!Khwa ttu San Cultural Centre South Africa
West Coast South Africa
It was indeed a privilege to visit the San Cultural Centre. So much history and information is available both on the tours and in the beautiful "Way of the San" building. Inside this building, just stand still and listen. What you hear and see can truly transport you to a different time and place and bring a new understanding of the SAN people and their history.
Our tour guides were both incredibly passionate about their heritage whilst confirming that the older generation still perhaps find it difficult to adapt to more modern life.
We were taken on a tractor ride to view the traditional replica of a San Village. All the huts face inwards and the village is surrounded by thorn bushes to keep out predators. A fire was normally kept going during the hours of darkness.
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Marriages were arranged between the elders and there was no special celebration of this.
Young men has to undergo a number of "tests" before they would be recognised as able to provide for a wife. They had to be able to kill an eland successfully, make a fire, track animals to find water and prove their abilities to keep a wife alive. As hunter-gatherers, knowledge was passed on from generation to generation. All knowledge was kept in their brains as their was no written record of their lives in the early days.
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| Art Work !Khwa ttu San Cultural Centre |
"Many
consider the Khoisan to have some of the most incredible knowledge and
insights into wild animals and the environment that they inhabit. Their
ability to extract nutrients from seemingly inconspicuous plants and
survive in generally arid or inhospitable environments is incredible.
Many have comprehensive knowledge about the medicinal values of plants,
and they use natural items to cure hundreds of ailments without modern
medicine.
On
the hunting side, they had an incredible ability to tune into their
surroundings; to track animals across the land and take down wild game
with a small poison-tipped arrow"
When a young girl had her first menstruation, she was placed alone in her hut while the villagers performed the Eland Bull Dance. For the boys, they would have been classed as a man as soon as they killed their first antelope. Hunters each had their own special leather bag for their arrows, tools, medicine etc. This bag was carried over their shoulder.
Outside the building "Way of the San" these 2 huts offer an insight into the dwelling space of the San people.
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| Our Guide at !Khwa ttu San Cultural Centre |
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| Showing the use of San Tools !Khwa ttu Cultural Centre |
Our guide gave us an explanation of the "Cupid" Arrow used by the young men if they fancied a specific girl, As marriages were all arranged, he had to shoot this arrow and hit the buttocks of the girl he liked. He could pretend that it was an "accident" and that he meant to hit a small animal! She would then either break it into small pieces and discard this or, if she like the look of him, hand it to the grandmother of her village. If the latter, the elder of the young male could come looking and if they found the match arrow, a marriage would be arranged.
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| The vast areas of !Khwa ttu San Cultural Centre |
All young men had to learn how to start a fire with sticks. Our guide was totally breathless from the effort of doing this but he did manage to start a small puff of smoke!!
The various tools, containers and implements used by the San. See also the very first "flip flop" on the top right hand corner. As hard as nails, this was made from animal skin and used by the women only. The men walked barefooted as they had to use stealth to catch their prey. The San men could run for many miles until their chosen prey was exhausted and could then be speared.
Poison arrows were also used - the poisons were a combination of plants such as the euphorbia plant, venom from snakes or spiders and and one person was normally in charge of making this for the arrows. If an animal was killed this way, the blood would be drained from the animal so that no poison was in the flesh.
Sadly, this baby Springbok did not live - a birth gone wrong for whatever reason
The wide open spaces of !Khwa ttu San Cultural Centre are ideal for the game to roam on the farm and to give visitors a peaceful feeling of being in a "small" part of Africa!
The land is currently very dry so the Eland are fed whilst the Zebra's, Springbok and Bontebok fend for themselves.
The entire experience is a mind-blowing look into the past and the lives of the San who lived and survived for thousands of years as Hunter-Gatherers.
This bird hide was near a small stream that has dried up since the drought - let's hope the rains come in abundance in the future.
The 2 restored farm houses now house the fascinating exhibits, stories, artwork etc in "First People" and "Encounters" Do allow sufficient time to explore everywhere - there is so much information available.
This San Cultural Centre is well worth a visit for anybody interested in the fascinating history of the San People.
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Content below and further information courtesy of:
https://www.khwattu.org/
https://www.khwattu.org/things-to-do/khwa-ttu-san-heritage-centre/
"In 1998, the Working Group for Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA) agreed that the San needed assistance in training their own people to deal with tourism and how to showcase San culture to the world.
Swiss anthropologist Irene Staehelin agreed to help the San. In 1999, guided by her vision and inspired by heritage centres in America and Canada, she bought a farm on the West Coast of South Africa for the !Khwa ttu project, namely a San Culture and Education Centre. She later set up the Ubuntu Foundation in Switzerland to help support the project.Today the project is run by the !Khwa ttu Non-Profit Company, jointly directed by the Ubuntu Foundation Switzerland and the San, represented by WIMSA. The farm is held in perpetuity by the Meerkat Non-Profit Company for the sole use of the !Khwa ttu project, and can only be used as a San Culture and Education Centre.
"Nearly five years later, on Heritage day, September 24th, 2018, we launched our world class !Khwa ttu San Heritage Centre dedicated to the history, livelihoods, challenges and successes of all San groups in southern Africa. Our centre is the only one of its kind dedicated to the story of southern Africa’s first people.
Our undertaking has involved years of community consultation. Our co-curated exhibitions are all undertaken by a team of San Consultants and community based San Pioneers working closely with a wider community of world leading academics and exhibition designers.
Our exhibitions follow our San mandate of ‘telling our story in our own words, past, present and future’. In two beautifully repurposed farm buildings, respectively named ‘First People’ and ‘Encounters’, we present themes ranging from storytelling to human origins, rock art, colonial encounters and current community initiatives.
In our third, eco-designed, ‘Way of the San’ building, we use cutting edge immersive technology and innovative gallery design to introduce visitors to the realities of life as a San gatherer and hunter. Best of all, join one of our guided tours and enjoy a first-hand account of San life and the sort of knowledge required to live well just from what nature provides".
