Contributor Profile

||kabbo (in English 'Dream'), |uhi-ddoro or Jantje (Touren, Tooren or Toorm) stayed with Bleek and Lloyd between February 1871 and October 1873. ||kabbo refers to his people as Ss'wa ka !kui or 'Flat Bushman' (meaning he belonged to a group of |xam who lived on the plains). ||kabbo was from an area close to |a!kunta's home and the 'Strondbergen' called the 'Bitterpits'. ||kabbo was sent to Bleek and Lloyd on the 16th of February from the Breakwater Convict Station, where he had been imprisoned for two years for stock theft, or sharing in the spoils of theft. On pages 242-250 of Lloyd's notebooks he relates how black men took him and some of his people from the place where they were eating springbok. On pages 266-272 of Lloyd's notebooks ||kabbo tells of his capture along with his close relations, his journey to the Cape (via stays in Victoria West and Beaufort West), and his eventual imprisonment at the Breakwater (where his prison number was 4628). At least some of this period of incarceration was spent doing hard labour. ||kabbo was between 55-60 years old at the time of his arrival at Mowbray and proved to be an experienced and accomplished storyteller. While he was at Mowbray Bleek and Lloyd tried to locate his wife !kwabba-an (or Oud Lies) without success and had to secure his continued presence at Mowbray after the expiry of his jail sentence in 1871 with the promise of a much desired reward - a gun. ||kabbo is described by his son-in-law |han≠kass'o on p.8033 of Lloyd's notebooks as being 'a mantis's man' or a man who 'had' mantises, and on p.4701v of Lloyd's notebooks Dia!kwain describes ||kabbo's 'place' as one where its sorcerers transform themselves into birds and jackals. ||kabbo was also closely associated with a sorcerer called |kannu (or |kaunu) who was the 'Rain's man' and who was also ||kabbo's 'person' (see pages 2264opp and 2264v). In addition, on page 7303v of her notebooks, Lloyd notes that |han≠kass'o heard about the habits of sorcerers from '||khabbo' and some other people 'who were all '!giten' (or sorcerers). These notes associate ||kabbo with practices Involving sorcery and magic, or what is often today called shamanism. Lloyd commented, in her preface to Specimens of Bushman Folklore, that ||kabbo enjoyed the idea that his stories would become known through books. He contributed the largest number of narratives (over 3000 pages). ||kabbo left Mowbray on the 15th of October 1873 with |a!kunta for Victoria West where he found his wife. He also wanted to visit members of his family in Calvinia and obtain news of his other relatives. ||kabbo intended returning to Mowbray and Lloyd tried to contact him in Vanwyksvlei, but he died there on the 25th of January 1876. His widow !kwabba-an died on Mr C. St L. Devenish's farm in Van Wyk's Vlei the following year before she was able to journey to Lucy Lloyd in Cape Town. It is likely that Lloyd had been hoping for the unique input of an older female |xam narrator.