“I owe my being to the Khoi and San…who were the first to lose their lives in the struggle to defend our freedom and independence…” In beautiful, poetic style former pres. Thabo Mbeki rendered his “I am an African” speech in Parliament on 8 May 1996 at the adoption of our new, democratic constitution. But then followed a strange anomaly: “…they who, as a people, perished in the result.” To be sure, the genocide of the Bushmen, as if they were wild animals, was horrifying as well as the hundreds of Khoikhoi who had died in 1713 due to a foreign, European epidemic. And yet, we didn’t perish as a people.
I think we became invisible in the early 1990s when the late Paramount Chief A.A.S. le Fleur II’s application to participate in CODESA, was bluntly refused. He would have represented one of the five major Khoi-San groupings, namely, the Griqua, who were reorganized by Adam Kok I in the mid-1700s. Even the iconic Dawid Kruiper couldn’t attend that historic convention.
We notice with joy that already in the first pages of the constitution the protection and promotion of our languages are mentioned. However, we have to remember that living communities are attached to these indigenous languages. Due to the brutality of the colonial onslaught, all San languages became extinct as collateral damage except one, namely, N/uu as the last of the !Ui language family. Ditto Khoi languages – all gone forever, except Namaghowab. It was a fate suffered by the French Huguenots as well. After their arrival at the Cape in 1688, their language had ceased to exist after just two generations. Yes, our languages, such as !Xam, Xiri, Cape Khoi, Kora and Gona, died out but, by the grace of the Supreme Being, Tsui/Goatse, two are well and alive today.
Vandag leer Ouma Katrina Esau (88) die byna uitgestorwe oertaal van die Noord-Kaap se jagter-versamelaars aan kinders in Upington. Dit gaan egter om meer as net taalvaardigheid. Dis die uitgrawe van ‘n stuk verlore erfenis, die herontdekking van ‘n integrale deel van hul menswees, die trotse omhelsing van hul ware identiteit. G’n wonder nie dat Coenie de Villiers haar vereer het met ‘n spesiale musiekdrama in Kunstekaap. Die enigste oorlewende N/uuspreker in Suid-Afrika sorg dat haar taal ná haar afsterwe sal voortleef. Wat ‘n nalatenskap!
Ek onthou verder dat ek mnr. Pedro Dausab in 2000 genader het om informele Namaklasse by my huis in Kuilsrivier aan te bied. Hy is oorspronklik van Namibië, maar het mettertyd ‘n trotse Suid-Afrikaner geword. Pedro het ons geleer hoe om te groet, tel (hy lag nog steeds vir my omdat ek nooit die nasalering van hû – 7 – kon regkry nie), lees en bid. Later het die Wes-Kaapse Dept. van Kuns en Kultuur hom dikwels ingespan en hy kon later ook ander provinsies bedien. Bygesê, die oumense van Namakwaland het deur die eeue heen steeds hul moedertaal gepraat, maar het dit ‘n skindertaal gemaak uit vrees dat hul kinders op skool geïntimideer sou word. Vandag word dit by sommige skole in die Noord-Kaap en formeel by die Universiteit van Kaapstad as vak aangebied.
Dit bring ons laastens by ‘n leermeester uit die jonger geslag: Bradley van Sitters, wat nie net die UK se deure oopgemaak het nie, maar in die ganse geskiedenis van ons land die eerste pryssanger in die parlement geword het wat dit in Khoekhoeghowab gedoen het.
So hier staan ons: die Boesmans, Griekwa, Kaapse Khoi, Korana en Nama van Suid-Afrika. Soos wyle Stamhoof Karel King van !AL-OM altyd uitgewys het: Afrikaans is ons moedertaal maar Khoekhoeghowab ons vadertaal. Al wat ons van PanSAT vra is: help ons asseblief om ons menswaardigheid ten volle te herstel.
Willa Boezak,
Stellenbosch.
