Elusive Identities
Karoo |Xam Descendants and the Square Kilometre Array
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4603370 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J Parkington (0000-0001-6127-6826, University of Cape Town), David Morris (0000-0002-1754-8932, McGregor Museum), José Manuel De Prada-Samper (University of Cape Town, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 729-747 |
| Publication date | 2019-07-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03057070.2019.1647655 |
| OpenAlex | W2967576417 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
In 2007, in order to facilitate the building and operations of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the Astronomy Geographic Advantage Act proclaimed a large ‘astronomy reserve’ in the central Upper Karoo, a roughly rhombic space covering some 120,000 square kilometres. As it happens, this geographic reserve coincides almost exactly with a region described by |Xam prisoners of the mid 19th century as |Xam-ka! au, their homeland. We show how archival records indicate that |Xam descendants are still living in the space now reserved for astronomy and how the claims of the Kalahari communities represented in the South African San Council of having once lived in the area lack substance. We compare the |Xam and the SKA notions of landscape, describe the historic evolution from the one to the other and suggest that benefit for local communities can only be in the form of bottom-up discussions about the planning of future developments and the distribution of tangible benefits
Archaeology · Astronomy · Geography · Homeland · Kilometer · Physics · Political science · Politics · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Computer Science · Law
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,14 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2025 (7) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |