KHOEKHOENSE STAMNAME:

xxxiii, 996 pages: illustrations, portraits, maps. Paper covered boards.

This work took Professor Nienaber more than a decade to complete. It followed on from his work with Dr P. Raper on TOPONYMICA HOTTENTOTICA published in three volumes. The two found that many of the place names and tribal grouping names were similar. Nienaber consulted an enormous body of written records on the Cape which explains why the bibliography runs to 36 pages! This research allowed Nienaber to build up a very exact and detailed picture of where and in what condition the Khoisan groupings lived at the Cape prior to and in the early years of European occupation; who led the groups and where they travelled, hunted, stayed during winter and summer, and grazed their cattle if they had. By cross referencing the multitude of accounts he found, he built up a picture that provides an incredible amount of information not carried anywhere else.

Land, i.e. access to land, the confiscation thereof by individuals and groups, the use thereof and all aspects of it, has always been and will always be a major political issue in South Africa. Professor Nienaber has laid out for all to consult, with great and careful detail, exactly who was present in those years. It is a valuable research tool and a pity that it only appeared in this edition and only in Afrikaans.