This title tells the extraordinary story of a decade of dialogue between two pioneering colonial scholars, Dr Wilhelm Bleek and his sister-in-law Lucy Lloyd, and five Bushmen from the Cape Town Breakwater Prison, who were allowed to live with the Bleek family in their suburban Victorian home. Wilhelm 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 colourful 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.
CONTRIBUTORS: Andrew Bank
EAN: 9781770130913
COUNTRY: South Africa
PAGES:
WEIGHT: 635 g
HEIGHT: 232 cm
PUBLISHED BY: Double Storey
DATE PUBLISHED:
CITY:
GENRE: HISTORY / Africa / South / Republic of South Africa, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Folklore & Mythology
WIDTH: 152 cm
SPINE:
Book Themes:
African history
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