Khoikhoi

I

Introduction

Khoikhoi, a nomadic, herding people who inhabited the greater part of what are now the Cape Provinces, in South Africa, when this region was colonized by European settlers in the 17th century. The Khoikhoi have also been called Hottentots, a derogatory name derived possibly from the Afrikaans word for “stammerer”. In their own language, Khoikhoi means “men of men”. The majority of the remaining Khoikhoi now live in the southern part of Namibia, and the term has been extended to include the culturally mixed descendants of the original Khoikhoi, who are now scattered throughout the south-western part of South Africa.

II

Physical Appearance

The Khoikhoi are a dark-skinned people related to two of their neighbouring peoples, the San and the Bantu, and may have originated in southern Africa from a cross between these two peoples. However, their skin colour tends to be lighter than the Bantu and they are smaller in stature. True Khoikhoi closely resemble the San and average a little more than 1.5 m (5 ft) in height.

III

Language

The Khoikhoi language is called Nama (also known as Khoekhoe), a Khoisan (Click) language with more than 176,000 mother-tongue speakers. It can be studied at school in Namibia and is also spoken by minorities in Botswana and South Africa.

IV

Culture

Modern Khoikhoi culture has been affected by contact with Europeans and by incursions and conquest by neighbouring peoples, particularly the Bantu. Most of the Khoikhoi have been absorbed into the general population of South Africa. A few groups, however, were driven north and west into less productive areas of the land, where the majority are settled on reserves or in rural European communities. Many of these people work as labourers, and their social system has been adapted to a settled existence. In Khoikhoi society the former chief now acts as the head of a village group.

A small number of Khoikhoi still lead a nomadic life, in which pastoralism has taken precedence over hunting. They are divided into groups under separate chiefs, each group occupying its own territory. Trade is carried on by barter in cattle, which are raised mainly for milk, the chief food of the Khoikhoi. Most of the meat they eat is still procured by hunting, and a variety of wild roots and fruits are gathered. The possession of cattle has given rise to status distinctions of wealth and prestige.

Within a particular social group the Khoikhoi are organized into clan groups and practise cross-cousin marriage. Lines of descent are traced through the father (see Patrilineage). Their religion is a combination of animism and the personification of the natural forces that produce rain. The Khoikhoi believe in the existence of the soul after death and in a ruler of all things who came out of the east. Their graves, therefore, are oriented towards the east. During every visit to a cemetery the Khoikhoi add to a pile of memorial stones, a practice that has enabled anthropologists to trace, with some accuracy, the course of their nomadic wanderings and large-scale migrations. Although the Khoikhoi have no priestly class and no temples or places of united worship, they have healers and sorcerers who are called on to heal the sick by magic. An extensive folklore exists, having many resemblances to that of the neighbouring Bantu.