It was said of ǂkasin that he could be as angry as a snake. He owned a gun and hunted with it and his dog. Indeed, many of his narratives reveal his preoccupation with hunting and he described how he was once attacked and bitten by a leopard, making his escape without too great an injury. His eldest brother, however, had been killed by a lion. His father was a Korana chief and his mother ǀxam so that he could speak both languages, the latter in what Lloyd described as the ’Katkop dialect’. The home of his people, the ǀnussa ǃe (or Grass Bushmen), was in the Katkop mountains north west of Brandvlei. ǂkasin was the father of four children (two others had died) and he was married to ǃkweiten ta ǁken. It was along with her brother Diaǃkwain that he was arrested for the killing of a farmer, Jacob Kruger.
ǂkasin began his term at the Breakwater in 1869. Prison records describe him as 33 years old and his convict number was 4435. His good behaviour secured him an early discharge and he was released into Bleek’s custody in November 1873 having served four of his five years’ sentence. Shortly afterwards his co-accused Diaǃkwain joined him at Mowbray but they did not remain long. ǂkasin was impatient to return to his family – his wife had married another man while he was in prison, but the man died prior to his return, and so ǂkasin was to be reunited with her. He left the Bleek family home with Diaǃkwain on 18 March 1874, bound for Calvinia.
ǂkasin returned to Mowbray accompanied by ǃkweiten ta ǁken and their two youngest children, as well as his friend and brother-in-law Diaǃkwain, on 13 June 1874. He was not interviewed during his second stay in Mowbray (although ǃkweiten ta ǁken was) and Bleek and Lloyd do not seem to have regarded him as one of their more productive narrators (he provided information for only five notebooks, a relatively small number). ǂkasin’s most interesting contributions seem to have been in providing Korana and ǀxam vocabulary. Bleek stated in his 1875 report that ǂkasin’s knowledge of both languages ‘enabled us to arrive at some not unimportant facts, which throw some light upon their mutual relations’ although he does not mention what these facts might be. ǂkasin also provided information relating to activities of daily life such as the use of poisons and veld lore. He gave details of charms, and the preparations of several plants for medicinal purposes, as well as substances that were smeared on the body to aid in the hunt. A certain powdered root, for example, when rubbed onto the body during a journey would be refreshing and ’render the path good’. On 25 October ǂkasin’s two older children arrived at Mowbray. They had been left at Wellington near Cape Town. ǂkasin and his family remained with the Bleek and Lloyd household for a further three months, during which time ǃkweiten ta ǁken was interviewed. On 13 January 1875, they all left for Bushmanland. It is not known what became of the family, nor where they died.