean in the Context of Two Bushman Communities in Ngwatle and the Northern Cape?
The aim of this research is to investigate the interaction between the ‘beneficiaries’ of development – the Ngwatle Bushmen in southern Botswana and the Khomani Bushmen in the Northern Cape of South Africa, and the agents of development – local NGOs (Non Government Organisations) and Trusts, whose development programmes are influenced by broader state policy. The development programmes implemented by these organisations affect Bushman rights with regards to public participation in the development process, land, hunting and access to resources and benefits.
In discussing these issues this study draws on James Murombedzi’s (2001) proposition that community based natural resource management (CBNRM) programmes that supposedly devolve the management of natural resources to the local population, may be an extension of greater state control over resources. It will investigate the impact of what Steven Robins (2002: 835) calls “double donor vision” on the lives of the Ngwatle and Khomani Bushmen. Donors and NGOs view Bushmen as “both ‘First Peoples’ and modern citizen-in-the-making” (Robins, 2001: 833). He argues that this dual mandate to “promote the ‘cultural survival’ of indigenous people and to socialise them into becoming virtuous modern citizens” (Robins, 2001: 842) contributes to intra-community divisions and conflicts. An overview of the issue of identity as discussed by Anthea Simoes (2001) who tested Stuart Hall’s (1990, 1996, 1997) two models of identity in both communities, is necessary here to frame the discussion of development as being affected by differences in identity construction.
This research therefore seeks to discuss perspectives of the process of development communication and implementation in the two Bushman communities. What type of development occurs and how does this interaction shape perceptions of development amongst the Bushmen?
Different development communication paradigms adopt communication strategies and implementation programmes that best suit their goals. The modernization and dependency/dissociation development paradigms fail to offer mechanisms to facilitate negotiation, conflict resolution and community or individual empowerment (Servaes, 1999). The development support communication (DSC) paradigm and to a larger degree the ‘another development’ paradigm, in contrast, encourage local people to actively participate in the search for solutions to development problems as perceived and experienced by them (Ansah, 1992). This research aims to illustrate, however, that these different development paradigms exist alongside each other in the field – this adds to the ‘messiness’ of development in practice.
The research frames the perceptions of and engagement with development via a comparative analysis of Ngwatle and the Northern Cape Bushman communities.
Water Stories and Rock Engravings – Eiland Women at the Kalahari Edge
Water Stories and Rock Engravings – Eiland Women at the Kalahari Edge
From
the Rethinking Indigeneity Project of The Centre for Communication,
Media and Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal, here is Mary Lange’s
just published book, Water Stories and Rock Engravings – Eiland Women at the Kalahari Edge (Rosenberg, 2011). A chapter on “Rock Art Research” is available on open access at:
———————————————————-
Subject: Water Stories
Dear All
The first print of Water Snake Stories told by the ‘Eiland’ women of
Upington is available. The collection includes the original
stories transcribed from the colloquial Afrikaans and notes and translations
in English. Illustrations in the book include drawings of the Gariep/Orange
River by the ‘Eiland’ women. The preface is written by Mc Gregor Museum
archaeologist, David Morris.
…Aspects of the stories contained in this very book, their
content as well as the idiom through which they are expressed, add to the
body of clues that could inform a better appreciation of some of the
tangible heritage that survives from the much deeper past.
Equally clear is the fact that the contexts of these
‘traditional’ stories and the ritual practices with which they are linked
are complex and situational: formerly pre-eminently KhoeSan, they have a
currency today across conventional ethnic boundaries (brief biographical and
contextual notes provide a sense of this); and one sees here also their
accommodation alongside Christian beliefs, and in contexts where
sangomas also have a role. The stories thus reflect both continuity and
change. And because of this they serve as a challenge to those who
would use them for clues about the past. (from Preface by David Morris)
All profits will go to the ‘Eiland’ women and their issue. The
cost of the book will be is. Payment to be made into The Circle
Connnection NPO 024-006 bank account.
TITLE: WATER STORIES
AUTHORS: Lange, M.E.L; De Wee, J; van Rooi, M; Malo, M; Sixaxa, E;
Hlopezulu, M; Saaiman, N.P
Preface: Morris, D.
PUBLISHER: Mary Elizabeth Lange (mel)
ISBN 978-0-620-40275-0
For further information contact
Mary E Lange, Durban, South Africa
Write to:
marylange@telkomsa.net
Where Global Contradictions are Sharpest. Research Stories from the Kalahari
Where Global Contradictions are Sharpest. Research Stories from the Kalahari
SAVUSA Series
Rozenberg (Amsterdam) 2005
ISBN-10: 90 5170 481 X
http://www.rozenbergps.com/
The
`Bushmen’ of the Kalahari could well be called an iconographic people.
Partly as a result of this, over the years abundant social research has
been carried out. Tomaselli and his research team from the University
of Kwazulu-Natal form part of that tradition: however, in this book
Tomaselli is also able to reflect critically, and not without a touch of
irony on the way that the San have been represented over the years.
Hardly has there been a researcher who so uncompromisingly and aptly
illustrates the many ethical contradictions in doing field work amongst
the San, and who at the same time manages to reconstruct and represent
the actual fieldwork experience and the san people so vividly that you
almost taste the dust of the Kalahari and the raucous world that is
depicted.
Contents Page
Acknowledgements
Acronyms
A Note on Pronunciation
Introduction Starting Off
Chapter 1
Negotiating Research with First Peoples
Keyan G Tomaselli and Arnold Shepperson
Chapter 2
Reverse Cultural Studies in Southern Africa: Field Methods, Power Relations and 4X4s
Chapter 3
“Dit is die Here se Asem”: The Wind, its Messages, and Issues of Autoethnographic Methodology in the Kalahari
Chapter 4
‘Op die Grond’: Writing in the San/d, Surviving Crime
Chapter 5
Psychospiritual Ecoscience: The Ju/’hoansi and Cultural Tourism
Chapter 6
Textualizing the San `Past’: Dancing With Development San
Chapter 7
Stories to Tell, Stories to Sell: Resisting Textualization
A Note on the Contributors
References
————————————–
Available from Rozenberg Publishers, Bloemgracht 82hs
1015 TM Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
info@rozenbergps.com
www.rozenbergps.com
For ordering information on this specific title title see:
http://www.rozenbergps.com/
Go to “Search”.
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Fax: (+) 31(0) 20 620 33 95
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