2011 marked the centenary of the publication of Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd’s publication, Specimens of Bushman Folklore, a unique and globally important record of the language and poetry of a now-extinct language, that of the |xam Bushmen. To mark this anniversary, an edited volume is being published, named after //Kabbo, a prisoner released from the Breakwater Convict Station. The year 2011 marked the centenary of the publication of Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd’s publication, Specimens of Bushman Folklore, a unique and globally important record of the language and poetry of a now-extinct language, that of the |xam Bushmen. To mark this anniversary, an edited volume is being published, named after //Kabbo, a prisoner released from the Breakwater Convict Station, who remained in Cape Town far from home and family and sacrificed the freedom of his final years to teach Bleek and Lloyd his language and make his stories known by way of books. The stories in the Bleek and Lloyd archive are now all that remains of the world view of the |xam.

This book brings together a range of experts from a wide array of disciplines but all with a common theme, the Bleek and Lloyd archive, its progenitors and its legacy. It engages with issues of archival research and publication, with the difficulties of understanding oral literature through writing and with the active curation of archives. It comments on the past and present treatment of Bushmen and attempts to keep their culture alive, and it explores the world view of different groups of Bushmen through rock art, the paintings done for Bleek and Lloyd, their poetry and their language.

Recommended for: Academics and students in the fields of ethnography, anthropology, archaeology, rock art, linguistics, historical studies, literary studies, curatorship.