Book Review

Pippa Skotnes, Claim to the country: the archive of Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd.

Abstract

This is a book about empathy. It is a major achievement in terms of collaborative and research talents as well as being a brilliant and sensitive book design. In its focus and content, it vindicates the controversy garnered by Skotnes in her Miscast: negotiating the presence of the Bushmen, an installation and publication dating from 1996. This book focuses not so much on an interpretation of San beliefs or lifestyle, but rather on giving recognition to the research priorities of two very important and perhaps often overlooked figures. Wilhelm Bleek (1827-1875) and his sister-in-law Lucy Lloyd (1834- 1914) dedicated years of their lives to documenting and preserving San culture – from its languages to its mythology, philosophies, religion and histories. They did so not by ‘external’ academic research, but by conducting ‘internal’ fieldwork, housing displaced San individuals and gradually gaining insight into their language and culture. In Claim to the country, Skotnes proverbially looks over Lloyd’s shoulder and into the material she amassed. She does not do it singledhandedly, but with the scholarly back up of several wellknown practitioners in the related fields that manifest empathy for San culture.