The music of the Khoisan-speaking people of southern Africa, a semi-nomadic people with a tradition of hunting and gathering. They were historically referred to as ‘Bushmen’, a name that many still prefer. To avoid negative connotations associated with this term, the Nama name ‘San’ has also been used, though this is now considered by some to be even more derogatory. The primary social unit of the people is a band usually consisting of between 20 and 50 members related either by blood or by marriage. They have no leaders or formal legal institutions, and their mode of social organization is among the most simple and egalitarian known.
The most common musical instrument used by the Bushmen is the (goma g!oma) or (nao n!ao) mouth-resonated musical bow, which is usually a hunting bow: the string is stopped by the left hand while the right hand strikes the string with a small stick. Another instrument, the mbira (see Lamellophone), is gaining popularity, having been adopted by the Bushmen from Bantu-speaking neighbours.
The heart of Bushman music, however, is singing. The vocal music is usually polyphonic and polyrhythmic, characterized by a kind of yodelling and using a high tonal centre, and the voices are supported by complex hand-clapping, sometimes supplemented by one or two drums. The songs, sung by choirs of women and girls, accompany dances performed mainly by men and are given titles such as The Giraffe, The Elephant, The Kudu etc. These dances are at the core of Khoisan religious life and are frequently used for trance therapy.
I. Schapera: The Khoisan Peoples of South Africa: Bushmen and Hottentots (London, 1930)
P.R. Kirby: ‘A Study of Bushman Music’, Bantu Studies, x (1936), 205–52
P.R. Kirby: ‘The Musical Practices of the /?auni and # khomani Bushmen’, Bantu Studies, x (1936), 373–431
P.R. Kirby: ‘Physical Phenomena which Appear to have Determined the Basis and Development of a Harmonic Sense among Bushmen, Hottentot and Bantu’, AfM, ii/4 (1961), 6–9
N. England: ‘The Organisation of Rhythm in Kxo Music’, Papers Read at the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society: Seattle 1963, 28
N.M. England: ‘Bushman Counterpoint’, JIFMC, xix (1967), 58–66
L. Marshall: ‘The Medicine Dance of the Kung Bushmen’, Africa, xxxix (1969), 347–81
G. Kubik: Música tradicional e aculturada dos Kung! de Angola uma introdução ao instrumentário, estrutura e técnicas de execução da música dos Kung!, incidindo em especial nos factores psicologico-sociais da actual mudança na cultura dos povos Khoisan (Lisboa, 1970)
D. Rycroft: ‘Comments on Bushmen and Hottentot Music Recorded by E.O.J. Westphal’, Review of Ethnology, v/2–3 (1978), 16–23
N.M. England: Music among the Žũ/wã-si and Related Peoples of Namibia, Botswana, and Angola (New York, 1995)
Bushman Music and Pygmy Music, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Harvard LD-9 (1954/R1983) [incl. notes by Y. Grimaud and G. Rouget]
Africa South of the Sahara, coll. H. Courlander, Smithsonian Folkways FE 4503 (1957/R1992) [incl. notes by A.P. Merriam]
The Music of !Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, Africa, Smithsonian Folkways FE 4487 (1962) [incl. notes by J. Phillipson]
Traditional Music of Botswana, Africa, Smithsonian Folkways FE 4371 (1993) [rec. 1975–8]
ROGER L. HEWITT