Located a mere hour's drive from Cape Town, !Khwa ttu San Culture and Education Centre is the only San owned and operated heritage centre in the Western Cape. Offering a remarkable cultural destination it will appeal to diverse groups of local visitors, international tourists, businesses and scholars. !Khwa ttu is a joint venture between the San, represented by Wimsa (Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa) and the Ubuntu Foundation, a Swiss humanitarian initiative dedicated to the development of San peoples in Southern Africa.

The San or Bushmen peoples of Southern Africa have suffered a cruel fate over the centuries: from an estimated 150 000 to 300 000 hunter-gatherers in pre-colonial times, tens of thousands perished from hunger and disease as they were chased off their land, as game was replaced by sheep and cattle and as they were savagely persecuted by European settlers. Men were shot on sight or imprisoned; women and children were taken into a life of forced labour on farms.

While these original inhabitants or first peoples of Southern Africa were forced away from their lands and means of subsistence, they also lost many of their skills and virtually stopped an age-old tradition of painting on rocks. Forced to speak the languages of their conquerors, their own idioms vanished into oblivion, together with a rich heritage of songs, myths, dances and medicinal skills. In an ironic twist of history however, the Bushmen became the most written about and researched group in modern anthropology. For obvious reasons, most of this research is totally out of reach and of no benefit to the contemporary San people, who struggle with poverty, malnutrition and discrimination.

Wimsa is a regional San-owned organisation that works on behalf of its members in order to safeguard their cultural survival in Southern Africa. In 1997 Wimsa, with the assistance of Sasi (South African San Institute), started looking for a tourism and training project with a focus on education. Their search was realised in 1999, when Irene Staehelin, a Swiss anthropologist, bought the present site, which she donated along with the renovations. In honour of the San who originally inhabited the Western Cape area, the Wimsa General Assembly of 2001 appropriately renamed the farm !Khwa ttu, meaning water-hole in the language of the extinct /Xam people.

The mission of !Khwa ttus is not only to promote and protect the San culture and heritage but most importantly, to educate the San about business and to generate the much needed revenue to sustain a project of this magnitude. The Centre provides a location with the necessary infrastructure from where the restitution of heritage to the original owners, the San, can be developed. At the moment 20 adult San and their children live at !Khwa ttu as trainees.

!Khwa ttu is an 850ha nature reserve and is also a natural treasure trove with a wealth of flora and fauna. In addition it boasts majestic views over the Atlantic ocean and of Table Mountain. Targeted to be fully operational by September, existing farm buildings have been renovated to accommodate the training rooms, a 60-seater restaurant, a gallery with historical and contemporary San photographs, a shop that sells top-quality Bushman crafts, arts and books and full conference facilities.

It offers a range of options for visitors. They can order a pre-booked picnic to enjoy at the hill-top boma. The San will conduct guided tours along walking trails for an hour or two, to demonstrate how they track game as well as show the beauty of the local flora and bird life. For those who prefer not to walk, a tractor-driven wagon will transport them into the reserves best spots. Visitors stand a good chance of seeing the wealth of game on the reserve - herds of eland, bontebok, springbok and zebra. Two qualified San trackers will accompany the groups, speaking in one of the three San languages presently spoken at !Khwa ttu, as well as English and Afrikaans.

!Khwa ttu is just off the West Coast Road (R27), shortly before the Yzerfontein intersection. Visit the centre (by appointment only until September) to learn more about the San, in an tranquil and unspoilt setting.

Source: IOL

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Things to do around Cape Town: Cultural Heritage

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