Typographic Reification: Instantiations from the Lucy Lloyd Archive And

arts

Article Typographic Reiﬁcation: Instantiations from the Lucy Lloyd Archive and Contemporary Typefaces from Southern Africa

Kurt Campbell Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, 31 Orange Street, Cape Town 8001, South Africa; [email protected]

Received: 15 January 2019; Accepted: 31 March 2019; Published: 11 April 2019

Abstract: This paper argues that we may read the images from the Lucy Lloyd archive of ancient Khoe and San symbols, drawings and pictograms in a special way that offers an intellectual seriousness to these collaborative picture-word creations that attempted to hold certain faunal and floral knowledge and descriptions from the South African landscape on the transcriber’s page. By foregrounding moments of textual innovation as is evident in the Lloyd archive, I make a case for what that I term ‘typographic reification’. This ‘reification’ is the fulcrum of the ancient drive of the indigenous people of Southern Africa (the Khoe and the San) to offer an excess beyond the translation of their world into a Roman alphabet (the given form) by linguists that came with this aim in mind. Contemporary advances in New Media technology allow this very element of typographic reification (observed in textual and graphic elements recorded on pages of sketchbooks and notebooks from the Lloyd archive) to be offered anew to an international public through the digital typefaces of the South African designer Jan Erasmus who similarly draws his natural environment into the very fabric of his creations. The parallels visible between the innovative methods of transcription and picture-word creations of Lloyd and her Khoe and San collaborators on the one hand, and the digital creation of Erasmus on the other, serve to amplify a conceptual agility that must be celebrated in the South African social imagination as an intellectual bridge between different spaces and times that is a contribution to African philology and a critical history of the text.

Keywords: Khoe-San; scripts; reiﬁcation; text; South Africa; typography

The basic form of the Western alphabet is settled, and there can be no justiﬁcation for experimenting. —Stanley Morison(1936)

1. Introduction Stanley Morison, the recognized type designer of his age insists, as per the epigraph, that the modern letter must be nothing more than an envoy of that which dare not speak its name: a self-assured imperial system that accommodates no imagining beyond the given form of the Roman letter. This manner of thinking is not restricted to the crafting of type, but is symptomatic of an approach Western intellectual thought has on occasion taken in producing the histories of many indigenous writing systems of Africa.1 These productions are instrumentalist in nature, with no tolerance for anything beyond a speciﬁc set of taxonomic criteria not fully designed for the richness of their task.

1 For a study on the representational limit that attends certain Western paradigms of thought as relating to letters and alphabets from Africa, see (Mafundikwa 2001).

Arts 2019, 8, 51; doi:10.3390/arts8020051 www.mdpi.com/journal/arts Arts 2019, 8, 51 2 of 14

In contrast, this paper offers dynamic categorical contributions to the imbricated fields of philology and typography by foregrounding a moment of textual innovation from the past so as to make a case for an intellectual commitment to a method of practice we may observe in the present that I term ‘typographic reification’. This ‘reification’ is the fulcrum of the ancient drive of the indigenous people of Southern Africa (the Khoe and the San) to offer an excess beyond the translation of their world into a Roman alphabet (the given form) by linguists that came with this aim in mind. This excess reveals itself acutely and specifically in the notebooks (Figure1) of an anthropologist and linguist from the late 1800s—Lucy Lloyd. Her archive of documents that resulted from interviewing and transcribing words and ideas of the ancient San and Khoe people of Southern Africa discloses a rich compellation comprising images of fauna and flora that provide an understanding of the worlds of the San and the Khoe that could not be excluded from the process of translating their language and knowledge claims into a readable form. The benefit of looking at this precise point in textual history thus relates to Lloyd’s committed accommodation of the said images and her careful annotation on them, in one manner of thinking—extending the formal and intellectual possibilities of transcribing precisely because of the productivityArts 2019, 8, x FOR in maintainingPEER REVIEW the word in conjunction with the visual. 3 of 13

Figure 1. This is the front cover of a notebooknotebook in thethe Bleek–LloydBleek–Lloyd collection. Many others like it are currently preserved in the special collection section at the University of Cape Town. The sketchbooks also toto bebe found found in in this this collection collection contain contain many many drawings drawings and paintings and paintings that have that received have received less attention less attentionand will beand the will focus be ofthe this focus text. of Image this text. credit: Image Manuscripts credit: Manuscripts and Archives and Department, Archives Department, University of UniversityCape Town Librariesof Cape andTown Centre Librar fories Curating and Centre the Archive, for Curating University the ofArchive, Cape Town. University of Cape Town. Stated differently, Lloyd did not allow a suppression of the indigenous discourse of the Khoe and 2.San The drawings Lucy Lloyd of plants Archive: and insectsComposition that offered and insightProductivity to their ﬁeld and mountain homes, but instead allowed this discourse to enjoin her own written annotations to stage a new geographic narrativity that takesThe place Lucy at the Lloyd site ofarchive the transcripted that will form document—a the basis reiﬁcationof this article of sorts. is perhaps This approach more conventionally distinguishes understoodher archive inas apart particular of the Bleek–Lloyd way, as her archive. notes and Th theis dual images naming cannot refers be imaginedboth to Lucy apart Lloyd from (1834– each 1914) and Wilhelm Bleek (1827–1875), a German philologist and linguist (eventually becoming her brother-in-law) who partnered with Lloyd and worked most intensely with her in Cape Town at a shared home in the suburb of Mowbray from 1870 until his death in 1875. Despite Bleek being the formally trained scholar and scientist between the pair, Lloyd took the joint enquiry to new and exciting designations including the expansive notations on the images produced by the San and the Khoe that was not as central in the work of Bleek. Lucy Catherine Lloyd arrived in South Africa at the age of 14, originally coming from the West of England. She was introduced to the study of the San and Khoe when she came to live with her sister Dorothea Bleek (who herself contributed one notebook to the collection) and her husband Wilhelm Bleek. In terms of her professional life, Lloyd was a custodian of the Grey Collection for many years (a vast number of books donated by Governor Sir George Grey that included medieval manuscripts) and worked for the South African Library for a time. It was, however, her research with the San and the Khoe that would occupy her for most of her working life. The Bleek–Lloyd archive is not a new discovery to the academic world, with numerous monographs and journal articles2 explicating the archive itself or the methods used to bring the

Arts 2019, 8, 51 3 of 14 other and would be far the poorer for this separation. The approach I have taken in making this argument is certainly not without distinct dangers, as it relies heavily on a subjective reading of the archive from the perspective of one concerned with highly particular visual and textual ideas. It is thus important to foreground at the onset of this text that the initial compilation of the Bleek–Lloyd archive is ultimately based in 19th century methods of translation and transcription which are all that is left, for there are no speakers of these languages rendering the archive as a record of extinction. Therefore, how to assess its methods, given that there are no more active speakers, is intensely, epistemologically problematic. Faced with the option of abandoning a reading of this archive beyond the obvious or disciplinarily comfortable finally gave way to a desire to think at the limit of what conventionally falls within archival and creative remits. This study is thus of potential relevance to an international readership with an interest in early indigenous Southern African archives and graphic language, and the convergence between these two concerns. In a modern context, the echo of this intellectual moment seen in the Lloyd archive is unequivocally visible in the alternate symbols and diacritics of digital open type designs developed by Jan Erasmus and marketed by Linotype Corporation internationally. Specifically, the creation of the Thornface design by Erasmus articulate a particular understanding of geographic space reflected in the letterform by certain accommodations of floral and faunal imagery. Thus, if the Lloyd archive may be seen as an opening that offered the intellectual space for a reification of a specific place (South Africa) constituted in her notations on the images of the natural environment provided by the San and Khoe, it was Erasmus, at the dawn of the digital age, that was able to achieve typographic forms that created the reificatory conditions of the very place using startlingly similar imagery to what we may observe in the Lloyd archive. Although I am focusing on the approaches and artefacts of one designer so as to emphasize only the parallels between this designer and the archival material, the implications are both timely and emancipatory for humanities scholarship and production: Western letters are still open to intellectual scrutiny in relation to their change over time, and how they may yet proceed to move in the world even as they assure us of past intellectual moments that assist in their becoming.

2. The Lucy Lloyd Archive: Composition and Productivity The Lucy Lloyd archive that will form the basis of this article is perhaps more conventionally understood as part of the Bleek–Lloyd archive. This dual naming refers both to Lucy Lloyd (1834–1914) and Wilhelm Bleek (1827–1875), a German philologist and linguist (eventually becoming her brother-in-law) who partnered with Lloyd and worked most intensely with her in Cape Town at a shared home in the suburb of Mowbray from 1870 until his death in 1875. Despite Bleek being the formally trained scholar and scientist between the pair, Lloyd took the joint enquiry to new and exciting designations including the expansive notations on the images produced by the San and the Khoe that was not as central in the work of Bleek. Lucy Catherine Lloyd arrived in South Africa at the age of 14, originally coming from the West of England. She was introduced to the study of the San and Khoe when she came to live with her sister Dorothea Bleek (who herself contributed one notebook to the collection) and her husband Wilhelm Bleek. In terms of her professional life, Lloyd was a custodian of the Grey Collection for many years (a vast number of books donated by Governor Sir George Grey that included medieval manuscripts) and worked for the South African Library for a time. It was, however, her research with the San and the Khoe that would occupy her for most of her working life. The Bleek–Lloyd archive is not a new discovery to the academic world, with numerous monographs and journal articles2 explicating the archive itself or the methods used to bring the

2 The texts that I use to craft this article are highly concerned with the visuality of archives and what may be wrenched from the intellectual collaboration that this archive constitutes. See the monography by Bank(2006) and a compilation of expert articles edited by Skotnes(2007). Beyond these texts and their observations, this author spent much time investigating the fully digitized archive of images in the Bleek–Lloyd archive that is freely available to researchers and scholars wishing to follow their own path of reﬂection thanks to the generous support of large corporations and a multitude of institutions Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 5 of 13

Time: “The documentation about the |Xam language, life and mythology was gathered at the crucial moment of disintegration of this culture in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Studies of other hunter-gatherer societies done elsewhere were undertaken later, when those societies were already drastically transformed by colonial expansion. The collection of this data was done fairly early, so it represents a unique, authentic early glimpse into the consciousness of hunter-gatherer societies.” Place: “The Collections document a people of an under-researched area of South Africa, the arid Cape interior. This is one of the richest sources of information on this region that we have. However, it transcends this local significance in that it sheds light on all hunter- gatherer societies, not only in South Africa, but in the rest of the world.” People: “The San peoples were responsible for some of the world’s finest rock art, but otherwise had a very simple material culture. The culture collapsed owing to the intrusion of the new inhabitants who brought with them diseases and undertook active measures to eradicate them.” Subject and theme: “Themes which emerge from this Collection are: the system of consciousness of hunter-gatherer societies, which is a unique heritage of a distinct culture; the interaction of this culture with European colonialism and expansion; and the interaction between hunter-gatherers and other societies, including indigenous pastoralist societies.” Form and style: “Not special: ordinary notebooks with tales and translations, grammars, correspondence, pictures.” Arts 2019, 8, 51 4 of 14 Social, spiritual and community significance: “These collections shed light on a unique religious system, a unique consciousness, a unique system of representation, all of which transcriptionsare now extinct, found inand the this archive is almost into existence.the sole resource The collection for knowledge consists of of 151 these notebooks systems that of span dictionaries,thought. linguisticIt also sheds transcriptions, light on other notated hunter oral-gatherer histories andsocieties the evocative and the sketchbooksway in which (the pre- focus of thiscapitalist text) that containhunter-gatherers watercolor interpreted images, pencil their drawings universe. and These intricate collections diagrams provide of hunting the only strategies (Figuremeans2). of hearing one of the most fascinating of the ‘lost voices’ of humanity.”

FigureFigure 2. 2. TheseThese are are the the covers covers of of the the sketch sketch books books containing containing the the drawings drawings and and paintings paintings by by the the informantinformant calledcalled !nanni. !nanni. The The ﬂuid fluid and and spontaneous spontaneous drawings drawings these booksthese containbooks havecontain been have annotated been annotatedby Lloyd andby proveLloyd equallyand prove important equally for important scholarship for of scholarship the San and of Khoe the asSan the and conventional Khoe as the and conventionalhighly ordered and notebooks highly ordered in the collection notebooks (Figure in the1). Sizecollection of both (Figure books: 1). 350 Size× 250 of both mm. Imagebooks: credits:350 × 250Iziko mm. South Image African credits: Museums. Iziko South African Museums.

Central to the comprehension of the archive beyond the surface of the pages is an understanding of the subjects that made the archive possible, thus how the relationships between people, formal knowledge and context worked together to bring this archive to our door. The informants, who made the archive possible, were mostly recruited from the Breakwater Prison at the waterfront harborLloyd in archive Cape Town.as a case They study were of how men the who nomination had experienced questionsheavy reveal penaltiesimportantby information colonial judges by quoting who convicteddirectly themfrom the of crimesnomination ranging form from explicating cattle theft, the Bleek petty–Lloyd theft andarchive. murder.

They all varied in their geographic origin and linguistic groupings, but all held highly crucial knowledge about the languages, customs, medicinal and environmental strategies that had ensured a way of life for over 2000 years in South Africa despite the precarious status of these peoples at the Cape in the late 1800s when the archive was being produced. The names of the informants, and on occasion their photographic images ensure, even in a cursory reading of the archive, that they were afforded specific acknowledgement in relation to their contributions and participation in the project that saw Lloyd herself (however unevenly) receive the formal recognition of a PhD awarded by the University of Cape Town (the first honorary doctorate awarded to a woman in 1913, one year before she died). The names of the primary indigenous informants include: A!kunta; Kabbo; 6=Kassin; Dai!kwan; !kweiten ta; Han6=kass’s, Tamme and !Nann who ranged dramatically in terms of their ages and experiences that suggest Lloyd had a diverse group to work with despite the difficulty intergenerational and inter-cultural work brings. As noted by Bank(2006) in his masterful work about this archive:

The collaboration between researchers and the informants that made this salvaging operation possible provides an extraordinary tale not only of survival and resilience, but of hope and creative possibility ... It is an immense resource the world has only recently begun to value as it deserves, produced by a handful of people working closely together across social divides.

in South Africa. See The Digital Bleek and Lloyd Archive [online] Available at: http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za (accessed on 17 May 2017). Arts 2019, 8, 51 5 of 14

If we set that against the familiar backdrop of settler violence and dispossession, amounting even to genocide for the Bushmen of Southern Africa, this meeting of worlds deserves to be celebrated and recounted again and again. (Bank 2006, p. 397)

The custodianship of the project reached a high point when it was completely digitized by the University of Cape Town forming the Bleek-Lloyd digital archive in 2007. This was followed by the formal protection afforded by UNESCO, deeming it a heritage resource in 2009 by including it in the Memory of the World Register. The nomination form used in the process of assigning items to the memory register asks specifically about the significance of the object/collection related to time; place; people; subject and theme; form and style; society, and finally spirituality and community. I list these categories and the various answers to their promptings in relation to the Bleek–Lloyd archive below. The text serves the Bleek–Lloyd archive well, save for the very ignorant answer to the question on style and form. This answer not only alerts us to a lack of understanding related to visuality by the authors, but serves in my view, as a mandate for the argument of this article to be taken seriously by inviting a productive vexation in light of the ignorance displayed. The texts that answer the categorical prompts follow below3:

Place: “The Collections document a people of an under-researched area of South Africa, the arid Cape interior. This is one of the richest sources of information on this region that we have. However, it transcends this local signiﬁcance in that it sheds light on all hunter-gatherer societies, not only in South Africa, but in the rest of the world.”

People: “The San peoples were responsible for some of the world’s ﬁnest rock art, but otherwise had a very simple material culture. The culture collapsed owing to the intrusion of the new inhabitants who brought with them diseases and undertook active measures to eradicate them.”

Subject and theme: “Themes which emerge from this Collection are: the system of consciousness of hunter-gatherer societies, which is a unique heritage of a distinct culture; the interaction of this culture with European colonialism and expansion; and the interaction between hunter-gatherers and other societies, including indigenous pastoralist societies.”

Form and style: “Not special: ordinary notebooks with tales and translations, grammars, correspondence, pictures.”

Social, spiritual and community signiﬁcance: “These collections shed light on a unique religious system, a unique consciousness, a unique system of representation, all of which are now extinct, and this is almost the sole resource for knowledge of these systems of thought. It also sheds light on other hunter-gatherer societies and the way in which pre-capitalist hunter-gatherers interpreted their universe. These collections provide the only means of hearing one of the most fascinating of the ‘lost voices’ of humanity.”

3 An article by Jan Bos (August 2015) describes in great detail the process whereby things become part of the World Register of Memory. It makes for intriguing reading on the whole, but of special signiﬁcance is the attention paid to the categories that guide the written nominations. The author uses the Bleek–Lloyd archive as a case study of how the nomination questions reveal important information by quoting directly from the nomination form explicating the Bleek–Lloyd archive. Arts 2019, 8, 51 6 of 14

3. Excess and Desire in the Archive: The Stakes of the Image What is clear in both the intellectual investigations and the texts suggesting bureaucratic protection for this collection is that it represents not only the first project that seeks to systematically understand and preserve the language and culture of the San and Khoe, it is also unique as a collaborative event between generations, languages, nationalities and many other units of measure used to gauge social subjectivity. This archive thus constitutes a special way of thinking the challenges that emerge when cultural worlds are contorted to a written form. In this vein, despite the many successful aspects of the project, both Bleek and Lloyd offer striking moments where they discuss their inability to completely capture the subjects at hand in letters, and also when writing itself offers its own insufficiency. There are a number of examples of this, but the attempt to convey, in writing, the specific vocal call the bushman hunter of a springbok gave after an animal had been shot must surely be one of the most formidable challenges to the project of transcription4. The call was described as “a peculiar liquid kind of call’ (Bank 2006, p. 360) by Lloyd who eventually named the sounding: ‘kkou wwe, kkou wwee’. The springbok hunt itself, despite the difficulty of capturing the vocality of the call with precision, gave rise to an intriguing combination of an abstract diagram (a highly systematic work) drawn by /Han6=kasso and annotation by Lloyd (see Figure3). The combination of the annotation and the abstracted forms of the diagram disclose a great deal of information about the hunting strategy of the day for bushmen. The grouping of various dots indicates the kinetic direction of the herd of springbok and, in some instances, stand in for hunters themselves. The dashes represent particular positions in the tactical schema and crucially illustrate the use of a species of special equipment (sticks with ostrich feathers). The texts on the diagram that offer these readings follow in numerical order, to be read in conjunction with the image:

1. From this direction the herd of springbok comes; 2. Here they go towards the row of sticks with feathers tied upon them; 3. Here stands a woman who throws up dust into the air. Rows of sticks with feathers tied upon them, used in springbok hunting, to herd the game. The lines represent the bushmen lying in wait for them.

There can be no doubt that the subjects themselves (the san and khoe) imaged their world with great ﬂuidity, and this primarily done through drawing with pencil or charcoal, or using watercolor paint and brushes. It must be made clear that these drawing instances are not to be seen in the mode that scholars refer to as rock art, a distinct species of imaging highly dependent on geographic context and custom. The images I discuss bring news of special animals (Figure4), or descriptions of important plants with an ambition perhaps more akin to that of reportage. A special account highlights a conﬁdence that this way of conveying ideas invited in various individuals as recounted in Specimens of Bushman Folklore:

One evening, at Mowbray, in 1875, Dr Bleek asked Dia!kwan if he could make pictures. The latter smiled and looked pleased; but what he said had been forgotten. The following morning, early, as Dr Bleek passed through the back porch of his house on his way to Cape Town, he perceived a small drawing representing a family of ostriches, pinned to the porch wall. As Dia!kwain’s reply to the question. (Bank 2006, p. 241)

4 This call was given in order to ensure a quick death for the animal and the concomitant working of poison used in the shooting. Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 7 of 13 Arts 2019, 8, 51 7 of 14 Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 7 of 13

Figure 3. This hunting diagram was drawn by the informant called han≠kass’o. It is drawn in pencil, dated December 1878. Size: 177 × 225 mm. The text on this page may be read on the following page FigureFigure 3.3. This hunting diagram waswas drawndrawn byby thethe informant calledcalled han han6=≠kass’o. It is drawn drawn in pencil, pencil, as part of the discussion about the image. Image credit: Manuscripts and Archives Department, dateddated December 1878. Size: Size: 177 177 × ×225225 mm. mm. The The text text on this on thispage page may may be read be readon the on following the following page University of Cape Town Libraries and Centre for Curating the Archive, University of Cape pageas part as partof the of discussion the discussion about about the theimage. image. Imag Imagee credit: credit: Manuscripts Manuscripts and and Archives Archives Department, Department, Town. UniversityUniversity ofof Cape Cape Town Town Libraries Librar andies and Centre Centre for Curating for Curating the Archive, the Archive, University University of Cape Town.of Cape Town.

Figure 4. ThisThis image contains four ostriches. It was cr createdeated by by Dia!kwain Dia!kwain in in the the medium medium of of pencil. pencil. The textualtextual transcriptiontranscription reads reads as: as: Toi Toi opua, opua, Toi Toi gwai, gwai, Toi Laityi,Toi Laityi, Toi laityi. Toi laityi. Dated Dated March March 1875. Image1875. Figure 4. This image contains four ostriches. It was created by Dia!kwain in the medium of pencil. Imagecredit: credit: Manuscripts Manuscripts and Archives and Archives Department, Departme Universitynt, University of Cape Townof Cape Libraries Town andLibraries Centre and for The textual transcription reads as: Toi opua, Toi gwai, Toi Laityi, Toi laityi. Dated March 1875. CentreCurating for the Curating Archive, the University Archive, of University Cape Town. of Cape Town. Image credit: Manuscripts and Archives Department, University of Cape Town Libraries and

Centre for Curating the Archive, University of Cape Town.

Arts 2019, 8, 51 8 of 14

TheseArts 2019 manners, 8, x FOR PEER of REVIEW images were thus critical to the discourse of informants and worked8 of 13 in sophisticated ways to make the various knowledge claims5. It would be a mistake, however, to believe that the makingThese manners of images of wasimages the were preserve thus ofcritical the San to andthe discourse Khoe informants. of informants There and is clearlyworked a in highly sensitivesophisticated mind at ways play to in make the the annotations various knowledge of the transcriber claims5. It would (Lloyd) be a thatmistake, was however, graphically to believe astute in relationthat to the the making economy of images of the was page the preserve and the of placement the San and of Khoe her scriptinformants. so as There to both is clearly be legible a highly and yet sensitive mind at play in the annotations of the transcriber (Lloyd) that was graphically astute in integrated with the image (see Figure5). This constitutes, in the most expansive sense, a form of relation to the economy of the page and the placement of her script so as to both be legible and yet graphic strategizing that is hard to ignore. This is the case even in instances where Lloyd deploys integrated with the image (see Figure 5). This constitutes, in the most expansive sense, a form of numeralsgraphic many strategizing times over that asis perhard her to annotatedignore. This tree is the in case Figure even6, wherein instances the numbers where Lloyd seem deploys to become part ofnumerals the leaves, many arranged times over to as enforce per her theannotated silhouette tree in of Figure the drawing 6, where and the numbers in no way seem infringing to become on the fluiditypart of of the the water leaves, color arranged medium. to enforce It is also the silhoue worthtte noting of the that drawing the script and in used no way by Lloyd infringing was aon practiced the one, andfluidity in her of notebooks,the water color we comemedium. across It is instances also worth where noting every that single the script letter used of the by alphabet Lloyd was is written a carefullypracticed in lower one, caseand script,in her notebooks, the result ofwe a come practice across exercise, instances in additionwhere every to numerous single letter scribbles of the and flourishesalphabet that is suggestwritten thecarefully desire in to lower relieve case an script, ink pen the ofresult excess of a fluid practice or else exercise, to ensure in addition a clean to stroke beforenumerous annotation scribbles takes and place. flourishes These that manifestations suggest the desire of preparatoryto relieve an ink work pen inof excess the sketch fluid or books else and to ensure a clean stroke before annotation takes place. These manifestations of preparatory work in notebooks certainly show at the very least a self-awareness in the formal qualities of the writing that the sketch books and notebooks certainly show at the very least a self-awareness in the formal would enjoin the images. qualities of the writing that would enjoin the images.

FigureFigure 5. This 5. This image image was was drawn drawn by !nanni !nanni in in the the medium medium of pencil. of pencil. It is dated It is as dated 29 June as 1880. 29 June The 1880. The EnglishEnglish text text describes describes a fruit a fruit tree about tree about the size the of a size loquat of tree. a loquat Its fruit tree. is eaten Its both fruit raw is eatenand boiled. both raw The tips at the top of some of the fruit represent flowers, which are reddish or pinkish. Image credit: and boiled. The tips at the top of some of the fruit represent ﬂowers, which are reddish or pinkish. Manuscripts and Archives Department, University of Cape Town Libraries and Centre for Image credit: Manuscripts and Archives Department, University of Cape Town Libraries and Centre Curating the Archive, University of Cape Town. for Curating the Archive, University of Cape Town.

5 The images included in the Bleek–Lloyd archive were drawn by the San and Khoe informants, but on 5 The images included in the Bleek–Lloyd archive were drawn by the San and Khoe informants, but on occasion informants occasion informants were requested to respond to the drawings of others: rock art copies drawn by the were requested to respond to the drawings of others: rock art copies drawn by the explorer George Stow were used, as were illustrationsexplorer of variousGeorge places Stow bywere European used, artistas were Gustav illustrations Fritsch in of the various hope of gainingplaces by knowledge European from artist the Gustav San and Khoe in a directedFritsch wayin the (See hope Bank of 2006 gaining, p. 88). knowledge This, in itself, from speaks the San of theand power Khoe ofin thea directed visual in way communication (See Bank 2006, and meaningp. making88). generally. This, in itself, speaks of the power of the visual in communication and meaning making generally.

Arts 2019, 8, 51 9 of 14 Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 9 of 13

Figure 6. The creator of this image was the called Da. It is dated dated as as 12 12 July July 1881. 1881. The The dimensions dimensions are 253 × 202202 mm. mm. The The medium medium is is watercolor watercolor (multi-colored). (multi-colored). Image Image credit: credit: Manuscripts Manuscripts and and Archives Archives Department, UniversityUniversity ofof CapeCape TownTown Libraries Libraries and and Centre Centre for for Curating Curating the the Archive, Archive, University University of ofCape Cape Town. Town.

4. The GiftsGifts of of the the Archive Archive for for the the Realm Realm of Thought: of Thought: Dialogical Dialogical Encounters Encounters The intellectualintellectual extension extension demanded demanded in understandingin understanding the complicated the complicat producted product of inter-cultural, of inter- cultural,inter-linguistic inter-linguistic and inter-gender and inter- transcriptiongender transcription that is the Lloyd that is archive the Lloyd is perhaps archive the is perhaps true productivity the true productivitythat the collection that the offers collection the world offers of the academic world of scholars. academic If scholars. scholars If have scholars thought have the thought difﬁculty the difficultyof subjects of working subjects beyond working their ownbeyond situated-ness their own in culturalsituated-ness and political in cultural imbrications and political to bring imbricationsthe archive to to existence, bring the a commitmentarchive to existence, to this line a ofcommitment thought must to certainlythis line captivateof thought scholars must certainlythemselves, captivate in the present scholars moment, themselves, to think in the of their present own moment, biases and to particular think of their disciplinary own biases concerns and particularand constraints. disciplinary This archive concerns is thus and an constraints. exemplary symptom This archive of a productivelyis thus an exemplary unsettling symptom problem—a of adialogic productively predicament. unsettling This problem predicament—a dialogic is best broachedpredicament. by a This strategy predicament of dialogic is reading best ,broached signaled by a Dominique strategy of LaCapradialogic reading (writing, signaled in a varying by Dominique context) asLaCapra a point (writing of opposition in a varying to the context) modes asof a representation point of opposition in addition to the modes to an essential of representa ideation that in holds addition open to a an space essential for critiqueidea that against holds opena “self-sufﬁcient a space for researchcritique paradigm”against a “self-sufficie that establishes,nt research almost paradigm” immediately, that the establishes, impossibility almost of a “value-neutral”immediately, the(LaCapra impossibility 2000, p. of 65) aposition. “value-neutr By this,al” LaCapra(LaCapra invites 2000, a perspectivep. 65) position. on text By that this, is LaCapraboth delimited invites by a the perspective constraints on and text contexts that againstis both whichdelimited it is read, by the and constraints an opening and which contexts always againstavails it which to critiques it is read, and further and an reading: opening which always avails it to critiques and further reading: Basic to it [Dialogic Reading]Reading] is is a a powerpower of of provocation provocation or or an an exchange exchange that that has has the the effect effect of oftesting testing assumptions, assumptions, legitimizing legitimizing those those that stand that itsstand critical its testcritical and preparingtest and preparing others for otherschange for... change…A dialogic A approachdialogic approach is based on is base a distinctiond on a distinction that may that be problematic may be problematic in certain incases certain but is cases nonetheless but is important nonetheless to formulate important and to explore. formulate This and is the explore. distinction This between is the distinctionaccurate reconstruction between accurate of an objectreconstruction of study andof an exchange object of withstudy that and object exchange as well with as withthat objectother inquirers as well as into with it. other (LaCapra inquirers 2000, into p. 65) it (LaCapra 2000, p. 65).

This “exchange” is a highly highly contingent contingent propos proposition,ition, not not content content to to accept accept normative normative accounts, accounts, and bringsbrings into into play play a relationship a relationship between between past andpast present, and present, ﬁlled with filled the with ethical-political the ethical-political paradigms paradigmsthese accounts these embody accounts in their embody reﬂection in their of history: reflection of history: Dialogic exchange indicates how the basic problems in reading and interpretation may ultimately be normative and require a direct engagement with normative issues that are often concealed or allusively embedded in a seemingly ‘objective’ account. It also

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Dialogic exchange indicates how the basic problems in reading and interpretation may ultimately be normative and require a direct engagement with normative issues that are often concealed or allusively embedded in a seemingly ‘objective’ account. It also brings out the problem of the relations among historiography, ethics, and politics. For the dialogic dimension of inquiry complicates the research paradigm and raises the problem of the voice and subject-positions in which we respond to the past in a manner that always has implications for the future and the present. (LaCapra 2000, p. 65)

As I have suggested, we may read the images from the Lloyd archive in a special way that sets it in a dynamic position, one that offers a seriousness to the picture-word creations that operate as a moment of unity, serving as a mode of reiﬁcation that attempted to hold certain faunal and ﬂoral knowledge and descriptions from the South African landscape on the transcriber’s page. To fully realize the importance of this moment means we must see it anew, perhaps (I would suggest) in contemporary work that is at once different but similar, offering the past that we can thus consider a heritage for the present. To take the idea of the dialogic reading of this archive seriously means our interpretation of the archive must extend our intellectual designations. I turn now to the work of typographer Jan Erasmus, a case in point. His combination of letters and special characters that both operate as alphabetical assignments and images show us the thorn trees, birds and spiders that constitute the South African wilderness. At times, they mirror the images we see in the Lloyd archive in both content and form.

5. Drawing a Full Circle: Thornface Font Jan Erasmus conceived his acclaimed digital typeface in 19956. It was named Thornface and continues to be sold as a digital font. It is used in many differing contexts, but in Erasmus’ thinking, it is the manner the letters intimate emotive images that is the central feature of the font. These images are related to the thorn tree, elephant and rhino, specific birds, the spider and other insects that are clearly shown in his glyph sheet (Figure7). Erasmus states in his monograph (2007) that the letters were conceived of as objects that have a direct relationship to the fauna and flora of the Karoo, the desert area where many of the Lloyd archive informants resided. It is no surprise then (as the selection of archival images below will show) that there is a clear resemblance to the forms created by Erasmus, and those drawn by the San and Khoe (Figure8). Erasmus discusses the process of producing the alternate exclamation mark (seen in both the sketch of Figure8a and the serif forms as seen in Figure7) as one achieved by an acute observation of the thorns and their relationship to the tree and bark, only possible by first-hand observation:

Fiscal Shrikes, also known as Jacky Hangman birds (and apparently used for ‘green’ pest control) ﬁnd thorns useful as storage places for bugs, which they eat in times of drought. This was the inspiration for the alternative exclamation mark [that visually articulates both a thorn and an insect detained upon it]. (Erasmus 2007, p. 68)

The semi-serif ﬁnish [of the letter forms] are based on what a thorn looks like when you pull it off a branch and a little bark remains. (Erasmus 2007, p. 71)

6 The Thornface family of fonts was ofﬁcially release in South Africa in 1997 and accepted into the Creative Alliance 9 collection for global distribution in 1999. The face achieved a measure of critical acclaim in the international typographic press. The most important local accolade came in its selection and use for the book cover of the South African Design Centre’s Thirty Years of Design Excellence publication in 1999 (South African Bureau of Standards Design Institute, 1999), which was used internationally to promote the best designers and locally designed products commercially available in South Africa. Erasmus has since been responsible for the typeface used by the Nando’s restaurant chain and also for Menyaka, the font adopted for the World Cup hosted by South Africa in 2010. Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 11 of 13

Artsat the2019 very, 8, 51 least a shared vision of a specific place rendered in forms that are consciously assigned11 of to 14 pages.

Figure 7. This isis thethe ﬁnalfinal glyph glyph sheet sheet of of the the font font Thornface Thornface by by Jan Jan Erasmus. Erasmus. Beyond Beyond the carethe care taken taken with witheach formeach toform balance to balance the legibility the legibility of the alphabet of the alphabet letter and letter in addition and in to addition intimating to theintimating thorn tree the of thornthe Karoo tree region,of the Karoo notice region, the alternate notice symbols.the alternate These symbols. symbols, These particularly symbols, insects, particular are clearlyly insects, seen are in clearlythe drawings seen in of the the drawings San and Khoe of the who San also and used Khoe the who creatures also used in the the news creatures of their in home. the news See Figure of their 10. home.Image credit:See Figure Jan Erasmus. 10. Image credit: Jan Erasmus.

The experimentation embraced by Erasmus is concerned with extending the letter form to receive a specific environment through elements that comprise it. When contrasted with images from the Lloyd archive, the specificity of the place Erasmus consults is striking. The comparisons used below from the archive relate to the thorn tree (Figure9), and the mirroring of a spider (Figure 10) that offer at the very least a shared vision of a specific place rendered in forms that are consciously assigned to pages.

(a) (b)

Figure 8. This is a sketch from the studio of Jan Ersamus detailing his final drawings of what would become the Thornface font family. Each stroke and serif mirrors the shape of thorns and sharp barks from trees in the Karoo. Perhaps the most striking form is the alternate exclamation mark seen in the background in outline. It features an insect pinned down for future consumption—a visual tribute to the ‘butcher bird’ of Southern Africa. The image below is of a piece of sharp tree branch that also alludes to the landscape of South Africa. Similar to the forms crafted by Erasmus, the shape is carefully observed and no less evocative or precise. It was drawn by Tamme, in the medium of charcoal. Notice the sensitively drawn jagged edges and protrusions. Image credits: Jan Erasmus (a) and National Libraries of South Africa (b).

Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 11 of 13 at the very least a shared vision of a specific place rendered in forms that are consciously assigned to pages.

Figure 7. This is the final glyph sheet of the font Thornface by Jan Erasmus. Beyond the care taken with each form to balance the legibility of the alphabet letter and in addition to intimating the thorn tree of the Karoo region, notice the alternate symbols. These symbols, particularly insects, are Arts 2019clearly, 8, 51 seen in the drawings of the San and Khoe who also used the creatures in the news of their12 of 14 home. See Figure 10. Image credit: Jan Erasmus.

(a) (b)

Figure 8. ThisThis is is a a sketch sketch from from the the studio studio of of Jan Jan Ersa Ersamusmus detailing detailing his his final ﬁnal drawings drawings of of what what would would become thethe ThornfaceThornface font font family. family. Each Each stroke stroke and and serif serif mirrors mirrors the shapethe shape of thorns of thorns and sharp and sharp barks barksfrom treesfrom in trees the Karoo.in the Karoo. Perhaps Perhaps the most the striking most formstriking is the form alternate is the exclamationalternate exclamation mark seen inmark the seenbackground in the background in outline. It in features outline. an It insectfeatures pinned an insect down pinned for future down consumption—a for future consumption visual tribute—a visualto the tribute ‘butcher to bird’ the ‘butcher of Southern bird’ Africa. of Southern The image Africa. below The image is of a below piece is of of sharp a piece tree of branch sharp tree that branchalso alludes that also to the alludes landscape to the of landscape South Africa. of Sout Similarh Africa. to theSimilar forms to craftedthe forms by crafted Erasmus, by theErasmus, shape theis carefully shape is observed carefully and observed no less and evocative no less or evocative precise. or It wasprecise. drawn It was by Tamme,drawn by in Tamme, the medium in the of mediumcharcoal. of Notice charcoal. the sensitively Notice the drawn sensitively jagged draw edgesn andjagged protrusions. edges and Image protrusions. credits: JanImage Erasmus credits: (a) Arts 2019Janand, Erasmus8 National, x FOR PEER ( Librariesa) and REVIEW National of South Libraries Africa (b ).of South Africa (b). 12 of 13

Figure 9. This image of a tree tree has has resonance resonance to the the thor thornyny forms forms of of the the font font created created by by Jan Jan Erasmus. Erasmus. It displaysdisplays an an intimate intimate knowledge knowledge of the of tree the itself, tree anditself, through and through the hard, the pressured hard, pressured strokes delineating strokes thorns,delineating we are thorns, left in we no are doubt left about in no their doubt strength. about their Image strength. credit: National Image credit: Libraries National of South Libraries Africa. of South Africa.

Figure 10. This image is drawn by Tamme. It is dated 27 June 1881. It features an unnamed spider created using ink, as well as the entrance to its home, rendered with a skillful ink-wash technique. Dimensions: 212 × 212 mm. Image credit: National Libraries of South Africa.

Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 12 of 13

Figure 9. This image of a tree has resonance to the thorny forms of the font created by Jan Erasmus. It displays an intimate knowledge of the tree itself, and through the hard, pressured strokes Arts 2019delineating, 8, 51 thorns, we are left in no doubt about their strength. Image credit: National Libraries13 of 14 of South Africa.

Figure 10.10. This image is drawn by Tamme. It is dated 27 June 1881. It It features features an unnamed spider created using ink, as well well as as the the entrance entrance to to its its home, home, rendered rendered with with a askillful skillful ink-wash ink-wash technique. technique. Dimensions: 212 ×× 212212 mm. Image credit:credit: NationalNational Libraries Libraries of of South South Africa. Africa.

6. Conclusions

Reification, as identified in the Lloyd archive (comprising drawn faunal and floral images and their elegant annotations), brings the world of the Khoe and the San to our door. These creations offer the conditions for a dynamic concept: they invite a difficulty that is a potential “virtue” for the scholar in the sense that they ask that we see, within them, the genesis of a textual contribution to the intellectual history of Southern Africa. Despite the epistemic problems that arise in the face of engaging a 19th-century archive that has no mother tongue readers left, the reading of reification argued for in the Lloyd archive is fully exploited in the modern digital typeface, Thornface, developed by Jan Erasmus more than a century later. In this vein, typographic reification, as tabled in this text, is more than a theoretical complication to the otherwise unified study of typography and the archive today; it is a timely call to think with even more commitment of the critical constitution of the so called ‘history of the text in Africa’. In this light, the past may indeed be seen as joining the present if we allow ourselves to see this dialogical proposition. Any lesser understanding would surely not serve the newness so vital to theory and would be a far cry from the conceptual agility displayed in constituting the Lloyd archive that ultimately delivers a point not irrelevant to typeface development: letters must always serve as envoys to greater worlds.

Funding: This research received no external funding. Acknowledgments: The images in this text are used for the purposes of research and scholarship with thankful acknowledgement of the Manuscripts and Archives Department, University of Cape Town Libraries and Professor Pippa Skotnes at the Centre for Curating the Archive, University of Cape Town as well as of Iziko South African Museums and National Libraries of South Africa. All Images may be found in the digital Lloyd-Bleek archive hosted by the Centre for Curating the Archive who have supported the request to make use of the images in this text: http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/. I wish to acknowledge the moral support of my parents Lionel and Claudette Campbell. This article is dedicated to these individuals. Conﬂicts of Interest: The author declares no conﬂict of interest. Arts 2019, 8, 51 14 of 14

References

Bank, Andrew. 2006. Bushmen in a Victorian World: The Remarkable Story of the Bleek-Lloyd Collection of Bushman Folklore. Cape Town: Double Story. Double Story: Cape Town. Erasmus, Jan. 2007. Intrigue, The Graphic Designer’s Code. Johannesburg: Cybergraphics. LaCapra, Dominick Charles. 2000. History and Reading: Tocqueville, Foucault, French Studies. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Mafundikwa, Saki. 2001. Afrikan Alphabets: The Story of Writing in Africa. New York: Mark Batty. Morison, Stanley. 1936. First Principles of Typography. London: Macmillan. Skotnes, Pippa. 2007. Claim to the Country—The Archive of Lucy & Wilhelm Bleek (with CD). Johannesburg and Cape Town: Jacana.

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