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Living with the past: the songs of the Herero in Botswana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Kirsten Alnaes
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Extract

‘I am in the Batawana's country,’ wrote the Herero chief Samuel Maharero to the British Magistrate in Tsau in Ngamiland on 28 September 1904. ‘I am writing to tell you that I have been fighting with the Germans in my country; the Germans were my friends; they made me suffer so much by the manner in which they troubled me, that I fought with them…’ (PRO CO 879/80). On the same date he wrote to the Tawana chief Sekgoma: ‘I tell you that I have fought with the German, they trouble me and killed my people, then I was angry about that. I have fought with them for 8 (eight) months, and I have no ammunition to-day, this is the reason why I came here…’ (PRO CO 879/86).

Résumé

Vivre avec le passé: les chansons des Herero au Botswana

L'histoire sociale et l'anthropologie d'aujourd'hui utilisent les textes de chansons comme source de renseignements sur les perceptions des gens et leurs expériences subjectives d'évènements et de situations particulières. Les Herero au Botswana se souviennent clairement des expériences de la guerre contre les Allemands en 1904–7 ainsi que de leur adaptation ultérieure à la vie dans un nouveau pays. Elles constituent une ‘propriété’ commune dans laquelle les étrangers n'ont aucun rôle. Ces expériences ont trouvé leur forme dans les chansons, les lamentations et les légendes. Dans cet article, les textes de chanson et les récits oraux font l'objet d'une analyse à la fois textuelle et contextuelle à partir de laquelle on espère apporter une explication sur la signification des expériences du passé en formant les Herero à prendre conscience d'eux-mêmes, de leur attitude envers le présent et de leurs liens avec le passé.

Type
Women's responses to wrongs
Information
Africa , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , July 1989 , pp. 267 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1989

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