2002
344 pp.
5 maps, 19 b/w photos, 1 folded table (genealogical chart), 5 tables, index of authors and place names
Text language: English
This book focuses on seven historiographical texts in local Bantu languages on the immigration and settlement of five ethnic groups (Gciriku, Shambyu, Mbunza, Kwangali, Tjaube), who still live or formerly lived in the valley of the middle Kavango (Namibia / Angola). Some of the texts are chronicles that were passed down from generation to generation. Others were recently conceived by individual authors.
All texts were either dictated to mediators or the editors or, right from the beginning, were written down by the authors for local school purposes. The editors of the present volume translated every text sentence by sentence into English and provided it with a critical apparatus. Furthermore, they added to each text a short description on the country an its people, on the history of the text production and a presentation of its author. Five maps, 19 photos in black and white and six tables with the names of the acting persons and showing their relations are meant to serve the readability of the book as well as the extensive index on persons and subjects at its end.
Under these links you will find publications of the authors and further studies of the languages, history and cultures of the Kavango region / Namibia:
