Taa

From the socio-linguistic survey it can be assumed that currently about 500 Taa-speaking people live in Namibia, about half of them being fluent native speakers. Most of them identify themselves as either !Xoon (pl. !Xooŋake) or ‘N/ohan (pl. N/umde). Apart from dialect, discourses stressing differences between people relate to genealogical and geographical origin. Biographical and genealogical data, however, provide evidence that people have intermarried extensively not only among these two groups but also with Nama, Naro, Kgalagadi, Herero and Tswana people.

The largest group of Taa-speakers in Namibia lives in the southern part of the ‘Korridor’ between the former Aminuis Native Reserve and the Botswana border. This is also where a community campsite and other development projects have been established, most of which, however, have not proved to be sustainable. In this area the most virulent ingroup micro-political conflicts occur (comp. Boden 2005).

Smaller groups live in the northern part of the Korridor, in Herero settlements in the former reserve, as farmworkers on the commercial farms, in the locations of the regional centres Aminuis, Gobabis, Leonardville, Aranos and Mariental or the Tjaka-Ben Hur communal area. Quite a number of women have lived for some years in the capital Windhoek in order to work in Herero or Tswana households but have returned after a few months or years without substantial savings. There are also a number of individuals who went to search for work in town or on the farms and have abandoned relationships to their relatives who neither know where they are nor whether they are still alive.

History

Taa-speakers have remained unconsidered to the greatest possible extent in official Namibian historiography since they have always been small in number and minor in political power. When mentioning at all people who possibly spoke a Taa variety, most early travelers, white settlers and administration officers subsumed them under the general label ‘Bushmen’, since they were not concerned with cultural and linguistic differences between single San groups.

Nama-speaking people were the first to penetrate the settlement area of Taa-speakers from the southwest in search for tradable animal products like ivory, skins and ostrich feathers. The Lambert-Oorlam established themselves in the 19th century in the Nossob valley at //Naosanabis, i.e. present-day Leonardville, at Gobabis and at Oas southeast of Gobabis. The main trade route went from the West Coast to Lake Ngami via Gobabis, Oas, Rietfontein and Ghanzi and touched the settlement area of Taa-speaking San only on its northernmost fringe.

The first people to settle in their area were a group of Tswana people who came from Kuruman in South Africa between 1880 and 1890. They settled at Aminuis with permission of, first, Kaptein Andreas Lambert and later that of the German Governor Major Leutwein.

In 1923, the South African Administration proclaimed the Aminuis Native Reserve for Herero people, who had been living in south-central Namibia in areas that were to be given to white farmers. The Aminuis area could serve the purpose because it was considered ‘virgin and unoccupied country’ by the administration. In the beginning, the Herero people together with their cattle were confined to the permanent open water sources in the southwestern area of the reserve. From there the Herero population gradually spread to the north and east with wells being dug and boreholes being sunk by Herero people themselves or by order of the reserve administration.

In 1928, some of the so-called Angola Boers or Dorsland trekkers, who had treked from Transvaal to Angola between 1876 and 1881 and wanted to return from Angola, were given good conditions for farm acquisition in the district of Gobabis. They occupied farms in the area north and west of the reserve, whereas the area south of the reserve was opened up for farming only in the late 1940s in order to serve ex-combatants of World War II. The establishment of commercial farms also attracted San and Kgalagadi farm workers from across the national border.

Until the 1960s, the Korridor was a refuge for San people. While Herero wanted the Korridor to be included into their reserve, the Odendaal Commission, which was looking into ways for a more strict ethnic separation, proposed to transform it into a Tswana homeland in 1964. This plan was not realized because of the resistance of the Herero inhabitants of the reserve who were led by Chief Hosea Kutako. Instead, the Korridor was made an emergency grazing area in cases of drought. The unevenly numbered farms bordering the reserve were to serve the needs of the inhabitants of the reserve and the evenly numbered farms along the national border those of white farmers. The Tswana received an area of ten farms around Tjaka-Ben Hur, whereto some of their San associates followed them.

Since their land has been given to other people, the Taa-speaking San have associated themselves individually or family wise, temporarily or permanently to members of the more powerful groups in the area: Nama and Tswana and later Herero and white settlers as well as the relatively few Kgalagadis.

After Namibian independence the reserve and the Korridor received the status of communal land which is, in principle, open to settlement for every Namibian citizen. Since then, Herero, Tswana and Kgalagadi people have increasingly moved into the Korridor. One of the boreholes on the 22 farms of the Korridor was put under the authority of the San. The place is called ‘San Plaas’. It is located on Korridor No. 17 and also the place where a San Community Campsite was built in 1997. All the San of Omaheke South, i.e. the part of Omaheke region lying south of the Trans-Kalahari-Highway, including not only !Xoon and ‘N/ohan but also central-khoisan-speaking Naro and some northern-khoisan-speaking //xau//E individuals, have built a joint coalition in order to apply for a state recognized representative body, the so-called !Xoon Traditional Authority led by Chief Sofia Jacobs. In their political and developmental efforts they are supported by two national non-governmental organisations, namely the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities (WIMSA) and the Omaheke San Trust (OST).

Livelihoods

Bushfood still makes up a part of the menu, although hunting is prohibited in the communal areas, game has become very rare, and bush crops are said to no longer grow in abundance as a consequence of extensive animal husbandry. Bush crops have become a substitute or emergency food when government food supplies draw to an end and household budgets do not allow to buy basic foodstuffs.

Very few San in the communal area have got formal jobs. Some do piecework in Herero or Tswana households, building houses and kraals, herding cattle or goats, washing and ironing, etc. Household budgets are further made up of old people’s pension money and profits from ethno-tourism and craft making. Small numbers of goats and seldomly also sheep or cattle constitute the capital investments. They are not used for daily consumption but only to cover extraordinary expenses in cases of illness, for funerals, court debts, etc. A projected community irrigation garden for vegetables has failed, but some people individually grow pumpkins, melons and maize in small gardens.

Woman presenting a m?ahi-root (Coccinia rehmaanii), one of the staple foodstuffs of the past.

Photo by Gertrud Boden. April 2004.

Scraping off the hair of a /ahi or aardwolf (Proteles cristatus)

Photo by Gertrud Boden. February 2005.

Children watering a pumpkin garden.

Photo by Gertrud Boden. February 2005.

Tourists buying crafts after a cultural performance in the ‘traditional village’ at San Plaas.

Photo by Roland Kießling. May 2004.

Preparing the morning tea.

Photo by Gertrud Boden. February 2005.