The Nama people
Namaqualand has a national park, an area of commercial farms and some communal land. Communal land not infrequently has old cars growing on it among other things.
The Nama people here living on communal land are the descendants of the rock artist hunter-gatherers who have left their signatures on the rocks over the whole of southern Africa. They were the original people of the area.
The boys here were in primary school and spoke good English; their home language is an ancient click language, Khoikhoigebab.
It was Sunday and the village had emptied by four-in-hand donkey cart to the neighbouring church.
All, that is, except for Andries and his dog Satan who showed us around his traditional house made out of Kokerboom bark pinned with wood. He did not live in it; he had a proper concrete and tin house. This was maintained for the passing tourists. Satan lives in it.
The centre building is another kind of traditional Nama hut made of bowed tree branches held bowed by placing the ends inside a low circular wall of stones sunk edge-on into the ground. This frame is then covered with woven blankets or mats.
The remains of these circles, such as this one below nearby, can be seen everywhere down this side of South Africa, including in the Namib desert and the Brandberg. The remains often date back centuries.
