Category: Posthumous Literary Award
Authors | Publications | Language |
|A!kunta | Body of work | !Xam and !Kun |
!Kabbo | Body of work | !Xam and !Kun |
≠Kasin | Body of work | !Xam and !Kun |
Dia!kwain | Body of work | !Xam and !Kun |
|Han≠kass’o | Body of work | !Xam and !Kun |
The Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd collection of !Xam and !Kun narratives, verses, songs, chants, drawings and other materials consisting of over 150 notebooks running in some 13 000 pages is considered a unique cultural and literary collection which has been recognised by United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Council and entered into memory of the World Register.
The materials deal with the land, the rain, the history of the first people, the origin of the moon and stars, animals, cosmology, beliefs, ceremonies, art and information of the individual lives of the informants who had come to Cape Town as prisoners of the British Crown and were released into Bleek’s custody at his residence in Mowbray for linguistic and cultural research
The five contributors, who came as prisoners from the Northern Cape, and contributed to the archive are:
|A!kunta who arrived at Mowbray on 29 August 1870 and stayed until October 1873.
!Kabbo who stayed at Mowbray from February 1871 to October 1873
≠Kasin who stayed from November 1873 until March 1874.
Dia!kwain who came from December 1873 to March 1874.
!Kweiten ta || ken who came from June1874 to October 1874;
|Han≠kass’o who stayed from January 1878 to December 1879.
The archive enabled researchers and writers from South Africa other parts of the world to produces a vast body of literature including different genres of creative writing with only perfunctory acknowledgement to the five storytellers. In the light of this, and given the cultural value of the archive of which they are they are the oral authors, it is appropriate to bestow the SALA Posthumous award on each of them.