An Annotated Edition of the Khwe Correspondence between Ndo Tinene and Oswin Köhler 1979–1995

Translated by: Gertrud Boden. Edited by: Gertrud Boden. In collaboration with: Thaddeus Chedau, Rosna Xoe-tco Gumbo, Hendrik Mbangu. With a preface by: Rainer Voßen. With an introduction by: Gertrud Boden. Series edited by: Klaus Keuthmann, Rainer Voßen.

Series: VOKA Veröffentlichungen des Oswin-Köhler-Archivs Volume 4

3rd quarter 2024
394 pp.
2 colour photos, numerous colour and b/w facsimile reproductions, Appendix: Timeline of Köhler’s field trips and letter dates, Map 1: Places in northeastern Namibia mentioned in the letters, Map 2: Köhler’s research camp at Dikundu, Genealogical chart: Family relations of Ndo and Köhler’s other collaborators, Personal names, Ethnonyms, Place names, Khwe words or word meanings not listed in Kilian-Hatz (2003)
Text language(s): English
Format: 170 x 240 mm
790 g
Paperback
€ 49.80

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The letters presented here comprise the entire correspondence between the German Africanist Oswin Köhler (1911–1996) and his Khwe field assistant Ndo Tinene (~1957–2009) from northeastern Namibia, as far as it exists in the academic legacy of Oswin Köhler in the Oswin Köhler Archive at the Institute of African Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt. Apart from the letters themselves, the information in this introduction and in the annotations to the letters is drawn from the two contemporary Khwe witnesses, Hendrik Mbangu and Xoe-tco Rosna Gumbo, as well as from research reports and other dossiers in the academic legacy of Oswin Köhler.

In her introduction, the editor, first, presents a few details about the two correspondents and the sources for this edition, as well as about the Khwe as a group of people and the settings in which Köhler’s research took place, in order to shed some light on the background to the letters. She then continues by describing the letters, their numbers and dates, the physical characteristics and letter writing etiquette, as well as recurrent or otherwise noteworthy contents, followed by some editorial notes. The appendix presents some additional documents as well as lists of the personal names, ethnonyms and place names mentioned in the letters.

The main part of this edition are the letters themselves. The editor has tried to put them in a chronological order, although many of them have no or only in-complete dates and their contents are sometimes unspecific to a degree that they could fit almost anywhere, as they contain only greetings, questions and remarks about the well-being of the correspondents and their relatives, and discuss details of recurrent topics such as the amount of rainfall as a precondition for crop growing or Köhler’s support for his collaborators. The letters were also not found in the same order as they are presented here in the archive. Instead, some were filed together with dossiers on Köhler’s field trips or with text manuscripts in Ndo’s handwriting. The majority, however, were found in a separate file, about which the file guide states: “[t]he letters and reports were scattered over at least 10 folders; they are therefore not in a chronological order and are only superficially bundled” (Strohmeyer 2011: 112). The archivists’ interest in chronology was, thus, not necessarily a concern shared by the correspondents.

 

Under these links you will find a memorial volume on the occasion of Oswin Köhler’s 100th birthday and further ethnographical and ethnohistorical descriptions of southwest African languages and cultures:

Accompanying material:

• Die „Eingeborenen“ Deutsch-Südwestafrikas (ISBN 978-3-89645-054-8)
• Die Khoe-Sprachen (ISBN 978-3-927620-59-9)
• Ein Leben im Dienste der Afrikanistik (ISBN 978-3-89645-631-1)
• Folktales of the Kxoe in the West Caprivi (ISBN 978-3-89645-081-4)
• Kalahari and Namib Bushmen in German South West Africa (ISBN 978-3-89645-146-0)
• Khwe Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-89645-083-8)
• Language, Identity, and Conceptualization among the Khoisan (ISBN 978-3-89645-143-9)
• Namibian Languages (ISBN 978-3-89645-080-7)
• The Kalahari Ethnographies (1896–1898) of Siegfried Passarge (ISBN 978-3-89645-141-5)

Cross-reference:

• Der Caprivizipfel während der deutschen Kolonialzeit 1890–1914 (ISBN 978-3-89645-050-0)
• Die südafrikanische Militärverwaltung (1915–1920) und die frühe Mandatszeit (1920–1936) in der Kavango-Region / Namibia (ISBN 978-3-89645-360-0)
• Linguistics across Africa (ISBN 978-3-89645-510-9)
• Lone Tree – Scholarship in the Service of the Koon (ISBN 978-3-89645-227-6)
• Sprachen und Sprachzeugnisse in Afrika (ISBN 978-3-927620-95-7)
• The Complete Linguist (ISBN 978-3-927620-84-1)
• The Kavango Peoples in the Past (ISBN 978-3-89645-353-2)
• The Mbukushu in Angola (ISBN 978-3-89645-350-1)
• Trommeln in der Kirche (ISBN 978-3-89645-917-6)

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