Elusive Identities

Karoo |Xam Descendants and the Square Kilometre Array

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4603370
AutoresJ 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, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Volumen45
Número4
Páginas729-747
Fecha de publicación2019-07-04
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03057070.2019.1647655
OpenAlexW2967576417
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8

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