In the four preceding chapters on the Bleek and Fourie collections, I presented extensive material on Bushman dress from colonial southern Africa, and argued that this aspect of Bushman culture has mostly been neglected in earlier research. The two artefact collections, which were compiled around the same time and among some of the same people, represent ‘Bushman dress’ in two different ways: as a stereotype of common traits and characteristics among Bushmen in general (Bleek), and within a more complex framework of distinct material differences between different groups of people (Fourie). While contextualising the artefacts in relation to the photographs and research notes taken by each collector, I tried to question and nuance the outlined material expressions. The approach proved useful from a research historical perspective, as a means to pinpoint aspects of earlier research that should be highlighted in order to ask new questions.

In what follows, I focus on dress as part of the material and bodily practice of the colonial /Xam Bushmen of the Northern Cape in South Africa. I explore the remnants of their dress as remembered and told by six /Xam Bushmen who lived with the Bleek and Lloyd family at different stages between 1870 and 1879, in Mowbray, Cape Town. Approaching dress from the perspective of oral myths and narratives will enlighten the subject substantially.

/A!kunta, //Kabbo, ≠Kasin, Dia!kwain, !Kweiten ta//ken and /Han≠kass'o all contributed, to varying degrees, to the 138 notebooks (28 recorded by Wilhelm Bleek and 110 by Lucy Lloyd) of /Xam narratives that are now kept in the Manuscript and Archive Department of the University of Cape Town (UCT) Library. The narratives were transcribed by Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd in /Xam, as Bleek developed the orthography to make it into a written language. They were later translated into English on the same page in a column next to the transcription. This work was also for the most part done in collaboration with a /Xam-speaking informant. On the opposite page, comments and notes made by the informant, or by Bleek or Lloyd, were added when necessary to clarify or otherwise add to the main story. These notebooks, together with the other notebooks of the archive, are now also available online at The Digital Bleek and Lloyd (BC151.A1.4.001–BC151.A1.4.028STARS, BC151.A2.1.001–BC151.A2.1.107, BC151.A2.1.125, BC151. A2.2.004, BC151.A2.2.005).