Qani Xiite - San Culture in Botswana

Qani Xiite describes and demonstrates the San Culture - the oldest inhabitants of Botswana. Qani uses music, dance and stories to describe her life.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Qani's Quotations - Part 1

1. The story that I heard from my father, who heard it from his father, is that we San came from the west. After the great God made them, they were in a good place in the west - the name of which my father never told me. But, soon after they were created, there were wars which forced my forefathers to leave that nice place of theirs and seek other places of rest. They wandered until they found this place and eventually I was born and found I was in the Kalahari Desert.

2. Our esteem for meat is so high that we place the hunter at the center of the system of practices and observances that regulate our little societies - in which all men are hunters. A man is defines by his hunting. A male who does not hunt remains a kid and may not marry, for how can he expect to take a wife if he cannot bring meat home for his family family and parents-in-laws. Where will he get skins with which to cloth his wife and kids?

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Friday, October 13, 2006

Season's of the Kalahari

In the dry months, April to September, ostrich eggs are used to store water. From Qani's perspective, "Our short autumn, which comes in April, is the best of all the seasons. Apart from a rare vagrant shower, the heavy rains are passed, but there is still water in small pans scattered about our hunting area."

"The big rains have driven away the great heat of spring and early summer. The biting cold that lengthens winter nights has not set in."

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Monday, September 25, 2006

Qani Update



Expect more from Qani anytime soon. She has had a busy last few months peforming many a dance show, producing a 6 song CD and organizing a video shoot that should happen next week.
She tells me she is writing and hopes to start an email account so she can be directly in-touch we you. The picture is Qani on mobile safari in Moremi Game Reserve, late June. That is our winter.

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