THE SOUTH-WEST PROTECTORATE AND ITS 

 NATIVE POrULATION. 



By Rev. Professor W. A. Norton. M.A., B.Litt. 

 Read July lo, 1919. 



On a journey to the Protectorate. 1 interested myself at the 

 stations by asking the natives present to what nation and tribe 

 they belonged, somewhat to the puzzlement of my fellow- 

 passengers, and also sometimes to that of the subject, who 

 seemed inclined to ask, like Raphael of Tobias, why I wanted a 

 tribe and a family rather than a mere " boy " for some mundane 

 service. However, I got from them, puzzled or not, the data for a 

 table* of ethnographic distribution of our natives and those of the 

 South-West. The outstanding facts about this are the following: 

 The overflow of Colony Kaffirs (to use the Colonial term) into 

 the Protectorate — a continuation of their immigration into the 

 North-West districts of Cape Colony, which Cust notes bv certain 

 green spots on his 1883 language map ; and the overflow of 

 Ovambo from the Portuguese border as far as W'alvis Bay, or 

 even further south, also in search of work ; finally, the ubiquity 

 of the Klip-Kaffir (as the Berg-Damara are commonly called), 

 and the surprising contrast between them and their old masters the 

 Hottentots, whose language they speak. Their origin constitutes 

 one of the problems of the land. They have no recollection or 

 tradition apparently of any speech of their own, and yet, robust, 

 cheerful, friendly, and black, they are ethnographically as dis- 

 tinct as possible from the slight and yellow Hottentot. Opinion 

 tends to regard them as aboriginal, in possession when the 

 Hottentot arrived, early (shall we say?) in the second Millennium 

 after Christ : it is impossible to be more exact. All we know is 

 that this interesting people — the Hottentots, not the Kiii^-Kaffirs 

 — were at the Cape at the end of the 15th century to meet the 

 Portuguese discoverers. The Nama Hottentots call themselves 

 the Khoi-Khoin (Men of Men), but name the Klip-Kaffirs the 

 Hau-Khoin, the dirty men, a particularly ofifensivo term These 

 are also called Berg-Damara, to distingttish them from the 

 Hereros, who are the Cattle-Damara. Roth these dark jjeoples, 

 though quite unconnected, except that the Herero also held the 

 Kaffir in subjection, were Dama (ra is a termination), in con- 

 trast to the Hottentot Nama, who again are distinguished from 

 other Hottentots; the Korana, those of the Eastern Province, and 

 the now extinct Hottentots of the Cape, with the somewhat 

 mixed Griquas. The contrast between the pure Hottentot and 

 the bastard settlers (at Rehoboth and elsewhere, about 1870) 



* See Appendix II. 



