Eco-critical Entanglements: San Pottery, Genocide, Historical Archaeology, and Indigenous Knowledge

This chapter explores the oeuvre of the |xam (bushman) potter, Ssuobba-||kèn, a victim of the genocide against this first nation, that lasted from proximately 1700 and 1890 in the north west Cape region of South Africa and current day Namibia. The author critically examines two key conflicting historical texts concerning Ssuobba-||kèn and proposes a re-evaluation of her work.
The initial text, entitled The Making of Clay Pots, found in the anthology ‘Specimens of Bushman Folklore’ (1911), presents a poetic narrative of Ssuobba-||kèn’s pottery practice, and is recounted by her husband, |Han≠kass’o, and transcribed by the anthropologists Lucy Lloyd and Wilhelm Bleek. The author engages with gendered and cultural nuances underpinning the Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) associated with |xam pottery production recounted in in ‘Specimens of Bushman Folklore’. The second historical key reference source examined is a journal article by the maverick Scottish amateur anthropologist and Medical Health Officer, Percival Ward Laidler on ‘Hottentot and Bushman Pottery of South Africa’ (1929). This article discredited the initial and ultimately resulted in the ‘disappearance’ of Ssuobba-||kèn and her female potter ancestors, Khőe-an and |Xu-an, from ‘official’ narratives of Southern African art and craft history. The author exposes Laidler’s shoddy research and the racism that informed his claims.
The significance of Ssuobba-||kèn’s oeuvre is reclaimed via these new insights into Laidler’s scholarship. This chapter reclaims the matrilineal skill and the to date unrecognised indigenous knowledge of three generations of nineteenth century |xam women.