At the end of 1920, Dorothea Bleek was asked by the government of the SWA protectorate to join the anthropological expedition in SWA, led by the SAM in Cape Town (Bleek 1928, 1). The purpose of the expedition was to carry out research among the Bushmen of the protectorate, described by Jill Weintroub as a typical state-sponsored colonial endeavour to study (and control) the native populations (Weintroub 2010, 115). Bleek travelled with ‘two other gentlemen’, the museum taxidermist and modeller James Drury being one of them (Bleek 1928, 1; Weintroub 2010, 115). Bleek was going to do the philological research, while Drury and the other gentleman would do the physical research, ‘such as taking casts, measurements, etc.’ (Bleek 1928, 1). Dr Louis Fourie, the Medical Officer of Health of the protectorate, facilitated the expedition, and, on his advice, Bleek and the others had the empty police station at Sandfontein at their disposal (Bleek 1928, 1; Weintroub 2010, 120). Situated on the border of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, Sandfontein (now Buitepos) (Weintroub 2010, note 3, 110) was on the boundary between the territory of two tribes, the Naron and the Auen (Bleek 1928, 1). Bleek stayed at Sandfontein until March 1921, learning the languages of the two groups with the help of her interpreter, ‘A Klip Kaffir constable, Saul’, and becoming increasingly ‘confidential’ with the Bushmen of the area, especially during the last six weeks of her stay, when the other two from the SAM had left. When she had the opportunity to go back the next summer, she travelled alone and stayed without an interpreter from the beginning of November 1921 to the middle of March 1922 (Bleek 1928, 1).

The ‘Klip Kaffir’ Saul had grown up near Sandfontein, spoke Naron well and could understand Auen. Saul had also worked as a guide and interpreter for Fourie on several occasions and was recommended by him to help Bleek and the rest of the expedition (Wanless 2007, 87). At this point, Fourie had already collected a large part of his Bushman collection and although Bleek came to SWA as an authoritative expert in Bushman languages and culture (appointed by the SAM), we must consider Fourie the expert of local Bushman culture, based on at least four years of empirical studies and experience.