|
The Dilemma of Ethnic Names in South Africa
The problem of using not only historically correct, but also socio-politically correct names, is an abiding dilemma for South African historians and writers of
historical fiction.
The solution, I believe, is to use names that are contextually
acceptable to the people concerned.
The word ‘native’ is used in Blood on the Path
accurately on both these counts. It is the correct term in
English to describe all Africans of all races,
(as distinct from the people of Kaffraria) i.e. the dictionary definition: an
indigenous person. Its pejorative
affectation grew widespread only in the second half of the 20th
century.
It was also the accepted term. There is a lasting reminder of Xhosa acceptance of it in the wording on a wreath at the funeral
of Queen Victoria. The wreath was one of only three that was replicated
in bronze on the largest single block of flawless granite ever
quarried, and which covers the Queen and her
Consort's secluded tomb at Windsor Castle in England. The wreath's inscription reads: "...from Her Native subjects of the District of Butterworth, Transkei".
The word ‘kaffir’ is today racial invective, an insulting term that I
have avoided at all costs. It existed in another linguistically accurate form which was adopted by
the people of the ‘Transkei’ with national pride in the late 17th
century. It was tarnished in the bitterness of the Frontier Wars, and became
palpably unacceptable after World War II.
However, in the 19th century, the word had several meanings, including ‘a native of Kaffraria’; a ‘Red’ (meaning ‘smear’, referring
to the ochre applied to adult faces) or, later, ‘Blanket Kafir’, as opposed to
‘School-’ (Mission School-educated-); or tribal traditionalist- or African
loyalist- (as applied to Tiya Sogo) kafir; etc. Sogo himself used the word interchangeably with the term
Xhosa.
Blood on the Path spells the world with one ‘f’, as a reminder that 'kafir' has historical and contextual relevance - without demeaning connotation. It is acceptable only when directly quoting the documents
of Sogo and others. No demeaning inference; no insult is tolerated here, and none is
intended.
San,
Khoi, Bushman. The 19th
century terms ‘Bushman’ and ‘Hottentot’ are used in early chapters in place of
the modern designations of ‘Khoikhoi’, ‘San’ and ‘Khoisan’. This seems
necessary not only for a contemporary tale striving for authentic context, but
also because ‘Bushman’ is still the name used, as a considered choice,
by many – probably most – of the last of the indigenous, full-time
hunter-gatherers.
The academic and
politically correct term San is currently preferred by some of the politically
aware San leaders campaigning for the rights of settled as well as landless and
jobless communities. However, the
‘Little People”, hunters and gatherers, I spoke to in the 1990s were adamant
that they were 'Boesmanne'. African tribal names in Blood on the Path such as Xhosa
and mPondomise are spelt, neither according to Schapera (Mpondomise, Mpondo)
nor according to the 19th century missionaries (‘Xosa’ and
‘Pondomisi’); nor spelt out in forms such as amaPondomise or umPondo.
Instead I have used a style that was often used during the relevant
period, a time when local literacy was new but rapidly increasing.
This is not always official current style, but as Noni Jabavu wrote in The
Ochre People, “For Xhosa, ‘so
dominantly vocalic in character’ . . . nothing short of a new
script should be devised.” |
