Place Names and the future '100 Stories' project
Through an interactive map [1] this digital archive showcases San and Khoi southern African place names within the Khoekhoegowab language.
The place names map is available here: https://goo.gl/maps/bBQuTKCEQyKk2AM87.
The following factors inform San and Khoi place names:
- Significant mountain and river geographic landmarks - for example, Bikamma which translates to ‘Milk River’.
- Plants - for example, Daweb which describes a place with Daweb or Abikwa trees.
- Animals - for example, Gamkamma which translates into English as ‘Lion Water’ or ‘Lion’s River’ and translates into ‘’Leeurivier’ in Afrikaans.
- Specific historical, tragical or spiritual occurrences that took place in the area - for example, ǀGoanǁgoes which translates into Afrikaans as ‘Kinderlê’ which is descriptive of the children lying everywhere after a historic incident where women and children were slaughtered in the area.
- Water bodies and features - for example, Auǁgami
Today the traces of these names can still be found in current Afrikaans place names that have been directly translated from the original Khoekhoegowab name given to a specific area.
The next round of development on this aspect of the San & Khoi Digital Archive is to categorise the place names according to the naming convention from San and Khoi community perspectives and the telling of ‘100 stories’ of the landscape (especially from an African indigenous feminist perspective) which link to these endangered languages.
Further reading on the topic of pre-colonial place names:
Nienaber, G S & Raper, P E, 1977. [Online] Toponymica Hottentotica: A1 (A-G). Available at:https://ibali.uct.ac.za/s/san-khoen-digital-archive/item/19425
Nienaber, G S & Raper, P E, 1977. [Online] Toponymica Hottentotica: A2 (H-Z). Available:https://ibali.uct.ac.za/s/san-khoen-digital-archive/item/19426
Nienaber, G S & Raper, P E, 1980. [Online] Toponymica Hottentotica: B (A-Z). Available:https://ibali.uct.ac.za/s/san-khoen-digital-archive/item/19427
Van Sitters, B., 2012. [Online] Place Names of Pre-colonial Origin and their Use Today. Archive & Public Culture Research Initiative. Available at:http://www.apc.uct.ac.za/apc/projects/ancestral-stories/place-names-pre-colonial-origin-and-their-use-today
[1] This dynamic map is based on the series of works by the late Professor Gabriel Nienaber and Professor Peter Raper entitled Toponymica Hottentica published by the Human Sciences Research Council.