Hottentots
Hottentots
The Hottentot is one of three tribes of South Africa which may be divided — Bantus, Hottentots, and Bushmen. When the first Europeans (the Portuguese) came to South Africa, they found what is now Cape Colony divided between Bushmen and Hottentots. The Bantu tribes were chiefly north of the Zambesi. The Bushmen were smaller than the Hottentots physically.
The origin of the Hottentots is a question which has given rise to much discussion. Several writers have suggested a North African origin; and Dr. Bleek has detected important points of similarity between the Hottentot language and those of North Africa; but it is too soon to build on these slight indications. Dr. Theal appears to suggest that the first Hottentots were a mixed race. “The probability seems to be that a party of intruding males of some slight brown or yellow race took to themselves women of Bushman blood, and thus gave origin to the people whom Europeans term Hottentots.” This suggestion merely puts this question among the insoluble problems.
For the description of the pure Hottentot we are dependent on ancient writers like Kolben; because the pure Hottentot cannot be said to exist to-day. To-day the so-called Hottentots are of every colour, size, and character, through mixture with other races. Even the language which they principally speak is a patois of the Dutch dialect of the Cape.
The language of the Hottentots is monosyllabic; having four known dialects — the Namaqua, which is still spoken by some of the natives; the Kora and Cape Hottentot, which are practically extinct; and the Eastern Hottentot, which exists only in a few meagre vocabularies, and has been extinct for some time.
The most striking characteristic of the Hottentot language for the European lies in the “clicks”. Something similar is thought to be found in the Galla language of Abyssinia, in the Circassian tongue, and in the ancient speech of Guatemala. But three-fourths of the words in the Hottentot dialects begin with a click. Clicks are of four kinds, and are difficult to describe to those who have not heard them. The drawing of a cork, and the gurgling sound of water in the narrow neck of a bottle, the sound made in urging a horse to trot or run, and other sounds have been used to illustrate their nature; but at least one of them, the palatal click, defies description.
The grammatical system of the Hottentots is built almost exclusively on sex-denoting suffixes, and it is the most complete of this small group of languages. The liquid L is entirely wanting, and it has a small variety of clear nasal consonants. The only native literature that exists in these dialects consists of folk-lore tales, such as mark the beginning of all European literature. Translations of parts of the Scriptures have been made by missionaries in Namaqualand.
The religion of the Hottentots is a congeries of superstitious observances, of which travellers and folklorists have never been able to obtain a full explanation from the natives. They appear to believe in a superior being whom they call Tsuikwap; but the antiquity and the meaning of this word are open to some doubt. The most elaborate ceremonies of the Hottentots are in honour of the moon, and they pay great reverence to cairns of stones and wood, where they believe a mythical personage named Heitsi-Eibib to reside.
The Hottentots called themselves Khoikhoin — men of men. The most curious of their customs is that on attaining manhood the Hottentot makes himself a monorchis. Polygamy was not general, but permitted to the wealthy. They never seem to have made boats of any kind, and abhor the oil of fish, although fond of smearing their skin with oil. Witchcraft was common among them. Their government was carried on by chiefs, who administered a well-defined native law. The doctors were in high esteem, and next to them the priests, who combined the duties of masters of ceremonies and surgeons in the monorchist rites.
Hottentots are now found chiefly in German Southwest Africa and in Cape Colony. For the former territory there are no official figures as to their number; but they do not exceed thirty thousand. During the recent rebellion against the Germans, the Hottentots gave more trouble than all the other races together.
In the time of the first Dutch governor (van Riebeeck) the Hottentots at the Cape were estimated at 150,000. But the smallpox epidemic in 1713 reduced their numbers enormously. In 1904 the census put them at 85,892. Their destiny seems to be absorption into the more virile native races.
Missionary work among the Hottentots and allied tribes has been undertaken by the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales in Cape Colony, and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in German South-west Africa. The Orange River Vicariate is composed chiefly of a species of Hottentot called Griquas. In German territory, in the Prefecture Apostolic of Lower Cimbebasia, Catholic missionary work among the native tribes is in its infancy.
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THEAL, History of South Africa (London, 1903); BROWN, The Portuguese in South Africa (London, 1896); BLEEK, Comparative Grammar of South African Languages (Cape Town, 1899); Cape Monthly Magazine (January and February, 1858 and 1862); TORREND, Comparative Grammar of South African Bantu Languages, introd. (Columbus, 1950); KOLBEN, The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope (London, 1871); LEIBBRANDT, Précis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town, 1900), passim; TINDALL, Two Lectures on Great Namaqualanad and its inhabitants (Cape Town, 1856). The GREY Collection of the South African Public Library contains many useful books and pamphlets in the Hottentot dialects.
SIDNEY R. WELCH. Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Hottentots
The aboriginal inhabitants of Cape Colony, in Southern Africa. They are divided into three large tribes: 1. the Nama, or Namaqua; 2. the Kora (Korana, Koraqua); and, 3. the Saab, or Bushmen (Bosjesmans). In modern times they have been pushed northwards, partly by European immigrants, partly by the Betchuanas and Kaffres. The Nama, or Namaqua, live as nomads along the Orange River, in Great Namaqualand, which is an independent country, with about 100.000 square miles, and only 40,000 inhabitants, and Little Namaqualand, which is a part of Cape Colony. The Kora, or Korana, were about fifty years ago very numerous in the vicinity of the Vaal and Hart rivers; now they dwell as nomads on both sides of the Upper Orange River, both in Cape Colony and in the Orange Free State (q.v.). The Saab, or Bushmen, live scattered, partly in the northern districts of Cape Colony, partly in the desert Kalahary. In Cape Colony there were, according to the census of 1865, 81,598 Hottentots, by the side of 181,592 Europeans, and 100,536 Kaffres, in a total population of 496,381. Little is known of the Hottentots’ religion further than that they believe in a good and an evil spirit, hold festivals on the occasion of the new and full moon, and look upon certain spots as the abode of departed spirits. They have no regular priest, nor anything like an established worship, although they render especial homage to a small, shining bug. They have magicians for whom they have great respect. The Bastards, or Griquas, resulting from the amalgamation of Hottentots and Europeans, appear much more susceptible of mental and intellectual culture; they also form a distinct race, and a colony of 6000 of them, established at the Cat River in 1826, has been quite successful and numbered in 1870 about 20,000, nearly all Christians. They are partly nomads, partly agriculturists. The Hottentots in Cape Colony and the Griquas no longer speak the Hottentot language, but a Dutch dialect, strongly mixed with Hottentot and Kaffre words. The Hottentot language is not related to any other, and is especially different from the large South African family of languages.
The words are mostly monosyllabic, and usually end in a vowel or nasal sound. Among the consonants, l, f, and v are wanting. There are many diphthongs. Non- Africans find it impossible to imitate the gutturals which the Hottentots breathe with a hoarse voice from a hollow chest, as well as the four clicking sounds which are produced by a lashing of the tongue against the palate, and which in- writing are represented by lines and points (I = dental;! = palatal; = cerebral; ||, lateral). Modern linguists enumerate four dialects: 1. that of the Nama; 2. that of the Kora; 3. that of the eastern Hottentots, or Gonaquas; 4. the dead dialects of the colonial Hottentots. The substantives have three genders, masculine, feminine, and common; and three numbers, singular, dual, and plural. There are no cases; the adjective and verb are not inflected. The prepositions are usually placed after the words which they govern. The language of the Bushmen differs from that of the other Hottentots. By the Dutch conquerors of the country of the Hottentots the poor inhabitants were considered unworthy of Christianity, and even many members of the colonial churches discountenanced and prevented all missionary enterprises. The first missionary among the Hottentots began his operations in 1709, but he ceased them after a few weeks. In 1737, the Moravian missionary, G. Schmidt, gained an attentive hearing; but when, after a few years, the fruit of his labors appeared, he was compelled by the colonial government to leave. During the next fifty years no missionary was allowed to visit the Hottentots. In 1792 the Moravians succeeded in re-establishing their mission, but not until the country passed into the hands of the English did the missionaries find the necessary protection, under which their station at Baviaanskloof (at present called Genadendal) became very flourishing. The work grew steadily, and (since 1818) has extended from the Hottentots to the Kaffres.
The Moravians, even as early as 1798, were joined by the London Missionary Society. The missionary Von der Kemp established in the eastern part of the colony a mission among the Hottentots, and the latter labored among the Bushmen. In Little Namaqualand the mission was likewise begun by the London Society, and continued by the Rhenish Missionary Society, which, after the emancipation of the Hottentots, established a number of stations in the eastern districts. Several thousands of Griquas settled on the Cat River, where the station Philipton, with several out stations, arose. Among the Koras, missions have been established (since 1834) by the Berlin Missionary Society. More recently, a number of other missionary societies, of almost all the churches represented in Cape Colony, have taken part in the missions among the Hottentots. Beyond the limits of Cape Colony, the London Mission Society was the first to establish (1805) missions in Great Namaqualand. Subsequently the field was occupied by the Wesleyan Metholists and the Rhenish Missionary Society. Several stations established by the former in the northern parts of the country were again abandoned (Concordiaville and Wesleyvale, 1845-53), but in 1869 they still had three districts in the south-Nisbethbath, Hoole’s Fountain, and Jerusalem-all of which were occupied by native helpers, and occasionally visited by a Wesleyan missionary from Little Namaqualand. More extensive is the work of the Rhenish Society, which in 1842 established its first out-station at Bethania, and gradually advanced northwards as far as the Zwachaub. Their labors, especially at Bethania, have been very successful, and Great Namaqualand may now be regarded as a Christianized country. See Tyndall (Wesleyan missionary), Two Lectures on Great Namaqualand and its Inhabitants; Moo(lie, The Record, or a Series official Papers relative to the Condition and Treatment of the native Tribes in South Africa (Capetown, 1838 sq., 5 vols.). A Grammar of the Hottentot language has been prepared by Tyndall (Capetown, 1857), and a work on etymology by Wallmann (Berlin, 1857). On the history of the missions among the Hottentots, see Grundemann, Missionsatlas (Gotha, 1867). (A. J. S.)