In memoriam - Dawid Kruiper

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of yet another San elder and leader from the ‡Khomani community in the southern Kalahari Desert. Oom Dawid Kruiper passed away on the 13th June 2012, after a brief period of hospitalization in Upington, Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Oom Dawid Kruiper, who was appointed leader of the Kruiper clan by his late father Regopstaan Kruiper in 1995, played a central role in the historic land claim of the ‡Khomani San.

In January 2002, a small clan of ‡Khomani San who were living on a tourist resort farm Kagga Kamma in the Western Cape Cedarberg, started planning to return to the Kalahari. The clan, lead by Regopstaan Kruiper, had been evicted from the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park after its formation in 1931. In 1995 their land claim, under the provisional name of the "Southern Kalahari San Land Claim Committee", was formally lodged with the Northern Cape Land Regional Claims Commissioner. The Kruiper clan, headed first by Regopstaan and then by Dawid Kruiper, were the original claim committee, which was later extended after a formal election was held for a negotiation committee, which attempted to represent each of the various communities of San in the Northern Cape. The first elected committee was chaired by Petrus Vaalbooi, whilst Dawid Kruiper was consistently acknowledged as the overall leader of the land claim.

In March 1999 and prior to the signing of the phase one agreement, a formal election process was held at Welkom to elect the first CPA under the CPA Act. This CPA constitution made provision for traditional leader as an acknowledgement of the extraordinary role played by Oom Dawid Kruiper in the years leading up to the land claim. In the ensuing years Oom Dawid has chosen to lead a simple, yet often difficult life on the farm Witdraai. He preferred to be called Bushman. His primary driver had always been to live as closely to the land of his forefather and to follow a traditional life (or natural life as he said) as possible. He held much knowledge of the natural environment which he was willing to share. He was the key driver in the establishment of a veld school through which knowledge of the veld, environment and traditions could be passed on to younger generations. The school also offered opportunities for visitors to have an authentic Kalahari experience. Oom Dawid was a reconteur par excellence, whose stories where often weaved in idiomatic language and many references to nature. He had an incredible way of comparing human behavior to that of the animals of the field….. May his soul become part of the "second milky way" and rest in peace.

Source: SA San Institute

Cgao Coma - bridging ancient and modern

MODERNITY meets iron age in Tsumkwe this weekend as the San community in this isolated part of eastern Namibia and international film-makers lay to rest one of the Kalahari desert's greatest sons. In death, as in life, Cgao Coma, Namibia's most famous actor, will be a bridge between the thousands of years old hunter-gatherer culture of the Bushmen and western civilisation.

He will be buried on Saturday in a semi-traditional ceremony at Tsumkwe, alongside his second wife. While in years past the Bushmen buried their dead and moved on to find new dwellings, Coma's family is expected to stay close to his resting place. The actor of the world famous 'The Gods Must Be Crazy' movies died while hunting in the desert last week Tuesday.

Official records say he was 59 years old, but he did not know his exact age. Many people believe he was older. By the time he died Coma had all but given up the modern way of life, having sold his brick house at Tsumkwe to live with his family in traditional huts in a village outside the capital of former Bushmanland.

According to Government records, Coma was born at Tsumkwe on December 16 1944. His mother tongue was Ju/'hoansi. He spoke Otjiherero and Tswana fluently, but his Afrikaans was not so good. He could not read or write, as is the case with most of the San.

The San are an indigenous hunter-gatherer people of southern Africa. Most live in the Kalahari. They number about 100 000. In the early 1980s, film director Jamie Uys of Mimosa Films in South Africa found the perfect natural actor in Coma to symbolise how the outside world has affected the San. "Uncle Jamie (Uys) told me the richness of Cgao," Dutch Reformed Church minister Peet Poggenpoel said. "He had a natural feeling for acting. What we must remember is that Cgao is a real actor".

Uys told Poggenpoel that Coma would often politely disregard the directors' instructions, and act "naturally", giving the movie authenticity. Reports say Uys was only the fourth white person Coma had met and he had never seen a settlement larger than the village of huts of his San people before he was cast in the film.

By the mid-1980s, Coma was world famous. 'The Gods Must Be Crazy' propelled him to international stardom and started his voyage of discovery in western culture.

Through the movies he became known as N!xau or N!Gau, as outsiders attempted to spell a name known only in the phonetic clicking sounds of his Ju/'hoansi language Some reports say the film grossed US$66 million (N$508 million at today's exchange rate) at the box office. Unappreciative of the immense value of money in a material world, Coma let his first wages waste away. Legend has it that he even left huge wads of cash to be blown away by the wind or eaten by hyenas.

Future earnings were better taken care of, between himself and the film company, said Geoffrey Gomme, a relative. Poggenpoel, who lived at Tsumkwe for nine years, said Coma received the money through his church. "The change that came with being cast was great but he did not have the skills to manage his income. He did not know how much he got from the films," said Gomme.

With some of his first income, Coma bought cattle that lions devoured. He bought a Chevrolet F250 and hired a driver at R150 a month, but sold it later to buy more livestock. In the 1990s, with the help of Mimosa, Coma built his first brick house. It was a three-bedroom house, fully furnished. Gomme said the actor's relatives descended on the house - as many as 30 at once - to share in the wealth. Over the years, they began to sell chairs, fridges, beds and cupboards. "After his wife passed away relatives were selling the furniture for alcohol," said Gomme.

Coma sold the house at the beginning of this year because he felt his relatives were abusing it. A local businessman paid him 20 herd of cattle, five calves, and N$20 000 in a mixture of banknotes and groceries. The family say the house was valued at N$80 000, but did not say when the valuation was made.

Coma then moved to Djokhoe, a village 27 km east of Tsumkwe. His wealth consisted of 21 cattle, 11 sheep, two horses, two bicycles, two spades, two rakes and five axes, including three traditional ones that he made himself. It is not clear how much cash is left in his estate.

A few years ago, Coma said he was getting N$2 000 a month from an investment Mimosa managed for him. Despite the money, Coma did not want to drift from his roots. "Mimosa stored his clothes at the church. When he went to big cities we would get the clothes so he can go there looking neat," said Poggenpoel.

Gomme described the actor's life as "between ordinary person and a poor man. He did not show he had lots of money". Coma himself had told NBC-TV that he preferred to behave as if he were poor, because he feared people might use witchcraft to obtain his wealth. His community saw him as a humble person. Poggenpoel remembers him as a jolly man, who always laughed - "not smile, but laugh".

In the mid-1990s, tuberculosis befell the diminutive actor. He was in and out of hospital as a State patient. His death certificate said he died of "multi-drug resistant" TB.

On Monday last week, he woke up at 06h00 as usual, collected firewood and made tea that he sipped with his father-in-law. He took his bird traps, bow and arrow and a hunting pouch and set off to hunt, his main target being guinea fowl. He did not come back that day. Coma's father-in-law tracked his spoor the next morning and found him on a path back home, bow and arrow still strapped to his shoulder.

Coma had nine children and one step-child from three marriages. Two children died, as did two of his wives. A volunteer in the community, Anthony Tsanigab, said Coma's burial will be huge by San standards. Tsanigab said Coma will be buried differently from tradition because "he was a modern man to them".

Poggenpoel recalled that Coma was extremely popular in Japan. "They had to organise the police to protect him. In Namibia we did not know what a what a big actor we had in Cgao".

Source: The Namibian