N!AI: THE STORY OF A !KUNG WOMAN

...as a resource for courses dealing with culture change, colonization, Africa, race relations, sex roles, conflict, stratification, and political economy, it [N!ai] should prove invaluable ... N!ai, with its thought-provoking message, belongs squarely to the genre of committed films and is bound to become a classic of the ethnographic film-makers' art. R. Gordon

58 minutes Colour 1980
Film-makers: John Marshall and Adrienne Linden
Anthropologist: Patricia Draper

This film is more than biography; it is the life and change of a people personified through the thread of one person's existence. N!ai was very young when John Marshall began filming the !Kung in the 1950s. Part of what makes the film so powerful is this early footage, narrated and put into context by N!ai herself.

This first part of the film is N!ai's early years, living a nomadic hunting and gathering life among the Ju/wasi group of the !Kung in North Eastern Namibia in the 1950s. She describes her knowledge of the bush, her dissatisfaction with her husband whom she married when she was eleven, and her eventual acceptance of him many years later after he had become a healer. She tells of her feelings as a girl growing breasts, and her fears of childbirth. The excellence of Marshall's photography (he studied under Weston) and the eloquence of N!ai's narration make this section of the film fascinating even for those with little anthropological interest in Africa.

In the second part of the film, N!ai describes the situation of the !Kung in 1978. They are now restricted to a government reserve much smaller than their original land. N!ai and her family are among the !Kung who live in a sedentary government camp. They exist on maize meal and earnings from tourists who come to take their pictures. Men still try to hunt, but without a nomadic lifestyle, they now need horses to find game. Officials say that hunting with horses damages wildlife and !Kung caught using horses for hunting are arrested. The only substantial cash income comes from young men who are recruited into the South African army. White army personnel say the !Kung respect them; the !Kung say they are afraid and they need the food and money.

With nothing to do, nothing to contribute, tensions mount; insecurity breeds jealousy. Because of her fame through earlier Marshall films and because of her beauty, N!ai is often paid by those wishing to take her picture. Others are jealous of her possessions, accusing her daughter of whoring with a stranger. This film is political and will provoke discussion wherever it is shown. At the end of the film, N!ai sits in front of her shack, singing, asking outsiders to leave her alone. `Death,' she sings, `is dancing me ragged.'

The film has won many prizes including the Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival, Grand Prize at the Cinéma Du Reel in Paris, and Gold Medal at the International Film and Television Fesival of NewYork. Catalogue number (16mm): 6RA109 £18.

T. Asch and P. Asch, 1986. `Images that represent Ideas: The Use of Films on the !Kung to teach Anthropology' in M. Biesele et al (eds.) The Past and Future of !Kung Ethnography: Critical Reflections and Symbolic Perspectives. Essays in Honour of Lorna Marshall. Helmut Buske, Hamburg.

M. Biesele, 1986. Review of T.A.Volkman,1982, The San in Transition. Vol. I: A Guide to "N!ai: The Story of a !Kung Woman". American Anthropologist, Vol. 88, pp. 516-17.

M. Biesele and P. Weinberg, 1990. Shaken Roots: The Bushmen of Namibia. EDA Publications, Marshalltown, South Africa.

R.J. Gordon, 1981. Review of the film. American Anthropologist, Vol. 83, pp. 740-41.

R.J. Gordon, 1984. The San in Transition. Vol. II: What Future for the Ju/Wasi of Nyae Nyae? Occasional Paper 13, Cultural Survival Inc., Cambridge, Mass.

R.B. Lee, 1979. The !Kung San: Men and Women in a Foraging Society. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

R.B. Lee, 1984 The Dobe !Kung. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.

R.B. Lee, 1985 Foragers and the State: Government Policies towards the San in Namibia and Botswana. Cultural Survival: Occasional Papers, No. 18, pp 37-46.

R.B. Lee, 1986. `The Gods must be Crazy, but the State has a Plan: Government Policy towards the San in Namibia'. Canadian Journal of African Studies, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 181-90.

R.B. Lee and S. Hurlich, 1982. `From Foragers to Fighters: The Militarization of the !Kung San'. In E. Leacock and R.B. Lee (eds.) Politics and History in Band Societies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

J. Marshall and C. Ritchie, 1984. `Death Blow to the Bushmen' and `Update on the Bushmen'. Cultural Survival Quarterly, No. 13, pp. 13-17.

J. Marshall and C. Ritchie, 1984. Where are the Ju/Wasi of Nyae Nyae? Changes in Bushmen Society 1958-1981. Communications No. 9, Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town.

L. Marshall, 1976. The !Kung of Nyae Nyae. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

J.K. O'Donnell, 1980. Review of the film. RAIN, No. 41, pp. 7-9.

M. Shostak, 1982. Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman. Allen Lane, London.