How to be decolonized when not recognized?

"The Khoesan paradox"

In my thesis, I explore a paradox (Oevernes 2008). While preparing research, many sources posed that the Khoesan people in South Africa were gone. Words like genocide, ethnocide and culturicide described their imagined faith. I believed this valid, given the colonial past and later apartheid policy. Social, political and economic organization demolished; language, religion and knowledge systems gone, land rights lost and warfare, disease and societal disintegration as an outcome. Still, did all the Khoesan simply disappear? Not according to those who claim Khoesan belonging. I met them on the streets. Among Cape Town street-people, manifest and latent Khoesan identities were constantly in use. Their voices demand reconsideration of the faith of the Khoesan.

In this presentation, I will draw some lines between empirical findings on Khoesan identity expressions and challenges when indigenous groups face non-recognition. I will trace this non-recognition through academic texts that have concluded that the Khoesan are assimilated “out of existence”, and contrasts this with alternative readings of history and contemporary life, as well as street-logic where the Khoesan are seen as “survivors” who can handle any kind of hardship (Abrahams 2017, Oevernes 2008, Verbuyst 2016)

"The historical layers of decolonization in South Africa: from the Kohisan to “#RhodesMustFall” and back again"

Recent years have seen an upsurge in demands for the ‘decolonization’ of South Africa. The (inter)national focus has been on the ongoing student protests to decolonize the university which received global attention with the ‘#RhodesMustFall’ campaign that successfully got rid of the statue of colonialist Cecil Rhodes at the University of Cape Town in April 2015. In general, discussions on decolonization usually center on the manifold injustices of the apartheid system (1948-1994). As a result, the long colonial history predating apartheid is rarely addressed. The violent conquest and subordination of the indigenous Khoisan from the 17^th century onwards goes especially unmentioned and this despite increasing numbers of people reclaiming Khoisan identities and campaigning for indigenous rights in the post-apartheid era.

In this paper I focus on contemporary Khoisan activists in Cape Town and on their often misinterpreted campaign for decolonization. Drawing on data gathered during ethnographic fieldwork, I show how contemporary marginalization among activists becomes enmeshed with sentiments of historical injustice. I build on these findings to peel away the historical layers of demands for decolonization made by various South Africans and reflect on prerequisites for a more comprehensive discussion on the subject. With a growing sense of alienation among the Khoisan, debates on decolonization can only move forward if all affected groups are included in a meaningful way. Fundamentally, I argue that this requires South Africans to reflect on the position of indigenous people in contemporary political, economic and cultural society.