CASE STUDY
HERITAGE TOURISM
TRAVEL &TOURISM SCHOOLS
COMPETITION
2002
CASE TITLE
Pella’s People
…a vanishing culture ?
An in-depth look into the Heritage Tourism
potential at Pella, Bushmanland,
Northern Cape, South Africa.
“ihaus
‘ty Gariep ge≠huis nama !nâ”
OASIS OF THE NORTHERN CAPE NAMA
INDEX
DEFINITION OF HERITAGE
CASE PROBLEM
CASE ISSUES TO BE INVESTIGATED
1. WHY DOES PELLA HAVE HERITAGE
TOURISM POTENTIAL?
2. THE ROLE OF LOCAL INHABITANTS AND THE LOCAL
AUTHORITY IN ESTABLISHING TOURISM AT PELLA.
2.1. “Ouma Toekoes”
of the Nama Overnight Huts.
2.2. Sister Theresa-Henriëtte
2.3. Linda van Wyk and
Pella’s local authority.
2.4 Khaki and
Glenda Goosen at Klein Pella Guest House and Date
Farm.(THE DEVELOPED VS THE UNDER-DEVELOPED.)
3. TOURISM TRENDS AT PELLA.
4. FACTORS WHICH RESTRICT THE DEVELOPMENT
OF TOURISM AT PELLA.
RECOMMENDATIONS
CONCLUSION
DEFINITION
OF
HERITAGE
Heritage is often
defined as our legacy from the past, what we live with in the present, and what
we pass on to future generations to learn from, to marvel at and to enjoy.
In a
dictionary you will find that heritage is defined as something which has been
inherited. You may prefer to think of heritage as those places and
objects we wish to keep. These are cultural and natural places that we
value, because they come from our ancestors, are beautiful, scientifically
important and irreplaceable examples and sources of life and inspiration.
CASE PROBLEM
There is a legend that the Nama and their
culture - a people whose 2000-year existence has left a deep imprint
on South Africa's heritage - are slowly becoming
extinct. If nothing is done, the culture of the Nama
people will soon reach a point where the legend of doom is beginning to fulfil
itself.
In order to preserve the Nama culture, the
case writers agreed that the only real solution to the problem would be a major
boots in Heritage Tourism to that area.
CASE ISSUES TO BE INVESTIGATED
1.
Why does Pella have Heritage Tourism
potential?
2.
The role of the local inhabitants and
the local authority in establishing tourism at Pella.
3.
Tourism trends at Pella.
4.
Factors which restrict the development
of tourism at Pella.
1. WHY DOES PELLA HAVE HERITAGE TOURISM
POTENTIAL?
INTRODUCTION
South Africa has a fascinating mix of cultures fed
from many fountains: Africa, the East,
and as far as the West. Experiencing
this diversity is one of the main motivations behind many people’s visits to
South Africa.
Village, town and city life, clothes and fashion,
religious expressions, literature and story-telling in eleven official
languages, as well as in the universal language of music, song and dance: all
reflect South Africa’ s multi-cultural heritage, portraying a veritable “World
in One Country”
There is a legend that the Nama
and their culture - a people, whose 2000-year existence has left a deep imprint
on South Africa’s heritage, are extinct.
This is the critical stage when the Nama culture can come down rapidly, even within a decade,
if nothing is done. The Nama is probably now at this point in its history.
The problem, though, is that the legend of doom is
beginning to fulfil itself - with devastating consequences for the self-esteem
of the last descendants of South Africa’s Nama
people.
THE HISTORY OF THE NAMA
The only true descendants of the Khoikhoi in
History reports many conflicts
over the perception of ownership of land and hunting grounds between the Nama and Herero people. The Nama and Herero were livestock
farmers, and they were the two main tribes in the 1840’s when the Germans
(first missionaries, then settlers, then soldiers) began arriving in
In the 1880’s Germany made South
West Africa their own colony, and settlers moved in, followed by a military
governor who knew little about running a colony and nothing at all about
Africa. Major Theodore Leutwein began by playing off the Nama
and Herero tribes against each
other. More and more white settlers
arrived, pushing tribesmen off their cattle-grazing lands with bribes and
unreliable deals. The Nama chief, Hendrik Witbooi, wrote a letter to Theodore Leutwein,
telling him what the native Africans thought of their invaders, who had taken
their land and deprived them of their rights.
In April 1893, the Germans launched into open war
against Hendrik Witbooi and
his Namibian community. The German-Namibian war lasted nearly two years
with, the culminating event, the battle of Hornkranz
in April 1893 and the Naukluft in September 1894.
After the Naukluft battle both armies were exhausted.
The Germans had suffered many casualties. Leutwein
noted that strategically little had been won, the Witbooi
force was inside the mountain and the Germans were outside when Witbooi offered a conditional surrender which Leutwein immediately accepted.
The extreme suffering and the
genocide against the Nama and Herero communities this war
had caused, can be demonstrated by the fact that from ± 20 000 Nama in 1901 only 9 810 were left in 1911 thus 50% of the Nama had fallen victims to German colonial rule.
A small group of Nama fled to
THE NAMA TRIBES
Numbering approximately 117 000,
the Nama consist of twelve Nama
tribes or groups:
!Kharkoen (Simon Kooper)
/Hôaaran//Aixalles (Afrikaner)
=Aonin (Topnaar)
Kai//Khaun (Rooinasie)
/Hai/Khau-an (Berseba tribe)
Orlams (Vaalgras)
//Haboben/Kharloan (Velskoendraers)
//Khau/gôn
(Swartbooi)
!Gami=nun (Bondelswarts)
/Konesen (Witbooi)
//Okain (Groot Doders)
Kai/Khau-an (Lamberts)
THE NAMA PERSON
The Nama have
much in common with the San, sharing their linguistic roots and to some extent
their features. Certain distinctive characteristics, such as the small
physique, the women’s small and slender hands and feet, the yellowish skin tone
and the big, friendly smiles make the Nama easily distinguishable.
The face of
the old Nama lady shows the true heart of the Nama culture.
DWELLINGS
Formerly the
portable mat-house was an essential part of Nama
material culture, and it remains a powerful focus of social identity among some
reserve-dwellers in Bushmanland and Namaqualand.
The portable mat-house ("/haru-oms") of the
Nama, one of several groups of Khoikhoi herders, is a unique form of vernacular architecture in southern
Structurally the mat-house is a
semi-permanent shelter - a tent that is almost a house. Its portable structure
could be put up or taken down quickly, and was ideally suited for a nomadic way
of life. The components of the mat-house, a framework of light poles and a
covering of sedge mats, could be loaded easily with other possessions on the
backs of pack-oxen and transported across the semi-
The
dome structure of the traditional Nama hut.
desert plains and mountains of Little and
Great Namaqualand. This enhanced the mobility of the Nama herdsmen and enabled them to travel great distances
when following the seasonally available grazing for their cattle and sheep and
also lessened their dependence on the watering places frequented by Khoisan
hunter-gatherers.
Historians and ethnographers have commented on the advantageous design features
of the mat-house. The aerodynamic dome shape enclosed maximum volume with a
minimum of surface area. The taut framework of thorn tree poles bound together
with plant-fibre string needed no other support. The circular plan and upward
curving roof gave the interior a spacious feeling although the actual space
inside was restricted. The sedge mats fastened over the framework in a
particular pattern regulated atmospheric conditions within. In dry weather air
could pass through the mats to cool the interior, but when it rained the sedge
expanded to provide a water-tight roof. Two mat doors at the front and back
could be rolled up to increase ventilation and augment the diffuse light that
filtered through the mat walls.
The
manufacture of the mats for a new house was a time-consuming task undertaken by
women, but once the mat-house was in use maintenance was minimal and components
could be repaired or replaced easily.
A typical Nama “mat-huis”
The mat-house as such is now very rare, though variants utilising hessian,
plastic and corrugated iron can still be seen side by side with European-style
houses in parts of Bushmanland, Namaqualand and Riemvasmaak.
When household
mobility was no longer required by people who had been settled in
missionary-controlled peasant communities
like
The
modern hut, which replaced the traditional “mat-huis”.
Materials supplied
by traders became imperative after the loss of land had made it difficult to
obtain sufficient sedge for mats. However, the dome shape of the mat-house has
been retained, even where metal rods have replaced the wooden poles.
Though the
classic mat-house has now become a thing of the past, many inhabitants of the
reserves in Namaqualand still regard it as an important part of
their cultural heritage.
LANGUAGE
Language: Nama (also called Hottentot) people speak a language that is unrelated to any other African
language. The Khoisan language that is spoken is often
referred to as a “click language” because many of the words are expressed with
unusual clicking sounds.
This language is shared with the Bushmen. The written language is characterised by the
use of many unusual symbols e.g. //, =, â,!!, * etc. each
representing a different click or hissing sound.
There are
thousands of people still speaking the tongue which they call KHOEKHOEGOWAP”,
popularly known as “NAMA”, but there is an intense social,
political and economic pressure on people to speak other languages.
Bilingualism became a symbol of progress and prosperity. The parents, out of shame or a feeling that
the mother tongue no longer serves a useful function, stop transmitting it to
their children. Because of the shame for their mother tongue, the whole Nama culture is going downhill.
“The
Northern Cape
Nama speakers in South Africa
of the official
language policy of the Northern Cape
- Mr Eric
Martin
Director: Curriculum
Northern Cape
Department of Education
CLOTHING
Nama women dress in a Victorian era
traditional fashion. In the heat of the
African sun,
women don long, flowing Victorian gowns and large headdresses or “kappies”
The style of
dress was introduced by missionaries in the 1800’s and their influence is still
a part of the Nama culture today.
A Nama lady in her
traditional Nama outfit.
Nama people in
their traditional clothes doing the entertaining Nama-stap.
LAND
Like the Bushmen, the Hottentots have a
hunter-gatherer economy and they consider land as traditional, communal
property. Most Nama people work on commercial farms
or are traditional stock farmers. The concept of communal land ownership still
prevails with all tribes, except for the: Aonin
or Topnaars of the Kuiseb,
whose ‘nara’
A Nama herdsman with
a flock of goat.
|
A Nama herdsman with
a flock of goat. |
FOOD
mahango
are
typically eaten with goat, lamb or beef stew.
event. Endemic to the
desert, some say that the !nara made human existence possible in the desert regions. The Nama subsist mainly from milk products such as curds and
butter. The leftover European cuisine is mostly German, and big on boerewors, a huge 'farmers sausage'. Pastries, breads, cakes, fruit and cold cuts
are also derived from the Germans. Traditional brews include mataku (watermelon wine) and walende, a distilled-palm spirit that tastes like vodka.
MUSIC & DANCES
Nama have a natural talent for music, poetry and prose. An example of a
traditional dance is the well-known Nama
“stap”. Numerous proverbs, riddles, tales and poems have been
handed down orally from generation to generation. Nama
praise poems range from impromptu love songs and formalized praise of heroic
figures, to songs of the animals and plants in their environment. Their music emulated the sounds made by
animals and was played to accompany dances and storytelling. The early Nama used drums, flutes and stringed instruments; and the
later arriving people added marimbas, gourd rattles and animal horn trumpets.
Missionaries established local religious choral groups.
CRAFTS
2. THE ROLE OF
LOCAL INHABITANTS AND THE LOCAL
AUTHORITY IN ESTABISHING TOURISM AT
2.1 “Ouma Toekoes” of the Nama Overnight Huts.
Ouma Toekoes in front
of her Nama hut ‘honeymoon suite’.
She is presently developing a traditional Nama
hut without the modern amenities. In
this hut, tourists will have to make do with a leathery animal skin on the
floor, “meelsak” pillows and a number
of soft sheep skin covers.
A
little Nama boy at the entrance of Ouma Toekoes’ Kultuur Koffie
Kroeg.
She entertains visitors in her extraordinary Coffee Shop, called the “Kultuur Koffiekroeg”
(translated: Culture Coffee Bar). Here she serves home-brewed coffee, soft
drinks, traditional Nama drinks and a number of
traditional sweet treats. She is a delightful, friendly people’s person who
welcomes tourists with open arms and a warm heart.
2.2 Sister Theresa-Henriëtte of the Roman Catholic Cathedral.
In 1895, two French Missionaries, Father Simon and Father Wolf built a Roman
Catholic Cathedral which took them seven years to complete with only the aid of
an encyclopaedia. Services are still
conducted daily in the Cathedral by an American bishop, Father Harvey, assisted
by Sister Theresa-Henriëtte and two other nuns.
She is energetic, interesting and
perhaps a little eccentric, but has a passion for local history.
2.3 Linda van Wyk and
Linda van Wyk,
tourism officer.
2.4 Khaki and Glenda Goosen
at Klein
THE DEVELOPED VS THE
UNDER-DEVELOPED
Less than 30km west of
Klein Pella is a popular, fully
developed tourist destination managed by Khaki and Glenda Goosen.
The
entrance to Klein The Guest
House as seen from the swimming pool.
The spacious Guest House consists of
7 tastefully decorated bedrooms (some en-suite), two dining rooms, a T.V.
lounge, conference room, a sparkling pool, shaded parking and a covered braai area.
Glenda arranges guided tours to the
nearby date processing plant where tourist can experience the
picking, packing and processing of dates also known as “sweets of the desert”.
Klein
When interviewed, both Khaki and
Glenda 
expressed their concern about tourism
development at 
to reach out and assist the people of
An example of the questionnaire used
by the case writers to test tourist trends at
DUINEVELD HIGH SCHOOL
UPINGTON
RESEARCH PERIOD 30 APRIL 2002 – 18 JUNE 2002
DEAR VISITOR
WE WOULD LIKE TO GIVE YOU A PACKET OF ORIGINAL PELLA
Please give us 5 minutes of your time to assist us with our research
project.
TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF
1. Where do you come
from? (name of
town/city/province/country)
…………………………………………………………………………….
2. What is the purpose of
this trip? (Holiday/business etc.)
…………………………………………………………………………….
3. How many people in your
party?
…………………………………………………………………………….
4. Number of adults?
…………. Number of children under 18? ………
5. How long do you plan to
be away from home?
……………………………………………………………………………..
TELL US ABOUT YOUR VISIT TO PELLA
1. Is this your first visit
to
…………………………………………………………………………….
2. Where did you hear about
……………………………………………………………………………..
3. What did you enjoy most
about
Scenery Nama dances The History The Cathedral
Museum Kultuur Koffie Kroeg Nama huts
Date plantations
The Nama People The Three Crosses The Mill The 4x4 route
4. If you chose to spend a
night in Pella, what type of accommodation would you
Hotel Camping/Caravaning Chalets Nama
Huts
5. How would you describe
the attitude of the people of
Very hospitable and friendly Hospitable Indifferent Hostile
6. How would you rate the
facilities at
Very
good Good
Average Poor Very Poor
7. Would you return to
8. Would you like to make
any suggestions regarding tourism to
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
Enjoy the rest of your journey.
The following results were derived from the questionnaires.
TRAVEL & TOURISM SCHOOLS COMPETITION
This survey was
conducted between A total of 48 adults and
11 children were interviewed. Survey Topics 1.
WHERE DO THE TOURISTS WHO VISIT 2.
WHO ARE THE PEOPLE
WHO VISIT 3.
WHAT DO TOURISTS
PREFER TO SEE/EXPERIENCE AT 4.
DURING WHICH MONTHS
DO TOURISTS VISIT 5.
WHAT TYPE OF ACCOMMODATION
DO TOURISTS PREFER AT 6.
HOW MUCH MONEY DOES
A TOURIST SPEND IN
1.
Where do the tourists who visit
We found it surprising that so few
tourists from the
2. Who are the people who visit
Our research showed an interesting
variety of visitors to
School groups who came to
visit the date production Plant at Klein
Bus
Farmers involved in date
farming in the
Backpackers on walking trails along the
“Yuppies” who are looking for a different experience.
3. What do the tourists prefer to
see/experience at
4. During which months do tourists visit
During the June / July school
holidays, many tourists visit en route to
5. What type of accommodation do tourists
prefer at
(Especially
after they had seen the modern double bed with crisp, clean linen.)
6. How much
money do tourists spend at
Tourists arrive in
At this stage people are only
spending money on…
refreshments from the village shop or from the Coffee Shop
occasional overnight accommodation in Nama
huts
occasionally on dinner/
breakfast in the Koffiekroeg.
5.
FACTORS WHICH RESTRICT THE DEVELOPEMENT OF TOURISM AT
Most of the inhabitants of 
implement before tourism can
flourish.
Improve local people’s human relation skills -e.g. how to
address and interact with tourists.