Notebooks

Story: Dorothea Bleek - Book BC151_A3_021

Title

Dorothea Bleek - Book BC151_A3_021

Collection

Summary

Notes made in Angola[?], 1925. Originally a visitor's book (pre-1918) and includes signatures of numerous well-known people (first 64 pages). A scrap of paper written by the library says !O !kun. Words and sentences and brief genealogies with names of people and their relations. Brief references to daily life of the people interviewed. Some of the clicks are different, for example what resembles an elongated 'S' [what I have as ς].

Comments

1) Date on opp.p.1: 27th May 1925. p.1 features what looks to be a genealogical diagram with 'tςi nunga' at the centre. The first contribution has not been translated, except for a note referring to a foodstuff. 2) p.5: ||gsleba. p.5v: May 29th[?] 1925. 3) p.10v: all of these people make their huts, men & women. 4) p.11v: 30th May 1925. Names of people, genealogical information, name of the chief, featuring brief descriptions alongside. 5) p.15: |xum, a woman. Words and names, including of people. 6) p.19: ||ka :ku. 7) p.21: Soue [?]. A woman wearing a bark blanket, some snippets of personal history interspersed with sentences and words, a fragment of a reference to the Moon and the hare. 8) p.24: May 31st /25. Kauikise [Kavikise?] and ||gsleba. Old man and woman. 9) p.29-30: kavikise. His genealogy and lists of names and relationships, what people call each other. 10) p.30v-31: |ko. Same, of |ko. 11) p.32: |ko. Words and sentences including mention of a dance to the moon, other descriptions for stages of the moon (crescent has horns etc) and its growth and death. Some names and fragments of personal history, descriptions of the movements of people and of the countryside. 12) An insert in between p.38v&39: DB's references - Frere & Hodgett, overside features some kind of index (Huwe, tattooing, men's and women's duties etc). 13) p.41: 2nd June 1925. Kavikise & gsleba. 14) p.45: 3rd June. |ks [?]. Contnd. p.49. 15) p.45v&46: Genealogy and some personal history of bei ta de, who was taken by the Mbundu[?] and who does not know her people. 16) p. 47: bei ta de and |ks [?]. Words and some personal history, also mention of how other peoples dance (the vambundu). 17) p.49. Contnd from 45 (|ks). 3rd June. Some fragments of daily life as in who eats what, and very fragmented descriptions about the inhabitants of the region (the !ku and others). 18) p.57: Gsle ba gives names of plants and animals eaten by the Bushmen and who eats what in the area, |ko takes over or contributes to this account on p.66v. More about food and ostrich eggs in particular, what the Bushmen eat and avoid. 19) p.69: Mention of the name of the Bushman 'capitein' '|ka' (DB queries this title/name). 20) p.72: gsleba. Words and sentences including making and smoking arrows - 'smoking' a flower (ςweςwe) and drinking in the smoke, washing the hands and rubbing the point, poisoning the arow point (all very fragmented). 21) p.674: Kavikise (and gsleba). Much vocabulary relating to plants and trees, including a fragmented account of the 'cutting' honey from a tree the hole of which is inhabited by bees.

Contributors

Kavikise, Gsle (Gsle ba), |xum, |ko, |ks, Beita de, Soue

Date

May - June 1925

Story Pages

1-77 (and 64 visitor's book)

The Digital Bleek & Lloyd