||kabbo

ǁkábbo (pronounced approximately ; ; – 25 January 1876 ) (also known as ǀuhi-ddoro or Jantje Tooren) was a storyteller and chronicler of ǀxam culture and knowledge. He was a member of the ǀxam people, a San people of South Africa. From 1871 to 1873, he lived with Dr Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd and played an important role in contributing to the Bleek and Lloyd collection. Many of his stories were published in “Specimens of Bushman Folklore”; they provide rich information on the life, rituals, and beliefs of ǀxam society.

Youth and early adult life ǁkábbo belonged to a ǀxam clan called the Ss’wa ka ǃkui (Plains People) . He was born around 1815 in an area referred to as The Bitterpits, located some 50 km South of today’s small town of Kenhardt. At the time, the area was outside of the borders of the Cape Colony. The name ǁkábbo means ‘dream’, but was given to him only as a young man. His childhood name was ǀhanǂiǂI, meaning ‘husband’s thoughts’. During his childhood, he experienced a time of great drought, in which his father and other family members died. His mother died when he was a teenager. In the early 1840s, he married ǃkwabba-an, with whom he had three children, one of whom died in infancy. He has shared extensive accounts of the landscape and the places (waterholes, rocky formations etc.) which he ‘owned’, having inherited them from his father; most of these places are associated with hunting of animals such as ostriches or springboks.

Arrest, trial and prison sentence Following the Northern Border Protection Act, passed by the Cape Parliament in August 1868, the government sent troops to restore order; in March 1869 they arrested hundreds of Korana pastoralists, who were known to raid settler farms, and in a mop-up operation arrested a dozen ǀxam individuals for theft of livestock, In daytime and evening sessions, Bleek and Lloyd recorded elements of ǁkábbo’s genealogy, a map of the place where he came from, and rich stories retracing both ǀXam mythology (e.g. "Mantis and Moon"), old legends and family stories, as well as scenes from everyday life of the ǀxam, such as practices associated with hunting of ostriches or springboks. ǁkábbo’s stories were often told over many days, and he used digressions, dialogues and body language to enliven and possibly to stretch the narrative. Although ǁkábbo’s prison sentence had ended by mid-1871, he stayed at The Hill until 1873, but was feeling increasingly nostalgic and homesick. He also expressed frustration at having to work as a servant to Bleek’s wife Jemima and her sisters, a relationship that was at odds with the sense of dignity and respect which he felt was due to older men.

Returning home ǁkábbo and ǀaǃkunta left Mowbray on 15 October 1873 by foot to return to their families. ǁkábbo was able to find his wife ǃkwabba-an. However, the place of his great-grandfather had been taken over by settlers and he and his wife were forced to live on a farm 50 km south of his home, where ǁkábbo died on 26 January 1876.

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