Khoi Culture In South African Americans

The Khoekhoe language was spoken by the khoi natives when the Europeans arrived at the Cape at the end of the 15th century. The Khoi clan lived around the Cape of Good Hope and along a central from south western and western coast when the first Europeans settlers arrived in Southern Africa. The Khoekhoe languages were popular for their clicks which had a great influence on other Khoisan languages. The borrowing of words of the Khoekhoe languages also show that the khoi have been in contact with other Khoisan family groups. Some clicks form words in the Bantu languages such as Zulu and Xhosa are also used in the Khoekhoe language because the Bantu groups associated themselves with a group of Khoi inhabitants for water for their herds and crop …show more content…
Some of the Khoi inhabitants moved away from their lands to remain independent while others stayed and worked on the Dutch settler’s farms and learned to speak, read and write in Dutch language. The estimated totality of the Khoi population in the mid-seventeenth century was less than 50 000 inhabitants. The reason for the decrease in number was caused by the breakout of the small pox epidemic disease which spread amongst the khoi inhabitants through intermarriage with other inhabitants and through integration into the settler’s civilization. From the great overall dialect explosion and diversity of the Khoefamily we can come to the conclusion that the Khoekhoe language is the oldest language in Southern Africa. The arrival of the European settlers which resulted in a rapid decline of the independent Khoekhoe habitants also results in the short coming of Khoekhoe oral traditions. The Khoi inhabitants were large in number and they had many cattle and sheep. They only used their cattle for milk and slaughter it for ritual customs. The Khoi inhabitant used the skin of animals to produce their own clothing and mats which they used to rest on and cover their houses. They also made spears with iron tips which they have obtained from the Bantu …show more content…
All adult Khoi people were acquired with fundamental knowledge of plants and knew which plant to use for each sickness. This indigenous knowledge of the Khoi people is still being used today. When those of the Khoi inhabitants died of unnatural causes, they believed that evil beings had punished them because they did not hold a certain ritual ceremonies. They were buried soon after dead and they did not have a good understanding about what would happen afterlife. The khoi population had been pushed away from their location by the crop farmers, the Bantu speaking people whom they have joined themselves