The ǀXam and ǂKhomani heartland

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

consists of regions located to the South and North of

Upington Upington () is a town founded in 1873 and located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, on the banks of the Orange River. The town was originally called Olijvenhoutsdrift ('Olive wood drift'), due to the abundance of olive wood trees i ...

, respectively, in the Northern Cape Province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The ǀXam and ǂKhomani (more correctly Nǁnǂe) people were linguistically related groups of San ( Bushman) people, their respective languages ( ǀXam and Nǁng) being part of the ǃKwi language group. Descendants of both the ǀXam and Nǁnǂe include Afrikaans-speaking ‘

Coloured Coloureds () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and, to a smaller extent, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South ...

’ people on farms or in towns in the region amongst whom the precolonial languages are either entirely extinct (in the case of ǀXam) or can be spoken by but a very few people (in the case of Nǁnǂe).

Site description

The two areas consist of semi-arid to arid tracts of the Upper

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

(to the south) and the Southern

Kalahari The Kalahari Desert is a large semiarid sandy savanna in Southern Africa covering including much of Botswana as well as parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal d ...

(to the north). Both areas are rich in archaeological traces inter alia of the Later Stone Age, while rocky hills and outcrops in the southern area (which has been referred to as ǀXam-ka ǃxau, meaning home of the ǀXam) have a wealth of

rock art In archaeology, rock arts are human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type al ...

sites, preponderantly in the form of rock engravings. In the ǂKhomani area to the north (where the sandy desert topography precludes rock art) a cultural mapping project contributes to a revival of interest in cultural traditions in the younger generation.ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
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History

With the official proclamation of the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in 1931, the majority of the Khomani, as well as the Mier people who lived in that area, were forced to move to other areas.

World Heritage Status

The ǀXam and ǂKhomani heartland site was added to the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Tentative List on May 15, 2004 in the Cultural category. The northern component, the ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape, was inscribed on the World Heritage list on 8 July 2017, during the 41st session of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee which took place in Kraków, Poland, 2–12 July 2017.ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape inscribed as World Heritage https://www.environment.gov.za/mediastatement/khomaniculturallandscape_aworldheritagesite

External links

*http://www.khomanisan.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/khomani-san-press-compilation.pdf *http://www.khomanisan.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/sahrcreport-final.pdf

Notes

References

The ǃXam Khomani Heartland - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Accessed 2009-03-04. * Deacon, H.J. & Deacon, J (1999), ''Human beginnings in South Africa: uncovering the secrets of the Stone Age'', Rowman Altamira. {{DEFAULTSORT:xam And khomani Heartland World Heritage Sites in South Africa Karoo Geography of the Northern Cape Coloureds Indigenous peoples of Southern Africa