“I Have Already Seen in the Clouds”: The Nature of the Water-Creature Among the |xam Bushmen and Their Modern Descendants

Abstract

The 19th |xam Bushmen of the Upper Karoo, South Africa, told stories about a protean being called !khwa: ("water"), one of whose many shapes was that of a bovine they called "the water bull", which ritual specialists captured in order to cause rain over the land. This water-creature has been variously interpreted by scholars as a metaphor, a symbol of the dangers of water or a death-wielding divinity. This article seeks to demonstrate that for the |xam and their contemporary descendants the water-creature was, and still is, water itself, considered to be a living being when present in large concentrations, such as dams, rivers or permanent waterholes, or certain accumulations of clouds. Because of this the water-creature is a tangible entity connected with a vital substance, but whose dealings with human beings are always fraught with danger.

Water, justice, and wellbeing in the Kamiesberg, Namaqualand: Reflecting on local histories in the context of the Anthropocene

“…Throughout the region, these snakes, often associated with particular bodies of water, are potent, often tricky centers of awareness, constantly moving and shifting between animal, water, and human forms. Attentive to human action, as humans must be to theirs, improper behavior might encourage them to withhold the rain, or to abandon a well or spring, causing it to dry out (de Prada‐Samper, 2018; Hoff, 1997).…”

“…Archeological, historical, and ethnographic literatures strongly suggest that in Namaqualand, and across much of south-western Southern Africa, people have long conceived of water not as an inert thing or substance but as sentient, agentive, and alive. From the southern coast, and at least as far north as Namibia and Botswana, this sentience has often taken on concrete presence in the form of various animal-like beings (de Prada-Samper, 2018;Hahn, 1881;Hoff, 1997Hoff, , 1998Hoff, , 2007Hoff, , 2011Lewis-Williams, 1981Low, 2012;Schmidt, 1979Schmidt, , 2018Skotnes, 1996Skotnes, , 2005Skotnes, , 2007Siegel, 2008;Solomon, 2019;Sullivan & Low, 2014;Woodhouse, 1992). Stories of powerful water snakes are common in accounts across the whole region at least from the 19th century to the present day (de Prada-Samper, 2018;Hoff, 1997, Sullivan & Low, 2014.…”

“…From the southern coast, and at least as far north as Namibia and Botswana, this sentience has often taken on concrete presence in the form of various animal-like beings (de Prada-Samper, 2018;Hahn, 1881;Hoff, 1997Hoff, , 1998Hoff, , 2007Hoff, , 2011Lewis-Williams, 1981Low, 2012;Schmidt, 1979Schmidt, , 2018Skotnes, 1996Skotnes, , 2005Skotnes, , 2007Siegel, 2008;Solomon, 2019;Sullivan & Low, 2014;Woodhouse, 1992). Stories of powerful water snakes are common in accounts across the whole region at least from the 19th century to the present day (de Prada-Samper, 2018;Hoff, 1997, Sullivan & Low, 2014. Throughout the region, these snakes, often associated with particular bodies of water, are potent, often tricky centers of awareness, constantly moving and shifting between animal, water, and human forms.…”