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.

Waterwomen (left Samboer on the bank of the river with 'his nose and ears eaten off'), Samboer (demanded new clothes from his wife), wife (Samboer was afraid of his), ears and nose (Samboer's were eaten off), midnight (Samboer left the party at), river crossing (where the waters rose high)

A story told by an old Bushman of around 70 or 80 years (unnamed). No locality or date (c. 1930s) recorded. The Waterwomen or Watermaidens described by the old Africaander sound like the New Maidens who became the Water's wives in WHI Bleek and LC Lloyd's |xam texts. 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.