The Stars Say 'Tsau'
Xam Poetry Of Dia! Kwain, !kweiten-ta-//ken, /A!kunta, /Hankass'o and //Kabbo
By Antjie Krog
2004
First Published
4.18
Average Rating
62
Number of Pages
Bushman stories and songs are arranged into verse by a renowned South African author and poet in this anthology. Using archival material meticulously recorded from a group of /Xam prisoners by the late-19th-century German philologist Wilhelm Bleek and his sister-in-law Lucy Lloyd, these poems remain true to the original text, resulting in haunting tales that tell of mythological beings, hunting, and the spirits of animals. Drawings and watercolors created for Bleek and Lloyd by /Xam speakers from what is now western Namibia provide a vivid visual record of a lost culture, evoking a time when the lives and souls of humans and animals were intimately intertwined.
Avg Rating
4.18
Number of Ratings
22
5 STARS
45%
4 STARS
36%
3 STARS
14%
2 STARS
0%
1 STARS
5%
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Author
Antjie Krog
Author · 14 books
Krog grew up on a farm, attending primary and secondary school in Kroonstad. In 1973 she earned a BA (Hons) degree in English from the University of the Orange Free State, and an MA in Afrikaans from the University of Pretoria in 1976. With a teaching diploma from the University of South Africa (UNISA) she would lecture at a segregated teacher’s training college for black South Africans. She is married to architect John Samuel and has four children: Andries, Susan, Philip, and Willem. In 2004 she joined the Arts faculty of the University of the Western Cape.
