WIMSA Regional Oral Testimony
Collection Project

Activities in the area of San education and San languages often overlap with those carried out under the auspices of the WIMSA Oral Testimony Collection Project launched at the beginning of 1999 in close co-operation with the then Kuru Development Trust in Botswana and the London-based Panos Institute. The reporting period saw even closer co-operation between WIMSA and the Trust for Okavango Cultural and Development Initiatives (TOCaDI) in Botswana, the team working at !Khwa ttu San Education and Culture Centre in South Africa, and South African San Institute (SASI) consultants Roger Chennells and Nigel Crawhall who oversee SASI's Advocacy Training Programme and Cultural Resources Auditing and Management Project. On various occasions the stakeholders in all these cultural projects/programmes exchanged views on interview approaches and processes for developing products from the interviews, and they discussed, among other things, plans for the future and the most appropriate way to store cultural information.

In Namibia and Botswana the Oral Testimony Collection Project has continued focusing on interviews, particularly with elderly San among a broad range of San groups and communities, and on training the interviewers (see Table 5) to process the testimonies for use in developing suitable products with and for the communities they serve. To date the four oral testimony collection teams in the two countries have conducted a total of 200 interviews.

Interviewer	Sex		San Group	Area of Operation	Country
Michael Baise (deceased)		M	||Anikhwe	Cakau, Kaudcui, Mogotlho (Okavango Delta)	Botswana
Goitseone ||Aexa (completing Michael Baise’s work)		M	||Anikhwe	Cakau, Kaudcui (Ngamiland)	Botswana
Sefako Chumbo		M	Bugakhwe	Kaputura, Tovere, Shaikarawe, Ngarange	Botswana
Kotsi Mmaba		M	Bugakhwe	Sekandomboro, Ngarange, Mogotlho	Botswana
Ncisa Nxau	F		Ju|’hoansi	Tsodilo Hills	Botswana
Xhwaa Tsaae	F		Ju|’hoansi	Dobe, Qoshe, Qangwa	Botswana
Dahm |I!ae		M	Ju|’hoansi	Dobe, Qoshe, Qubi, Qaa	Botswana
Elfriede Gaeses	F		Hai||om	Outjo, Etosha National Park	Namibia
Victoria Geingos	F		Hai||om	Outjo, Etosha National Park	Namibia
Marietha Naoadoës	F		Naro	Omaheke Region	Namibia
	5	5

WIMSA was deeply saddened by the sudden death of ||Anikhwe interviewer Michael Baise in November 2001. He was not only exceptionally passionate about the language and cause of his people (of whom but a few hundred remain in the Okavango Delta), but also a development initiator as demonstrated by the fact that he and the present Teemashane Development Trust chairperson undertook an oral history programme among their people long before any development support came to their area. A document they co-wrote in 1997 describing this programme formed the basis for the Bugakhwe and ||Anikhwe cultural programme currently being run by TOCaDI and WIMSA in the area of Botswana known as the Panhandle. Michael lived an exceptionally productive life and we hope the ||Anikhwe will treasure the interviews he left behind for generations to come.

The most prominent themes pervading the interviews in Botswana and Namibia have been: land and origin; traditional lifestyle; effects of modern life; folklore; hunting and gathering; health and healing; religious practice; contact with other San groups; and leadership. The Khwe interviewers thus selected these themes to guide a planning workshop on the production of booklets for the Bugakhwe and ||Anikhwe communities' own use and for visitors to the Panhandle.

Much of the thematic information as categorised above was gathered as part of TOCaDI's land-mapping project in the Khudicgaoa area. Seven maps have been produced by a team of community members assisted by consultant Arthur Albertson. The maps will be used to develop a management plan for the area, and TOCaDI will assist the Teemashane Trust to lay a claim with the Land Board for community use of the area's resources.

Etosha Oral History Project

In Namibia the Oral Testimony Collection Project has collaborated closely with consultants Ute Dieckmann and James Suzman, and the head of Open Channels, Hugh Brody, in planning for and establishing the Etosha Oral History Project. Open Channels is a London-based NGO which has undertaken or assisted in similar projects in Canada and South Africa. The first component of this project involves archive research on and field work in areas in and adjacent to the Etosha National Park. The second and last component involves gathering oral history resources and mapping sites of historical importance. In the proposal he wrote for this project James Suzman states that the following products are anticipated:

[A]n oral history archive comprising maps, video interviews and written resources; a book on the history of the Etosha area comprised of archive photographs, maps, and oral history transcripts; a series of maps of the National Park detailing areas of cultural, social, ecological and historical significance; and an exhibition comprised of artefacts, maps, photographs and other relevant historical materials in the Park to commemorate its centenary.

Regional San Heritage and Culture Committee

The Regional San Heritage and Culture Committee held two meetings, in June 2001 and March 2002. At the first meeting, held at !Khwa ttu, WIMSA Education and Culture Co-ordinator Willemien le Roux presented a progress report on the WIMSA Oral Testimony Collection Project and consultant Nigel Crawhall on SASI's Cultural Resources Auditing and Management Project (CRAM). Issues addressed in Nigel's report include the production of maps with place names in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, timelines and interviews on the lives of ‡Khomani elders, genealogy, language and filming videos of each stage of the project. In the same meeting Janette Deacon of South Africa's National Monuments Council and anthropologist Irene Staehelin gave presentations on rock-art issues. The meeting also focused on intellectual property rights, with WIMSA legal representative Roger Chennells presenting. (Further reference to the committee's first and second meetings will be made in the section in this report headed Intellectual Property Rights.)

In an effort to co-ordinate the various efforts to map historical resources in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, WIMSA and Open Channels are planning to invite all stakeholders to meet by the end of April 2002. Other plans for the Oral Testimony Collection Project relate to the production of booklets, the identification and training of new interviewers in the Omaheke Region, and the assistance needed by the Hai||om interviewers and their communities in determining their first products and the development thereof.

TOP LEFT: Anthropologist Irene Staehelin presenting a slide show on rock art at the
Regional San Heritage and Culture Committee meeting held at !Khwa ttu in 2001
TOP RIGHT: Consultant Nigel Crawhall reporting on SASI’s Cultural Resources
Auditing and Management Project (CRAM) at the !Khwa ttu committee meeting
BOTTOM LEFT: Heritage and Culture Committee member Kwela Kiema reflecting
on the Khoi and San distinction issue in the meeting at !Khwa ttu
BOTTOM RIGHT: WIMSA trainee and Heritage and Culture Committee member
Victoria Geingos making her point in the meeting at !Khwa ttu

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