Bushmen in a Victorian World: The Remarkable Story of the Bleek-Lloyd Collection of Bushmen FolkloreWilhelm Bleek was fascinated by African languages and set out to make sense of a complex and alien Bushman tongue. At first Lucy Lloyd worked as his assistant, but soon proved to be so gifted a linguist and empathetic a listener that she created a monumental record of Bushman culture. Their informants were a colorful cast. The teenager, /A!kunta, taught Bleek and Lloyd their first Bushman words and sentences. The wise old man and masterful storyteller, //Kabbo, opened their eyes to a richly imaginative world of myth and legend. The young man, Dia!kwain, explained traditional beliefs about sorcery, while his friend #Kasin spoke of Bushman medicines and poisons. The treasures of Bushman culture were most fully revealed in conversations with a middle-aged man known as /Han=kass'o, who told of dances, songs and the meaning of images on rocks. The human histories and relationships involved in this unique collaboration across cultures are explored in full for the first time in this remarkable narrative. |
Contents
A man of letters | 12 |
Kabbo | 128 |
Kasin | 204 |
Charlton House August 1875 to January 1876 | 255 |
11Hankasso | 276 |
Readings of rock art 18745 1878 | 302 |
Hankassos accounts of customs and material culture 18789 | 354 |
Cape Town and Berlin 18801914 | 373 |
Conclusion | 388 |
| 414 | |
Common terms and phrases
A!kunta Afrikaans agama lizard animals associated Bitterpits Bleek and Lloyd Bleek-Lloyd Boers Breakwater Prison brother Bushman Folklore Cape Monthly Magazine Cape Town Charlton House child collection colonial copies Deacon described Dia!kwain Dorothea Bleek Durban early father father's father's Figure gemsbok George Grey Han≠kass'o Hartebeest Hill Hottentot hunting hyena Ibid informants interviews jackals Jacob Nijn Jakob Janette Deacon Jantje Jemima Bleek Jemima Lloyd Kabbo Kasin Katkop Kenhardt killed Klaas Klerck Korana Kwabba-an Kweiten-ta-//ken language later leopard letter Lewis-Williams lion living Lloyd recorded Lloyd to Wilhelm Lucy Lloyd Mantis months Moon mother Mowbray narrative notebook record ostrich paintings photographs portrait reference researchers rock art Schunke sheet sense settler sister sketch sorcerers South African springbok stars story Stow Stow's Strandberg suggests things told took translation trekboers Tsatsi's WHI Bleek wife Wilhelm Bleek Xam language Xam name young