The Bushmen Tribes of South Africa

The Bushmen Tribes of South Africa

Publications and reports

These informal 'recollections' by Dorothea Bleek of her early childhood are more likely a synthesis of the Bleek and Lloyd families' experiences than vignettes recalled from (her) memory. They offer some small measure of her thoughts about her family's unique mandate and domestic context punctuated by the many informants hosted at The Hill and Charlton House from 29 August 1870, starting with |a!kunta, to September 1880, ending with the !kun informants (Bank, 2006: 273). Despite the leanness of this account, it adds to the otherwise scant autobiographical residue left by Dorothea.

Ink on paper

24/09/1920

Typewritten short A4 pages, with pencil annotations. D3.3.1 (pp. 1-3) is a partial duplicate of D3.3 (pp. 1-2 and 6). TS.

A transcript (TS [one of two]) of 'The Bushmen Tribes of South Africa', a lecture Dorothea Bleek gave in the Museum Hall at Bloemfontein on September 24th, 1920. A newspaper clipping accompanies this transcript. Virtually no autobiographical writings by Dorothea Bleek remain, provided they ever existed. This transcript is perhaps one of the few items in the archive on Dorothea that verge on the autobiographical. Jill Weintroub's work is a helpful reconstruction of Dorothea's personal life from scarce materials, like her correspondence. Dia!kwain left Charlton House in March 1876 (±200 days after Wilhelm Bleek's death on August 17th, 1875), followed by |hanǂkass'o's departure in December 1879 (Bank, 2006: 273, 373).