posted by Frank van Steenbergen
February 4, 2013
In the nineteenth century, as white farmers moved up north in what is now South Africa, the original ‘Bushmen’ inhabitants of this area were chased out and hunted. They were marginalized and slowly their culture practically disappeared. Some groups like the /Xam completely vanished, only leaving behind a heritage of rock paintings (see image: courtesy KhosianPeoples). The Bushmen once had occupied large parts of Africa. They had already been pushed south because of the expansion of Bantu territory. Gradually what was left was not enough to sustain their culture.
With the help of his sister-in-law Lucy Lloyd, the German linguist Dr. Wilhelm Bleek recorded the /Xam language even as it disappeared. He adopted Bushmen convicts and recorded their narrations. One of his prime story tellers was DiÄ!kwain. His father was a rain maker, who used a string instrument to make it rain. The bushmen believed that rain was a person and the rainmaker was milking the female rain – the clouds were only her hair, the rain was much larger than that. Other beliefs had it that the rainmaker charmed a mythical rain bull or water cow and lead it across the land, showering it with rain as it moved along. Heavy showers were caused by the rain bull and gentle rains by the water cow.
The poems of DiÄ!kwain are hauntingly beautiful, translated in Afrikaans by Antje Krog. While his father – the rain maker – made the rain for the living, there is another type of water in the poems that is stronger than rain. This is the water from the moon. In one of the poems DiÄ!kwain recounts a story told by his mother – of the water of the moon that goes beyond the water from the sky and even makes the dead living. Here is the poem by Antje Krog:
| Moenie na die maan kyk nie laat sak jou kop als jy ‘n dier skiet moenie opkyk in die lug nie moenie kyk hoe die maan skyn nie as jy opkyk na die maan sal roofdiere die dier eet wat jy geskiet het as die dier nog nie dood is nie sal die maan se water hom laat lewe ons moeder het ons dit alles vertel die maa se water daar oorkant daar op die bosse le dit soos lopende heuning as daardie water op die dier val sal hy regop kom hy sal geen teken van ‘n gifpyl toon nie die water van die maan sal him heel maak en hy sal lewe daarom | Don’t look at the moon Lower your head if you shoot an animal Do not look up to the sky Do not look how the moon shines When you look up at the moon The wild animals will eat the animal that you shot When the animal is not yet dead The water of the moon will make it live That all our mother told us The water of the moon on the other side Lies on the bushes like dripping honey If that water drops on an animal it will rise again It will show no sign of a poisoned arrow The water of the moon will heal And it will live, this is why |
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