05 · LIVING HERITAGE · SOUTHERN KALAHARI

ǂKhomani

The landscape and rights of the ǂKhomani community

Knowledge of water, plants and paths forms part of a relationship with the land that remains alive.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

**CONTEXTUAL DOCUMENTARY IMAGE · Arri Raats, Kalahari Khomani San Bushman, Boesmansrus camp, Northern Cape, South Africa · CC BY 2.0**
Contextual image · Contextual correspondence
Contextual documentary image; does not exactly represent the described piece.
South African Tourism from South Africa · Arri Raats, Kalahari Khomani San Bushman, Boesmansrus camp, Northern Cape, South Africa · Inventory: Arri Raats, Kalahari Khomani San Bushman, Boesmansrus camp, Northern Cape, South Africa (19919544304) · CC BY 2.0
Source and provenance ↗Terms of use ↗

History and context

The ǂKhomani cultural landscape brings together routes, water, plants, memory, knowledge and territorial claims.

The heritage inscription recognises living relationships with the land; it does not authorise recreating a frozen community nor substitute its consent.

The 2017 inscription recognises a cultural landscape where routes, plants, water, language and memory are related. It is not an empty set nor a closed archive.

Rights, access and representation affect current people. A museum reconstruction does not substitute consultation, credit or community consent.

Evidence and interpretation

The landscape and its communal significance are recognised by UNESCO. Museum representation must respect current authority and rights.

Catalogue facts

Narrative date: Present · historical depth
Location: Southern Kalahari · South Africa
Material: Landscape, language and memory
Context: Contemporary cultural authority
Curatorial reading: The documented fact and its interpretation appear separately in the evidence block.
UNESCO inscription: 2017
Scope: Southern Kalahari
Documentary coverage: 2 museum, heritage, primary corpus or research sources for this stop.

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: September 5, 2026.

Place names as evidence

During the land claim culminated in 1999, the testimonies of Elsie Vaalbooi and twenty-seven other elders helped reconstruct place names, stories and memories of occupation. UNESCO reports that listening to recordings in Nǀuu in Rietfontein in 1997 triggered a decisive recovery of linguistic memory. Those names made recognisable for research spaces whose history was not written in monumental buildings. Their contribution shows how an individual’s knowledge can intervene in a collective demand and turn an apparently empty map into a territory with history.

Heritage · UNESCO · Reviving identity through language and connection to landAccess recorded: September 5, 2026.

Location and territory

REGIONAL AREA

ǂKhomani cultural landscape · South AfricaMarker of the living cultural landscape; it is not a pan-San border.

Sources and references

Expand this information and consult its sources

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