1. ABOUT KSAAG 

Notes on the formation of the KhoeSan Active Awareness Group

Participants of the Nama workshop in Cape Town wanted to further the momentum gained during the short course sessions and formalized in the establishment of  Non Profit Organization, called K.S.A.A.G (KhoeSan Active Awareness Group) primarily dealing with ways of promoting Namagowab and canvassing for Nama to obtain its official language status. Amongst other interests, the group highlighted the need for a more comprehensive Nama training programme to be put in place in Cape Town.

After the completion of the Basic Introduction to Namagowab workshops, participants in the Cape Town Group were interested to further the impetus gained from the information sessions. Efforts were consolidated to look into ways of involving the broader general public in this and similar initiatives and to raise the level of awareness of the youth in particular around the preservation of indigenous knowledge systems through Khoe khoe and San languages, indigenous games and stories. It was then realized that an Interest Group was needed, non governmental and non profit in nature as means to spread public awareness via broadcasted (radio and TV) and printed mediums (newsletters, newspapers and magazines).  

It was realized that the general public had little or no knowledge of important KhoeSan heritage sites in and around the Cape, important dates on the KhoeSan calendar and information about aspects of KhoeSan languages, cultures, customs and traditions. The socialization process has ensured that people of KhoeSan decent had very little interest in their own cultures and felt inhibited because of public ridicule, being labeled as “Bushmen” or other derogatory names like “korrelkop”. The school curriculum has by and large fallen short to give an accurate account of the history of the First Nations of this land from an Afro-centric perspective. To counteract the mass incursion of foreign influence through the established mediums it is important to retain some aspects of our very unique indigenous cultures for future generations.

Over the last 70-100 years there has been a rapid decline of in the variants of Khoekhoe and San languages still in use. More so, the fact of the matter is that these languages were confined mostly to the older people (in one case less then ten people spoke a specific dialect all of them over 70 years old) and very few structures were in place to guarantee the survival of these languages on the brink of extinction.  

In time it was brought under our attention, as a group, that there were other structures already in place including Khoekhoe Chieftainships and other KhoeSan Groups in the Western Cape, dealing with various aspect of the culture like rock art, sing and dance, storytelling and natural healing (through herbs and roots). We aim to consolidate our awareness efforts in conjunction with other groups to enable a more far reaching impact on grass roots level and to instill a sense of pride in our very own common heritage. After all, a people without the knowledge about their past, history and culture are like a tree without roots. We envision the promotion of Nama as a unifying KhoeSan language crossing borders and countries and unifying communities, influence legislation to revisit history books, rename streets to include historic figures amongst the Khoekhoe and San, and assist in the process of setting up of statues reflecting the rich KhoeSan heritage of this land and a number of other issues. In order to network and further the plight of people from KhoeSan descent and furthermore to evoke healthy public debate around the preservation of KhoeSan Identity, the establishment of a Western Cape KhoeSan Active Awareness Group was deemed necessary.