A story told to me by an old Bushman who appears to be between 70 or 80 years of age

A story told to me by an old Bushman who appears to be between 70 or 80 years of age

Other Documents

Ink on paper

c. 1930s

Handwritten testimony on a scored, blue foolscap sheet.

Samboer (a first-rate fiddler), Hottentot (one, named Samboer, who lived on the bank of a river), dancing party (given by 'Hottentots'), fine houses (the water had), Waterwomen (are half-fish half-flesh [i.e., human] that 'live in great abundance'), certain death (awaits those who admit to eating 'fish or meat')

A story told by an old Bushman of around 70 or 80 years (unnamed). No locality or date (c. 1930s) recorded. Historically, 'Africaander' also referred to the multi-ethnic, often 'Afrikaans'/Dutch-speaking, semi-nomadic groups of southern Africa's hinterland, like the Oorlam (Dedering, 1997: 58-59). UCT's BC 151 library fonds speculatively dates this material 'c. 1930', however, 'Africaander' (one of several variant forms) had come to mean something different by the late early twentieth century, and would have been conspicuously archaic.