Khoisan revivalism

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Khoisan revivalism is the phenomenon of individuals claiming to be Khoisan (descendants) and defending indigenous rights. [1] The Khoisan revival movement aims to confirm and demarginalize the cultural identity of the Khoisan in modern-day South Africa. [2] Khoisan revival is most active and likely to impact policy-making in Cape Town, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. [3] The Koranna, Nama, San, Griqua, and Cape Khoi are among the Khoisan revivalist groups of the Western Cape. [3]

The growth of the Khoisan revival has been fueled by contemporary political discussions in South Africa about the potential of pre-1913 land claims and the recognition of Khoisan traditional authority. [3] [4] In order to support their pursuit of land claims, Khoisan revivalists emphasize ancestral kinship and question "coloured" identity. [4] Rejecting the term Coloured as an oppressive colonialist and apartheid imposition is the foundation of the Khoisan revivalist movement. [2] In that its adherents reject colour as the colonizers' caricature of the colonized, the Khoisan revivalist movement is fundamentally instrumentalist, due to the connection between the identity and land rights and restoration. [5] In essence, Khoisan revivalism is both Coloured-rejectionist and exclusionist. [6] It is rejectionist in the sense that Khoisan identity, which is rejected as the colonizer's twisted caricature of the colonized, is joyfully affirmed as an actual civilization with a long history. [6] It is exclusive in the sense that it introduces a new justification for a position of relative privilege, even if it does not express the claim to be the actual indigenes of South Africa. [6] Many wonder what it means for this revivalist movement, which asserts indigeneity and first nation status in South and Southern Africa, to do so under the title Khoisan, whose colonial and Eurocentric roots are generally known. [2] [7] Because they value their racial identity, most coloured people do not adhere to Khoisan revivalism, despite its expansion. [4] Due to the historical contributions made by other demographic groups to coloured identity, many people also view assertions of Khoisan identification to be problematic. [4]

Competition for socioeconomic resources or tries to obtain resources had an impact on the Khoisan revival. [8] Segments of colored groups were more willing to recognise and proclaim an African heritage when a White administration was replaced in 1994 by one controlled by Bantu-speaking Africans. [8] According to Khoisan revivalists, apartheid-era colonization left many coloured communities in South Africa with a foundational dispossession that led to the current socio-economic problems of housing, drug usage, and organized crime. [4] Khoisan revivalism strives to emphasize the necessity to address the continuities relating conditions before, during, and after apartheid since apartheid is not its primary focus, in order to give some existential bearings for many. [4]

Khoisan history and identity are revived in the private sector in a variety of ways, such as learning to speak Khoekhoegowab, a standardized Nama language, altering one's name (particularly on social media), or referring to significant persons in Khoisan history. [4] A new method of (re)constructing contemporary Khoisan identities has been made possible by the resurgence of the Khoekhoegowab language. [9] The rebuilding of contemporary Khoisan identities, which includes the use and development of the Khoekhoegowab language, is essential to Khoisan revivalism and is rooted in a decolonizing epistemology. [10] The Khoisan revivalist movement has given rise to organizations, such as the Khoi and San Active Awareness Group (KSAAG), [11] whose members are teaching Khoekhoegowab. [10] The KSAAG maintains that the Khoi and San (Bushmen) linguistic heritage should be preserved and promoted. [11]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khoisan languages</span> Group of African language families with click consonants

The Khoisan languages are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. Khoisan is defined as those languages that have click consonants and do not belong to other African language families. For much of the 20th century, they were thought to be genealogically related to each other, but this is no longer accepted. They are now held to comprise three distinct language families and two language isolates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of South Africa</span>

The very first modern humans are believed to have inhabited South Africa more than 100,000 years ago. In 1999, Unesco designated the region the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site. South Africa's first known inhabitants have been referred to as the Khoi-san, the Khoekhoe and the San. Starting in about 1,000 BCE, these groups were then joined by the Bantu tribes who migrated from Western and Central Africa during what is known as the Bantu expansion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Coloureds</span> Ethnic group in South Africa

Cape Coloureds are a South African ethnic classification consisting primarily of persons of mixed race African, Asian and European descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khoisan</span> African ethnic group

KhoisanKOY-sahn, or Khoe-Sān, is a catch-all term for the indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who traditionally speak non-Bantu languages, combining the Khoekhoen and the Sān peoples. Khoisan populations traditionally speak click languages and are considered to be the historical (pre-Bantu) communities throughout Southern Africa, remaining predominant until European colonisation in areas climatically unfavorable to Bantu (sorghum-based) agriculture, such as the Cape region, through to Namibia, where Khoekhoe populations of Nama and Damara people are prevalent groups, and Botswana. Considerable mingling with Bantu-speaking groups is evidenced by prevalence of click phonemes in many especially Xhosa Southern African Bantu languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coloureds</span> Multiracial ethnic group of Southern Africa

Coloureds refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in South Africa who may have ancestry from African, European, and Asian people. The intermixing of different races began in the Cape province of South Africa, with Dutch settlers, African and Malaysian slaves intermixing with the indigenous Khoi tribes of that region. Later various other European nationals also contributed to the growing mixed race people, who would later be officially classified as coloured by the apartheid government in the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khoekhoe</span> African pastoralist indigenous group

Khoekhoe, Khoikhoi or KHOI as known today are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San peoples. The designation "Khoekhoe" is actually a kare or praise address, not an ethnic endonym, but it has been used in the literature as an ethnic term for Khoe-speaking peoples of Southern Africa, particularly pastoralist groups, such as the !Ora, !Gona, Nama, Xiri and ǂNūkhoe nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hottentot (racial term)</span> Racial term for the Khoekhoe

Hottentot is a term that was historically used to refer to the Khoekhoe, indigenous nomadic pastoralists of South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San people</span> Members of various indigenous hunter-gatherer people of Southern Africa

The San peoples, or Bushmen, are the members of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the oldest surviving cultures of the region. Their recent ancestral territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa. They speak, or their ancestors spoke, languages of the Khoe, Tuu and Kxʼa language families, and are seen by outsiders as a people only in contrast to neighboring pastoralists such as the Khoekhoe and descendants of more recent waves of immigration such as the Bantu, Europeans and Asians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khoekhoe language</span> Khoe language spoken in southern Africa

The KhoekhoeKOY-koy language, also known by the ethnic terms Nama (Namagowab) NAH-mə, Damara (ǂNūkhoegowab), or Nama/Damara and formerly as Hottentot, is the most widespread of the non-Bantu languages of Southern Africa that make heavy use of click consonants and therefore were formerly classified as Khoisan, a grouping now recognized as obsolete. It belongs to the Khoe language family, and is spoken in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa primarily by three ethnic groups: Namakhoen, ǂNūkhoen, and Haiǁomkhoen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Griqua people</span> Southern African ethnic group

The Griquas is a subgroup of mixed race heterogeneous former Khoe-speaking nations in Southern Africa with a unique origin in the early history of the Dutch Cape Colony. Under apartheid, they were given a special racial people classification under the broader category of "Coloured". They are Cape Coloureds who participated in the Great Trek, forming "Griqua States".

ǃOrakobab or Khoemana, also known as Korana, ǃOra, or Griqua, is a moribund Khoe language of South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Griqualand West</span> Area of central South Africa

Griqualand West is an area of central South Africa with an area of 40,000 km2 that now forms part of the Northern Cape Province. It was inhabited by the Griqua people – a semi-nomadic, Afrikaans-speaking nation of mixed-race origin, who established several states outside the expanding frontier of the Cape Colony. It was also ancestral home to the Tswana and Khoisan peoples.

The KhoiKWAY languages are the largest of the non-Bantu language families indigenous to Southern Africa. They were once considered to be a branch of a Khoisan language family, and were known as Central Khoisan in that scenario. Though Khoisan is now rejected as a family, the name is retained as a term of convenience.

Martin Legassick (1940–2016) was a South African historian and Marxist activist. He died on 1 March 2016 after a battle with cancer. He was one of the central figures in the "revisionist" school of South African historiography that, drawing on Marxism, revolutionised the study of the social formation of Apartheid by highlighting the importance of political economy, class contradictions and imperialism. He was also a key figure in the independent left in South Africa from the 1970s, and a critic, from the left, of many of the analytical and strategic positions taken by the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party, as well as their understanding of South African history. The author of numerous books, mainly on the history of colonialism and capitalism, he collected many of his key political writings in his 2007 book Towards Socialist Democracy.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coloured people in Namibia</span> People with both European and African ancestry in Namibia

Coloured people in Namibia are people with both European and African, especially Khoisan and Bantu ancestry, as well as Indian, Malay, and Malagasy ancestry especially along the coast and areas bordering South Africa. Coloureds have immigrated to Namibia, been born in Namibia or returned to the country. These distinctively different periods of arrivals, from diverse backgrounds and origins have led to a diverse Coloured population. This diversity was even further exploited by South African officials who referred to three distinct groups amongst the coloureds, namely: "Baster", "Cape Coloureds" and "Namibian Coloureds".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethnic groups in South Africa</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Settler colonialism</span> Form of colonialism seeking population replacement with settlers

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Fritz</span> South African indigenous and traditional leader

Stephen Michael Fritz is a Khoi leader born in South Africa on 4 March 1970. He is a South African indigenous and traditional leader and Senior Chief of the South Peninsula Khoi Council, which is based in the Western Cape of South Africa. He is a well-known environmentalist and public speaker. He is an expert in the use of plants for medicinal purposes and he is a qualified indigenous guide and wildlife conservationist. He is also an activist for the rights of the indigenous people of South Africa. Chief Fritz is a founding member of the Pro Elephant Network and member of the Wildlife Animal Protection Forum South Africa.

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References

  1. ↑ Justin., Barnard, Alan. Kenrick (2001). Africa's indigenous peoples : 'First peoples' or 'Marginalized minorities'?. Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh. ISBN   978-0-9527917-5-1. OCLC   47316153.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. 1 2 3 Rakei, Simon (2019). "The Khoisan Revivalist Movement and the Decolonial Turn: Authenticity, naming and cultural identities in Khoisan historiography for epistemic justice". WritingThreeSixty. 5 (1). ISSN   2708-6119.
  3. 1 2 3 Verbuyst, Rafael (2016-05-31). "Claiming Cape Town: towards a symbolic interpretation of Khoisan activism and land claims". Anthropology Southern Africa . 39 (2): 83–96. doi:10.1080/23323256.2016.1171159. ISSN   2332-3256. S2CID   148151060.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Veracini, Lorenzo; Verbuyst, Rafael (2020-05-03). "South Africa's settler-colonial present: Khoisan revivalism and the question of indigeneity". Social Dynamics. 46 (2): 259–276. doi:10.1080/02533952.2020.1805883. ISSN   0253-3952. S2CID   222232366.
  5. ↑ Adhikari, Mohamed (2009). Burdened By Race : Coloured Identities in Southern Africa. UCT Press. doi:10.26530/oapen_628130. ISBN   978-1-919895-14-7. S2CID   135080430.
  6. 1 2 3 "'Not black enough' : changing expressions of coloured identity in post-apartheid South Africa : feature : ten years of democracy". South African Historical Journal. hdl:10520/ejc93611 . Retrieved 2022-10-24.
  7. ↑ Adhikari, Mohamed (2010-06-01). "A total extinction confidently hoped for: the destruction of Cape San society under Dutch colonial rule, 1700–1795". Journal of Genocide Research. 12 (1–2): 19–44. doi:10.1080/14623528.2010.508274. ISSN   1462-3528. PMID   20941880. S2CID   43522981.
  8. 1 2 Besten, Michael Paul (2006). Transformation and reconstitution of Khoe-San identities: AAS Le Fleur I, Griqua identities and post-apartheid Khoe-San revivalism (1894-2004). [s.n.] OCLC   71630376.
  9. ↑ van Wyk, Berte (2014), "The Khoisan Indigenous Educational System and the Construction of Modern Khoisan Identities", Indigenous Concepts of Education, Palgrave Macmillan, doi:10.1057/9781137382184.0007, ISBN   9781137382184 , retrieved 2022-10-24
  10. 1 2 Barnabas, Shanade; Miya, Samukelisiwe (2019-09-03). "KhoeSan Identity and Language in South Africa: Articulations of Reclamation". Critical Arts. 33 (4–5): 89–103. doi:10.1080/02560046.2019.1702071. ISSN   0256-0046. S2CID   214327058.
  11. 1 2 "Khoi & San Active Awareness Group (KSAAG)". Khoi & San Active Awareness Group (KSAAG). Retrieved 2022-10-24.
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