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About US


Many people have assisted in the process of scanning and editing the Bleek and Lloyd archive and associated projects, since the initiative to digitise was first negotiated in 2003. The initial team comprised: Professor Pippa Skotnes (Project Director), Dr Eustacia Riley, (Associate Editor), Professor Hussein Suleman (developer of the Simple Library software for the Digital Bleek and Lloyd website and CD), Fazlin van der Schyff (scanning and digital management, first part of the ScanShop team and later a member of staff at the Centre for Curating the Archive), Thomas Cartwright (proof reading and assisting with project management) and Cara van der Westhuizen (assisting with project management). This project culminated with the publication Claim to the Country (see Resources) and the Digital Bleek and Lloyd.


The team working on this new digital publication !khwe ta |xoe: Digital Bleek and Lloyd has comprised:


Professor Pippa Skotnes (General Editor and Project Director)

Pippa Skotnes has an MFA and DLit from the University of Cape Town. She was the founding director of the Centre for Curating the Archive. She began working with the Bleek and Lloyd in 1988 and has published several related books. These include: Sound From the Thinking Strings (1991), Miscast: Negotiating the Presence of the Archive (1996), Heavens’s Things (1999), Claim to the Country: the Archive of Lucy Lloyd and Wilhelm Bleek (2007), Unconquerable Spirit: the History Paintings of George Stow (2008), Made in Translation (2010), and The Courage of ||kabbo, with Janette Deacon (2014). She has also curated several exhibitions, initiated community projects, undertaken fieldwork and organised events to help extend the reach of the archive.


Dr Eustacia Riley (Associate Editor)

Eustacia Riley graduated from Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town in 2002 with a MFA degree and completed a PhD in Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town in 2014. She has worked on many aspects of the archive since its initiation, with focus on the notebooks, newspaper articles and correspondence.


Professor Hussein Suleman (Digital Library software development)

Hussein Suleman is a computer scientist and Dean of Science at the University of Cape Town. He developed the initial software for the Bleek and Lloyd website and has updated this for this iteration. His main research interests are in digital libraries, ICT4D, African language information retrieval, cultural heritage preservation, Internet technology and educational technology.


Dr Nina Liebenberg (Project Management and Curation)

Nina Liebenberg graduated with an MFA and a PhD from the University of Cape Town, where she has taught curatorship and contributed to many curatorial projects. She has assisted in the project management of the Digital Bleek and Lloyd and convened curations on related exhibition histories and on the |xam dictionary. She is currently (2025) a post-doctoral fellow at the University of the Arts at Helsinki.


Dr Siyakha Mguni

Siyakha Mguni joined the project in 2023 and apart from contributing curations he is the Editor of the new Digital Bleek and Lloyd online journal the Sitting Mist. He is an archaeologist with an MA (Wits) PhD (UCT) in rock art studies and has authored two books, Termites of the Gods: San cosmology in southern African rock art, (2015) and Archival theory: chronology and interpretation of rock art in the Western Cape, South Africa (2016). He has published many articles and curated two solo exhibitions and three joint exhibitions in southern Africa.


Roxy Jones

Roxy Jones has an Honours Degree in Curatorship from the University of Cape Town where she is completing her Master’s degree in Digital Curation. She has been working on the Digital Bleek and Lloyd since 2022 digitizing the lexicons and annotating the archive’s fonds.


Hannah Fleishman

Hannah Fleishman has a fine art degree from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town and is currently studying for her Master’s degree in Amsterdam. She worked on the Digital Bleek and Lloyd in 2023 digitizing the lexicons.


Sophie Cope

Sophie Cope has a fine art degree from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town where she is currently (2025) working on her Master’s Degree in Clinical psychology. She worked on the Digital Bleek and Lloyd in 2022 and 2023 digitizing the lexicons.


Nyasha Njovana

Nyasha Njovana has an Honours Degree in Curatorship from the University of Cape Town where she is completing her Master’s degree in Digital Curation. She has been working on the Digital Bleek and Lloyd archive digitizing the lexicons since 2023.


Joshua Pearse

Joshua Pearse joined the project in 2023. They did their fine art degree at the Michaelis School of Fine and their MFA at the China Academy of Art. They work on web development and design, and as a researcher focused on sound in the archive.


Sandra Prosalendis

Sandra Prosalendis has an Honours degree in Drama from the University of the Witwatersrand. She joined the project in 2023 to work on the Janette Deacon Archive. Her background is in education and museum management and she was the inaugural director of the District Six Museum.


Caitlin MacDonald

Caitlin MacDonald joined the project in 2023 to work on the photographic collections in the archive. She has an Honours degree from the University of Cape Town and is currently (2025) doing an MA in the Environmental Humanities.


Matthew Wannenburgh

Matthew is completing a Master’s (MA) by research in Political Science with Stellenbosch University, specialising in Data Politics (Data Colonialism). He has worked on various aspects of the Bleek and Lloyd archive since February 2024 including Wilhelm Bleek’s opinion editorials on colonial politics, law, and society.


Institutional Support

Without the assistance and support of the University librarians past and present, in particular Lesley Hart and Clive Kirkwood, this project would not have been possible. To them and to Sanjin Muftić, Michal Singer and Ujala Satgoor, our special thanks. This project was also facilitated by Melanie Geurstyn of the National Library of South Africa and Patricia Davison and Lindsay Hooper of Iziko South African Museum.


Curations

Many scholars have contributed to this online publication through curations which can be accessed via the bottom of the home page, and these will be added to over time.