Notebooks
Story: Dorothea Bleek - Book BC151_A3_027
Title
Dorothea Bleek - Book BC151_A3_027
Collection
Summary
Record of D Bleek's visit to the Hadza of Tanganyika, 1930. Words and sentences with very fragmented narratives towards the latter half of the book. Also some names and descriptions of personal history and of the region, and comments about things that Bushmen do (such as taking a wife, and burial) and eat, especially according to the seasons; some fragments of what seem to be myths. Loose inserts, words and maps.
Comments
1) The first 24 pages of the book are an A-Z index (X, Y & Z are blank). 2) opp. p.i: 20.5.30. 4 hrs away from Mkalama. Makwasha. Words and sentences. 3) p.2: names, possibly of people there, or else names of relations. 4) p.12: 25.5.30. Kisandu. Word lists. 5) p.17: 23.5.30. Names of people. 6) p.18) Asindeya [?]. Words. 7) p.24: Names of people. 8) p.25-26: notes on rolls of film and the people photos have been taken of on them. 9) p.28: Shangini [?]. Words and sentences. 10) p.32: 24.5.30. Masai. Words and sentences. 11) p.39-40: Names of people and personal history, details about them. 12) p.41-44: 26.5.30. A narrative or 'report' on the Tindega so far seen by DB, description on indivuals, languages spoken, descendancy, comparison to Bushmen, personal history of those interviewed, some of their customs observed including singing and dancing. 13) p.45: 29.5.30. Contributor unknown. Words and sentences. 14) p.53: 30.5.30. Masai Shanginu. Words and sentences, p.56 something on hunting porcupine, digging for food. 15) p.59-65: 31.5.30. Tawashi. Words and sentences then a good if fragmented description of trading and making arrows and arrowheads, iron from Zanzibar bought in the old days. 16) p.66&67: Measurements of men & women. 17) p.68: 7th June. p.29 'Murray Janders[?]'. A fragment of a story [?] about a leopard and baboons. 18) p.72: Kitandu. Words and sentences involving water at the well, snakes & frogs. 19) p.75-81: genealogical diagrams. Personal history and daily life of the informants, of the region, and of other inhabitants of the area, what they call each other. 20) p.88: 26th June. Kitandu ('s father?). Words and sentences including the actions of the python, p.90: stars, p.91: rain, 21) p.92: Interpreter. Chango & Tawashi. Burial. About the Pleiades, the seasons, the rain. 22) p.95: 27th June. Buruku wa? Words of the metaphysical. 23) p.100: Buruku. Graves, spirits and old people, eating hyena, the living and dying of the moon (very fragmented, mostly sentences), name of a game played with bits of wood, illness, dying and the grave p.107: 'I see a shadow, a person is dead', death and people taken by God, the sun strikes the moon causing it to die, much about Germans and history of the area. 24) p.110: 28th June. Kitandu and Buruku. Buruku's personal history. 25) p.112: Makwasha. Personal history. 26) p.114: Nsshangiri. On taking and binding a wife with beads, building a hut, treatment of the in-laws. 27) p.116: Tawashi. How a father 'takes her a man' , cutting of Bushmen, doctoring, belief that if they pray to God they will die, customs at death, division of their belongings. 28) p.119: Mbsga and Maru: tu. Losing things at dice, smoking, fragmented old story of a hyena that eats people. 29) p.123: Tawashi. Fighting and beating, lukudzuku a game played in the very old days, all the bushmen knew it. 30) p.125: 29th June. Kitandu and Tawashe and Makangu. Fragments of ritual practice involving singing, cutting and medicine, description of the men who came to do the tattoing. 31) p.129: Buruku. Customs at death, locusts, lukudzuku the game appears to involve 'being eaten'. 32) p.135: Kitandu senior. Taking a wife, activities performed by the wife. 33) p.138: 30th June. Comments on weather and the movements of animals, cutting, personal history, some descriptions of daily life such as sleeping in tents, about storks. 34) p.147: Buruku. Shooting and eating storks, the wind at night. 35) p.150: Nsshangiri and Hangu. Using eland skin for clothes and weapons. 36) p.153: Kitandu and Mashangiri. Fragment of a story about an old man, a feather and a rhino, also a mother who grows big like a melon and gets cut up, the mother gets shot and a lion (Duduka) gets born, the lion is killed and cut up. 37) p159: Buruku. An old woman and an elelphant, a lion and someone gets trampled. 38) p.161: 1st July. Baladzo and others. A hare and a hyena story. 39) p.165: Makasha. The coming of animals (mostly untranslated) 40) p.166: Buruku. Cutting off little fingers in the old days, cutting boys on their fingers, more about the hare and the hyena story. 41) p.171: Tavashi and Makanyange. More about the removal & cutting of fingers. 42) p.173: Baladzo. Decription of a stork, and a river, a bird of prey (a vulture?), describing other birds, the story of Dagwe'ako 'is the only story', 'he knows nothing of the animals ever having been men', some names of relations. 43) p.179: 2nd July. Makwasha and Buruku. Personal history, 'when we sing rain falls' and other comments about rain making and the 'waterbull', descriptions of rain creatures, 'working' stone, how doctors sing, an angry lion, description of the area, nice things bought like salt and tobacco. 44) p. 188: Baladza. A description of a bird that is eaten as well as a gemsbok, making shelters for hunting gemsbok, description of the hunt and tracking the blood of the wounded gemsbok, the women request the thighs of the gemsbok, preparation of the meat. 45) p.194: 3rd July. Makwasha and Baladza. Children suckling milk, loading up on boabab fruit before going away. 46) Insert in between pp.201&2: envelope adressed to 'Miss L. Lloyd Grey Library' as well as some other names in pencil. Inserts in between pp.205&6: 3 faint handdrawn maps (A3.27.1-3); a drawing of an artefact? (A3.27.4); a list of 'Native Words in Herbert's Travels' (A3.27.5); other lists of words (A3.27.6-8: the latter written on the back of a letter to DB); 4 small fragments with vocabulary and page numbers noted on them (A3.27.9-12); a word list (A3.27.13) with fragemnts of narrative re. locusts and death and medicine (sorcerers probably). 47) p.311: Name of a chief. 48) Inside back cover: Numbers and names of some people including a 'constable Lazaru'.
Contributors
Makwasha, Baladza, Kisandu (Kitandu), Asindeya, Shangini, Masai (Masai Shanginu), Tawashi (Tavashi), Burushi, Nsshangini, Mbsga, Maru: tu, Makanyange, Makasha
Date
June and July 1930
Categories
Words and sentences, History (personal), Custom and daily life
Story Pages
1-311 (196-311 are blank)
