THE MASARWAS AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 



By Rev. S. S. Dornan, M.A., F.G.S. 



I. The People. 



The people called Alasarwas by the Bechuana, for amongst 

 themselves they are called Hiechvvare, or people of the country, 

 inhabit the Bechuanaland Protectorate, the Kalahari, and the por- 

 tions of Southern Rhodesia bordering on those countries. Liv- 

 ingstone, in the fifties of last century, found them in the northern 

 and western parts of the Protectorate, and remarked upon their 

 large physical proportions, quite a contrast to the other Bushmen 

 of the Kalahari and Bechuanaland. The same remark was made 

 by Mackenzie some 3-ears later, who also remarks upon the 

 change in tlieir colour from that of the ordinary Bushmen. 

 The Bechuanas called, in the time of these two travellers, all' 

 Bushmen Alasarwas indiscriminately, distinguishing, however, 

 'between them and the Bakalahari, who are degraded Bechuanas, 

 and yet live under much the same conditions. This applies at 

 the present time, as the writer heard Bechuanas apply the term 

 Masarwas to other Fkishmen, always in a tone of the greatest 

 contempt. " The Bushmen are snakes," " The Bushmen are in- 

 veterate thieves," are quite common expressions amongst the 

 Bechuanas, and tliey simply cannot understand why anyone 

 should take the least interest in such vermin, or see anything to 

 admire about them. For a long time I could get very little in- 

 formation about the people. What little 1 got w^as mainly de- 

 rived from two Bechuanas, who had been cattle herds in their 

 youth, as everyone is amongst the Bantu tribes, and had spent a 

 considerable time with the Masarwas, and had thus acquired 

 th^ir language. Eventually I overcame the reluctance of the 

 Bechuana masters, and was allowed free access to the Masarwas. 



An interesting question at this stage is : What is the meaning 

 and origin pf the name Masarwa? Amongst the Basuto the 

 Bushmen are called Barwa, a name which may mean " men of the 

 south," from " borwa," meaning the south, or what pertains to 

 a Bushman. No other term is applied to them so far as I know. 

 Amongst the Kafirs and Zulus this word assumes, according to 

 the law of consonantal change in Bantu, the form Abatwa, a 

 name of very widespread occurrence amongst the various dialects. 

 That this is no recent designation of the Bushmen by others is 

 proved from the fact of its occurrence on an old map of South 

 Africa, the region round Delagoa Bay and northwards being so 

 named. It has been suggested by a friend of mine that Masarwa 

 is really a pluralised form of Serwa, which is the designation 

 for the language of the Barwa, and that this occurred through 

 some misunderstanding or misinterpretation. It would then 

 mean the people who speak Serwa. If such is the case, it is 

 certainly a new development in Bantu, and thus the term 

 Sesarwa, or the language of the Masarwas, is a word with a re- 



