Traces and Tracks is the culmination of a thirty-year journey that
photographer Paul Weinberg has undertaken with the San of southern
Africa, with his first visit to these communities being in 1984. He
had previously studied the San at university and was aware of their
special relationship with nature, survival skills and their
hunter-gatherer existence. Celebrated filmmaker, John Marshall, was
Weinberg’s first guide to the San, but nothing could have prepared
him for what he was about to see. Many of the San men in Eastern
Bushmanland, like in other parts of Namibia and even Angola, had
been recruited into the South African army to fight against SWAPO,
who at the time were engaged with others in a struggle for
independence and liberation. In this first encounter, he witnessed
signs of a society under severe pressure, grappling to hold on to
their land, way of life, culture and values. The conversion of a
people’s way of life that was dependent on the land into cash wages
from the South African army presented sad and traumatic scenes.
People would in a day or two after being paid blow up their wages
on alcohol and often inappropriate consumer goods because of a lack
of understanding of the value of modern money. The San, from the
perspective of the protected environment of the academy and their
reality, as he had observed, were drastically out of sync. It
begged questions and answers and set him on this journey. For the
next three decades he travelled to communities in Namibia, Botswana
and South Africa to document the lives of the modern San and share
their stories. In 2013 and 2014, with the support of !Khwa ttu, he
embarked on trips to communities that he previously visited, and
reconnected with many people whom he had known before and
acquainted himself with new voices from these landscapes. He
recorded over 20 video interviews with the title, ‘San Voices’,
along with many photographs, which all formed part of the
exhibition ‘Traces and Tracks’. He also ran workshops for young
emergent San storytellers, whose insights and perspectives are also
included in the book and exhibition. While today there are an
estimated 113 000 San who live in southern Africa, predominately in
Namibia, Botswana and to a lesser extent in South Africa, their
one-time harmonic relationship with nature and the environment has
been under serious threat ever since they interacted with other
settlers. In the last 70 years or so, these communities have
struggled hard to hang on to their way of life and land. As
Weinberg notes, ‘My collective journeys that began in the last
quarter of the 20th century and continued into the 21st, have been
to understand and document the conundrum between these peace-loving
communities and the challenges they face in a modern and
fast-changing world. How can they hold onto and share their
culture, heritage and skills with others who wish to dispossess
them? How can their lifestyle be accommodated into various shifting
ecologies?’ The book, published by Jacana Media, will be launched
on Wednesday, 12 April at 6pm at the Origins Centre at Wits
University, along with an exhibition of more than a hundred
photographs and two video installations. The exhibition will be on
for two months before embarking on a national and international
tour.
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