Modern-day tools for click languages
This last in a three-part series takes a look at efforts to produce more dictionaries and other materials in Khoisan languages and provides a glimpse of San life in a small village.
Stories by: Kevin Davie
Lessons from the oldest stories ever told
In this second of a three-part series, a visit to a !Xoon settlement deep in Botswana sheds more light on the world’s most complex language and its speakers’ tales of ancient wisdom.
Finding the speakers of ancient tongues
This first of a three-part series is a discovery of small communities in Botswana who still use a diverse range of click languages that have survived across vast time – and landscapes.
Long Read | Sol Plaatje’s diary 120 years later
A rereading of the author and journalist’s work written during the siege of Mafeking brings home the abiding impact of his words and the sensibilities that informed them.
Long Read | An odyssey in search of ochre
A traveller’s tale traces the history of early ancestors and humans through the art, markings and symbols they left behind in caves, riverbed rocks and other sites in South Africa.
Long Read | The virus that wrecked Africa a century ago
Rinderpest ravaged the continent in the late 1800s, flourishing in conditions of colonial repression and environmental degradation. A lesson for a climate-challenged world?
Long Read | Baobabs tell of an ancient African past
These giant trees can grow to be as old as 2 500 years and dominate areas in southern Africa where people lived in ancient times. They may also help us understand our climate-challenged present.