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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | Ethnic Identity as Performance: Lessons from Namaqualand |
| Authors: | Sharp, John Boonzaier, Emile |
| Year: | 1994 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Southern African Studies |
| Volume: | 20 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Pages: | 405-415 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | South Africa |
| Subjects: | Nama ethnicity Ethnic and Race Relations Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636935 |
| Abstract: | Some of the present-day descendants of the precolonial Nama-speaking Khoikhoi pastoralists of the northwest Cape in South Africa have recently begun to assert a Nama ethnic identity. This development is part of the current, widespread debate about the meaning and significance of 'coloured' identity in a future South Africa. But it is also closely linked to the establishment of the Richtersveld National Park in Namaqualand in 1991. The signing of the contract for the park had been preceded by months of difficult negotiations with the National Parks Board, during which the people had managed to win significant concessions. The signing ceremony to mark the park's establishment, held in June 1991 in Kuboes, was therefore an explicit manifestation of the emerging sense of Nama ethnic identity. The manner in which Nama identity is being performed seems to contrast sharply with the way in which Zulu identity is currently portrayed by Inkatha. Statements of Nama identity are formulated collectively; Nama interactions with others, and their reflections on themselves, lead them to the conclusion that authenticity is not an absolute issue. Inkatha's version of Zulu etnicity is an identity imposed by Buthelezi, who has the power to declaim a vision of what it means to be Zulu. Note, ref., sum. |
