Capturing the past : the Khoisan in films and museums exhibitions

Abstract

This thesis analyses the representation of the Khoisan in two very distinct visual media, film and formally curated exhibitions in the mid to late 20th century. Films and museum exhibitions are read in relation to the dominant tropes of the Indigenous Peoples of South Africa such as the myths of the ‘noble savage’ and the ‘children of nature’. The visual media analysed in this research include four films and two exhibitions. The films are as follows, two documentary films produced by John Marshall The Hunters (1957) and N!ai the Story of a !Kung woman (1980). The Hunters supports the trope of the ‘noble savage’ through its romanticising of hunting, while N!ai the Story of a !Kung Woman counters the common tropes defining the Khoisan in their contemporary context of dispossession. The two remaining films, The Gods must be Crazy (1980), and The Gods must be Crazy 2 (1989), written and directed by Jamie Uys perpetuate the trope of the primitive, timeless ‘bushmen’. These two fictional films discuss themes of modern civilisation versus nature and define the Khoisan as part of the natural world unsuited for modern civilisation. The exhibitions analysed here are Bushman Diorama (1959-2001), displayed at the South African Museum and Miscast: Negotiating the Presence of Bushmen (1996) curated by Pippa Skotnes. The diorama presents life-casts of ‘bushmen’ figures in a traditional scene, perpetuating the idea of ‘primitive affluence’. In contrast Miscast: Negotiating the Presence of Bushmen critiques the stereotypical representation of the Khoisan through an examination of the encounters between them and Europeans. These visual media are analysed and discussed as visual texts focusing on their modes of representation and the meanings generated by these representations.