Bleek, Bushman Poetry, and Race in Southern Africa

Introduction: Rethinking Bleek's Legacy

Andrew Bank's "Evolution and Racial Theory: The Hidden Side of Wilhelm Bleek" challenges the way Bleek has been romanticized in recent years by scholars of Southern African studies. While his research into San mythology was very important during what is known as his Bushman period, it was not the only aspect of his life worthy of note. Because so many scholars focus on his San research, they fail to address that Bleek also contributed to racial theory and other intellectual debates in the region over a twenty-five-year period. That contribution is equally significant, as it paints a picture of Bleek as something more than an anthropologist. With his focus on the importance of San rock art and his equally important engagement with questions of race in Southern Africa, he became a polarizing and consequential figure for a number of reasons.

This essay addresses those dimensions of Bleek's work alongside another important element of the Bushman period — the poetry — and the story it tells of what was happening to the country at the time. These poems can be found in Antjie Krog's The Stars Say 'Tsau'. Both Bank's and Krog's works are explored here in order to show the similarities between what Bleek and the Bushman poets brought to Southern Africa and to the wider world. Although the two texts may not appear to have much in common, they share a great deal of information that together provides a clearer picture of what was taking place in the Southern African region during that era. There is a rich history there that has too long been ignored.

Bleek on San Rock Art and Language

According to Bank, Bleek's view was that San rock art should be seen "not as the mere daubings of figures for idle pastime, but as an attempt, however imperfect, at a truly artistic conception of the ideas which most deeply moved the Bushman mind, and filled it with religious feeling" (164). In other words, the Bushmen of the time were telling stories that mattered to them and giving value to the accounts they produced. They were writing, as people do today, of the things that troubled them, and of their fears, hopes, and dreams. While the ways in which they expressed themselves may appear primitive by comparison with contemporary writing and artistic expression, their work was actually modern for its time. They wrote to preserve their experiences and to share their stories with others, making the world easier to understand.

Bank further notes that Bleek, along with his sister-in-law Lucy Lloyd, also "took the trouble to learn a San language and then to write down what the San had to say" (165). Bleek did not regard the Bushmen as primitive at all. What might be considered primitive today could have been very modern at the time of its creation, and that was how Bleek approached the culture of Southern Africa and the knowledge the Bushmen shared. The Bushmen also left a lasting legacy, since numerous texts were produced during the period in which they flourished. What they had to say then remains just as important today, providing more than anthropological interest — it also carries cultural and racial relevance when one considers the emotional, mental, personal, and spiritual dimensions of the Bushmen's lives.

Racial Theory and the Hierarchy of Development

Those who romanticize Bleek, however, tend to forget that much of what he wrote about the Bushmen was also characterized by his comparison of them to the higher primates. While Bleek was less focused on biological classification than some of his contemporaries, he did "share a commitment to the concept of a hierarchy of development and an explicit interest in comparing more 'primitive' forms of humankind with the higher primates" (168). Unfortunately, this framing diminished the value of some of his observations in the eyes of those who were interested in what the Bushmen had written and accomplished, rather than in how they were classified. The notion that the Bushmen were treated as "less than," or were seen as little more than highly capable apes, was not well received in every intellectual circle to which Bleek belonged.

The origins of human linguistic development were of deep interest to Bleek, who carefully considered how language had come to be and what further knowledge its study could yield. Much like Darwin in his interest in evolution, Bleek engaged with similar questions of development but narrowed his focus to linguistic matters. In the 1860s, Bleek researched Bushmen who were held captive at the Breakwater prison. From that point on, he became very interested in examining the lowest linguistic forms used by humans alongside the highest forms used by apes, so that he could more carefully assess how much they truly had in common. The "click" sounds made by the Bushmen as they communicated with one another were of particular interest to Bleek, who wanted to know whether apes communicated in the same way — and whether they used their lips, teeth, and tongue to produce similar noises.

Conclusion: The Value of Every Culture and Language

Both Bank and Krog, in their discussions of Bleek and the Bushmen he devoted much of his life to studying, have provided information and insight into how valuable every person, culture, and language truly is. The poetry cataloged by Krog offers not only a window into the minds of the Bushmen who composed it, but also deep insight into what those Bushmen were taught — most often by their mothers. This transmission of knowledge is a central and important part of their culture, as they revered their elders and the wisdom those elders had accumulated throughout their lives. This stands in notable contrast to the way most modern cultures treat their elderly, and represents a meaningful difference between the so-called "primitive" culture of the Bushmen and the modern cultures found throughout the world today. Whether the modern approach is actually superior in this regard, however, is a question worth debating.