chance to gape?
Artist Pippa Skotnes launched an exhibition about the oppression of Khoisan people — and found herself under attack for the same thing, reports Rehana Roussouw
THIS century’s most representative gathering of Khoisan groups took place last Sunday — at the South African National Gallery, of all places. But the historic meeting was slightly marred by disagreement over the intentions of the hosts.
Eleven Khoisan groups from across Southern Africa were invited to a public forum on a new exhibition at the gallery, curated by artist Pippa Skotnes and titled Miscast: Negotiating Khoisan History and Material Culture.
The Griqua National Conference of South Africa slammed Skotnes’s “dehumanised portrayal” of the Khoisan, but other groups, like the Khoisan Representative Council, lauded her for illustrating their continued oppression in South Africa.
The Hurikamma Cultural Movement also condemned the exhibition, saying they were “sick and tired of naked brown people being exposed to the curious glances of rich whites in search of dinner-table conversation. At the exhibition we were exposed to yet another attempt to treat brown people as objects.
“The exhibition does nothing to oppose the forces which tried, and are still trying to conquer the Khoisan. Instead, it is yet another symbol of our status as a conquered people.”
Skotnes’s exhibition and catalogue portray, at times gruesomely, the relationships that existed between Khoisan communities and the European occupiers of their land.
Using many previously unpublished photographs, documents and exhibits, she unveils the wholesale extermination and cultural genocide of Khoisan people by displaying images of trophy heads, hangings, prison victims and starvation.
Skotnes said she had consulted Khoisan groups while mounting the exhibition: “I was at pains to decide which of the hundreds of images I had collected were unsuitable for publication or exhibition.
“In the end, despite the horror of some of the images, I decided to include examples of the full range, believing these images are the material evidence of the attitudes people held toward each other, and that this evidence should be exposed for all to see.
“One exception was the decision not to feature any of the many photographs of women’s genitals.”
Skotnes said during her correspondence with the Khoisan groups, many had indicated that they had no objection to the gruesome display. “But it is one thing to talk about a mounted head and another to actually see it on display.”
She said it would have been virtually impossible to cut out images of nudity as they included portrayals of people manacled, hanged and starving to death.
“These were difficult decisions. I was faced with the question of who really should give permission for this material to be exposed, whether I should censor out of fear, or whether the horrendous truth should remain hidden forever,” Skotnes said.
The Griqua National Conference slammed the exhibition as an “exposition of domestic ethnocide reminiscent of Auschwitz”. Its representative, advocate Mansell Upham, said Skotnes had not consulted the organisation and it would continue to resist the “dehumanised portrayal” of its members’ Khoisan ancestors.
“While we welcome all attempts to help expose the devastating colonial impact on the Khoisan, and are even impressed by the layout of Skotnes’s book [accompanying the exhibition], we are saddened by the non- indigenous people’s persistence in hijacking and exposing our past for their own absolution,” Upham said.
“We call on the organisers of this exhibition to reconsider their questionable, and active, contribution to furthering the marginalisation of the first nations of Southern Africa.”
Despite this, he said, and although Sunday’s public forum appeared to be an “afterthought”, the Griquas welcomed the opportunity it afforded them to meet other Khoisan groups. They invited the other groups to join them in their battle for recognition from the government.
The Griquas sent a memorandum to President Nelson Mandela last year demanding recognition of their status as aboriginals, representation at all levels of government, restitution of violated treaties, the return of all Griqua land and compensation for the genocide of the indigenous people of South Africa. This week, they received a response from Mandela’s office saying their memorandum was being “looked into”.
The Kimberley-based Khoisan Representative Council (KRC), which speaks on behalf of the Namas, Korannas, !Xu, Kwe and other San groups in the Northern Province, believes the Skotnes exhibition will play an important role in the “awakening” of Khoisan nationalism.
“We may be endangered, but we’re not yet extinct,” said KRC representative Martin Engelbrecht. “Sunday gave us a platform to raise our concerns and remind South Africa that Khoisan people are still alive today.”
The organisation believes Khoisan people suffered “mental genocide” when their history, tradition, culture and religion were destroyed by European settlers. It is attempting to record their languages, which are now only spoken by a handful of elderly people.
“This is the beginning of the Khoisan wake-up call,” said Engelbrecht. “Whites taught us to regard ourselves as inferior, to deny our Khoisan legacy, but we are claiming it back again.
“Because it will be impossible for the government to restore to all Khoisan people what they lost, we believe the best way to resettle Khoisan descendants is to do so mentally — to restore in them a pride in their past.”