Khwe orthography workshop in Bwabwata National Park/Namibia

2025

The Khwe language is the best documented of all San languages. There is a dictionary and a grammar (Kilian-Hatz 2003, 2008) as well as a large number of publications of original language texts (Boden 2014, 2024; Brenzinger 1999a, 1999b; Heine 1997; Kilian-Hatz 1997, 1999, Köhler 1989, 1991, 1997, 2018, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c). At present, however, only less than a handful of Khwe can read these original language texts and write them in their own language.

This funded project responds to an explicit request from Khwe, who took part in a workshop in March 2024 to jointly research the Khwe collection in the Oswin Köhler Archive at Goethe University Frankfurt. They stated that being able to read and write their mother tongue themselves was their first priority in order to strengthen their cultural identity and to be able to consult the original language documents in the collection independently.

Background:

The Oswin Köhler Archive houses the world’s largest collection of documents on the culture and language of the Khwe in the Bwabwata National Park in Namibia, consisting of original language texts, photos, films, sound recordings, ethnographic objects, plant specimens, drawings and material files, most of which have now been published, which were collected by the Africanist Oswin Köhler between 1959 and 1992. The Oswin Köhler Archive endeavors to give the members of the community of origin access to these documents, to establish lasting and sustainable relationships with them and to research the material together with them. The partner organization in Namibia is the Bwabwata Khwe Custodian Committee, which was founded in 2012 and is dedicated to the preservation of the Khwe language and culture and which intends to co-organize the planned orthography workshop.

During a workshop held by the applicant Dr. Gertrud Boden, also in cooperation with the Bwabwata Khwe Custodian Committee, in Bwabwata National Park in Namibia at the beginning of March 2024 entitled “Understanding and presering Khwe cultural heritage”, two representatives from each of the twelve Khwe villages in the park discussed ideas on how the cultural heritage of the Khwe can be preserved and passed on between generations and how the documents in the Oswin Köhler Archive can be used for this purpose. In the concluding discussion, it emerged that an orthography workshop was at the top of the participants’ wish list in order to preserve their own language and culture.

Goals

The aim of the workshop is to teach a larger number of Khwe to read and write in their own language and thus enable them to consult the numerous documents in the Khwe language, which can be found in the estate of Oswin Köhler and in various publications, in the original, i.e. without having to rely on interpreters or written translations into English. The workshop is intended to enable the participants to disseminate what they have learned in their respective villages with the help of the curriculum developed for the workshop and the teaching materials used there.

The expected outcome of the workshop is in line with the concerns and objectives of the Jutta Vogel Foundation. It contributes to the preservation of an endangered language and, through literacy in the local language, also to the preservation of the ways of life recorded in the historical documents. It promotes exchange and encounters between a university collection and members of the community of origin and counteracts discriminatory tendencies, such as the lack of mother-tongue teaching in Namibian schools and the non-recognition of the Khwe political leadership by the Namibian government.

Organization and contributions of others:

The workshop will take place in the Community Hall of the local Community Trus (Kyaramacan Association, KA) in the village of Mutc’iku and will last two weeks (11 working days). The number of participants is 24 (2 per village, 12 villages).

The workshop is aimed at participants who can already read and write another language such as English or Afrikaans and who have proven to be very committed during the aforementioned workshop in March 2024, so that an effective teaching of Khwe orthography can be assumed. The workshop will be conducted by the applicant in cooperation with three Khwe who can already read and write their own language and with whom she has worked for many years in Namibia and in Frankfurt.

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Contact

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Jutta Vogel Stiftung

Prof. Michael Bollig
Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology
University of Cologne
Albertus-Magnus-Platz
50923 Cologne

E-mail: info@jutta-vogel-stiftung.de

Phone: +49 (0)221 470 76647