xegwi (ethnicgroup)
literal strings: Xegwi
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categories
- ethnicgroup(100.0%)
- OE @808 (86.6%) on 29-jan-2014 [ ] using xegwi
- n‡e (southern Kalahari San),
- Xegwi (North Drakensberg San), etc. In the N|u language, spoken by the N
- n‡e people, the word for San hunter-gatherers is Sasi. This word may have had the same origin as the word San, but it also refers to the sacred eland antelope. The //Xegwi are a San or Bushman people who live in the Lake Chrissie area of Mpumalanga province, South Africa. One school of thought holds that that they migrated to the area from the region of Lesotho by way of Zululand about two hundred years ago. This is by no means certain, though. The area is rich in rock paintings but whether or not the ancestors of the //Xegwi were involved in their production is not known. Most of the available information about this group of Bushmen is to be found in a short ethnographic study conducted by E.F Potgieter about 60 years ago with notes on their language by D Ziervogel. When Potgieter visited the //Xegwi in the 1950’s they spoke Siswati, the language of the surrounding Swazi communities, but formerly had spoken both //Xegwi and Southern Sotho (Barnard 1992: 85). They are widely referred to as Batwa but call themselves tlou-e or tlou-tle. Ziervogel (1955) refers to their language as g//kxi:gwi. In the orthographic system used by Barnard this becomes //Xegwi, the term he uses for both the people and the language. The Swazis amongst whom they live refer to them as “AmaNkqeshe or AmaNgwigqwi or AmaBushmana” (Potgieter 1955:2). /Xegwi is an ancient language, one of the country’s originals. If you Google it, you’ll quickly find that it is extinct, as dead as the people who once spoke it. But maybe not. A small pocket of aboriginal South African
- Xegwi San lives on farms in Mpumalanga Province near Lakes Banager and Chrissie and around the towns of Lothair and Carolina. Their numbers are not known, though estimates run between 30 and 100 adults. These
- Xegwi San are descendants of a displaced group of Drakensberg San, famous for the rock paintings made by their ancestors up until the middle of the last century. Their original language is extinct. A small pocket of aboriginal South African
- Xegwi San lives on farms in Mpumalanga Province near Lakes Banager and Chrissie and around the towns of Lothair and Carolina. Their numbers are not known, though estimates run between 30 and 100 adults. These
- Xegwi San are descendants of a displaced group of Drakensberg San, famous for the rock paintings made by their ancestors up until the middle of the last century. Their original language is extinct. Prins also told me that some of the old farmers can speak some /Xegwi, having learnt the language from their nannies. Stark said he has heard Wole and Taki using their click language more and more. She does not know a single word of the Bushman language. “ Was die naam van die taal /Xegwi ?” (Was the language called /Xegwi?) I asked. Kleintjie had no answer. We have many languages in South Africa, but what about /Xegwi? The word looks so alien, you’d be forgiven for not knowing that /Xegwi was a language in use in South Africa as recently as 100 years ago. The //Xegwi are a San or Bushman people who live in the Lake Chrissie area of Mpumalanga province, South Africa. One school of thought holds that that they migrated to the area from the region of Lesotho by way of Zululand about two hundred years ago. This is by no means certain, though. The area is rich in rock paintings but whether or not the ancestors of the //Xegwi were involved in their production is not known. Most of the available information about this group of Bushmen is to be found in a short ethnographic study conducted by E.F Potgieter about 60 years ago with notes on their language by D Ziervogel. When Potgieter visited the //Xegwi in the 1950’s they spoke Siswati, the language of the surrounding Swazi communities, but formerly had spoken both //Xegwi and Southern Sotho (Barnard 1992: 85). They are widely referred to as Batwa but call themselves tlou-e or tlou-tle. Ziervogel (1955) refers to their language as g//kxi:gwi. In the orthographic system used by Barnard this becomes //Xegwi, the term he uses for both the people and the language. The Swazis amongst whom they live refer to them as “AmaNkqeshe or AmaNgwigqwi or AmaBushmana” (Potgieter 1955:2). !Ui languages are all extinct now, but according to the records of Europeans they included: |Xam (Karoo San, by far the largest), N|u (also called ‡Khomani and
- Ng) of Gordonia/ Postmasburg),
- Xegwi (Northern Drakensberg), !Khuai-Seroa (Western Drakensberg), !Gã!ne (Southern Drakensberg), ‡Unkue,
- Kx’au and
- U
- e, all of the Western Free State, eastern Northern Cape area. There were languages north of N|u, in the Kalahari desert. These included |’Auo, K’u|haasi, “Sesarwa”, which are normally considered to be !Ui but may be closer to Taa languages further north. //Xegwi, a Bushman people of Mpumalanga, South Africa There is no reliable data on the number of Basarwa (N/oakhwe, San, Bushman people) of the Naron, !Xo, G/wi, G//ana, Shua, Deti, /Auni, /Xam, //Xegwi, Kwe, Ju/'hoansi and //Khau-/eisi ethno-linguistic groupings living in Botswana. However previously, the government has estimated a population totalling 50,000. Basarwa people have long depended on a mixed economy. None survive solely as hunter-gatherers and only a few thousand are significantly dependent on foraging. Traditionally, both men and women engaged in gathering, while men hunted. Over a long period competition with pastoralists, loss of hunting territory to ranches and game parks, declining game, and alternative economic opportunities (however limited) have all contributed to the demise of traditional lifestyles. The isolated Bushman, untouched by history, exists only in the mind of external myth-makers. Yet Basarwa languages and culture survive under pressure. I have seen published accounts that the last /Xegwi speaker was killed in the 1970s at Lothair, a village not far from Chrissiesmeer. But as with most things /Xegwi, the claim may not be true. Stark said there is an old man in his 90s in Chrissiesmeer who is a /Xegwi speaker. Traditionally, the //Xegwi practised male and female initiation. They had healers and diviners of both sexes. They practised an initiation ritual in which the initiate emerged from a deep pool with a snake which was carried to a hut and killed (30). They hunted using poisoned arrows, snares, gamepits and dogs. The women gathered plants which they dug up with weighted digging sticks. A lot of this food was eaten raw. There is a notably gap in development between the !Ui languages and the Taa languages which suggests there were waves of population dispersal from south to north prior to the arrival of the Khoekhoe. There is still a close relationship between the N|u language of the Kalahari and other !Ui languages such as |Xam south of the river, and
- Xegwi from the Drakensburg. This suggests that the !Ui family spread out slowly and later than the Taa family migration. Very little is known about /Xegwi oral literature traditions. The following story was recorded by Potgieter (1955: 31-32). I have seen published accounts that the last /Xegwi speaker was killed in the 1970s at Lothair, a village not far from Chrissiesmeer. But as with most things /Xegwi, the claim may not be true. Stark said there is an old man in his 90s in Chrissiesmeer who is a /Xegwi speaker. The //Xegwi believed in a supreme being called /A’an who was the “creator of heaven and earth and the giver of many good things. When a person dies his spirit goes to this being. /A’an lingers somewhere in the heavens where he often plays with the lightning bird.” (Potgieter 1955: 29). A sick person can address /A’an as though talking to a person. There was also a lesser deity, /a’an’e la tleni (the small). The moon was thought to
- SEAL @541 (100.0%) on 28-mar-2012 [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 ] using xegwi
