INDAGO (continuing Navorsinge van die Nasionale Museum, Bloemfontein) Published annually for the National Museum, Bloemfontein INDAGO is an accredited journal that publishes original research results in both the natural and human sciences. Man- uscripts relevant to Africa on topics related to the approved research disciplines of the Museum, and/or those based on study collections of the Museum, and/or studies undertaken in the Free State, will be considered. Submission of a manu- script will be taken to imply that the material is original and that no similar paper is being or will be submitted for publi- cation elsewhere. Authors will bear full responsibility for the factual content of their publications and opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Museum. All contributions will be critically reviewed by at least two appropriate external referees. Contributions should be addressed to: The Editor, Indago, National Museum, P.O. Box 266, Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa and e-mailed to [email protected]. Instructions to authors appear at the back of each volume. Editor-in-Chief Michael F. Bates (Ph.D., Stellenbosch), Department of Herpetology, National Museum, Bloemfontein Associate editors Natural Sciences: Rick Nuttall (M.Sc., Natal), Director, National Museum Human Sciences: Shiona Moodley (M.A., Wits), Department of Rock Art, National Museum Marianna Botes (Ph.D., UFS), Department of History, National Museum Consulting Editors Prof. C. Chimimba (Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, South Africa) Dr J. Deacon (South African Heritage Resources Agency, Cape Town, South Africa – retired) Dr A. Dippenaar-Schoeman (ARC – Plant Protection Research Institute, Pretoria, South Africa) Dr A. Kemp (Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, Pretoria, South Africa – retired) Dr D.T. Rowe-Rowe (Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa – retired) Prof. B.S. Rubidge (Centre of Excellence for the Palaeosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) Prof. A.E. van Wyk (Department of Botany, University of Pretoria, South Africa) Prof. A. Wessels (Department of History, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa) Layout Marelie van Rensburg, Design Department, National Museum Hard copies of Indago are available from the Library at the National Museum, Bloemfontein. Free access to electronic copies (PDF) via the Museum’s website www.nasmus.co.za. Cover illustrations Replica of Zeederberg post wagon on exhibit in the Wagon Museum, Bloemfontein. (Photo: National Museum, Bloemfontein) © 2017 National Museum, Bloemfontein ISSN 0067-9208 ISBN 978-1-86847-179-9 INDAGO DECEMBER 2017 VOLUME 33 ISSN 0067-9208 RESEARCH ARTICLES HUMAN SCIENCES ‘They say a Dog wears a Ticket’ – Legal Classification instead of Self-Identification P.A. Erasmus & B.J.H. de Graaff .................................................................................................................. 1 Soldiers of the Koma S. Moodley ...................................................................................................................................................... 13 “Blazen en snorken” en “Woest ridjen”: Verkeersweë en vervoer in Bloemfontein teen die laat-negentiende eeu M. Botes & A. Wessels .................................................................................................................................... 23 NATURAL SCIENCES Further evidence in support of the status of small mammals as ecological indicators in areas cleared of alien vegetation in South Africa J.J. de Klerk & N.L. Avenant ........................................................................................................................... 49 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The following individuals contributed to the quality of Indago Vol. 33 (2017) by serving as reviewers. Their assistance is gratefully acknowledged. Johan Cronje (South Africa) Bart de Graaff (Netherlands) Hans Ester (Netherlands) Morgan Hauptfleish (Namibia) Lize Kriel (South Africa) Rhodes Makundi (Tanzania) Fransjohan Pretorius (South Africa) Benjamin Smith (Australia) Jan van der Merwe (South Africa) Indago Vol. 33 (2017) 1 HUMAN SCIENCES Indago, Vol. 33, 2017, pp. 1–12 ‘They say a Dog wears a Ticket’ – Legal Classification instead of Self-Identification 1,* 2 P.A. Erasmus & B.J.H. de Graaff 1 Department of Anthropology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, P.O. Box 12597, Brandhof, 9324, South Africa 2 Lansbergen Street 10, 4336 DA Middelburg, The Netherlands *Corresponding author: [email protected] Abstract The construct of presumed differences and the classification of people into different race groups according to it, were the core business of the apartheid state in South Africa. The Population Registration Act 1950 (Act 30 of 1950) was the instrument primarily responsible for labelling the population. People of Khoe-San extraction had a strange and usually unacceptable identity of ‘Coloured person’ assigned to them in a quite inhuman and hegemonic manner. In this article we use interviews conducted with informants as a basis for looking at individuals’ experience of this process and what outcome it had for their own self-assumed identities. Keywords: Khoe-San; assumed vs assigned identity; ethnic labels; experience Opsomming Die beleid van veronderstelde verskille en die klassifikasie van mense op grond daarvan in verskillende rassegroepe, was die kernbesigheid van die apartheidstaat in Suid-Afrika. Die Bevolkingsregistrasiewet 1950 (Wet 30 van 1950) was die instrument wat primêr verantwoordelik was vir die klassifisering van die bevolking. Op ’n onmenslike en hegemoniese wyse is daar aan mense van Khoe-San-afkoms ’n vreemde, en meesal onaanvaarbare identiteit van ‘Kleurling’ toegewys. In hierdie artikel ge- bruik ons onderhoude wat met informante gevoer is as die basis om na individue se ervarings van hierdie proses te kyk en watter uitkomste dit op hul self-toegeëiende identiteite gehad het. INTRODUCTION even among themselves’. According to a 1999 survey there were still some 6 000 Khoekhoegowap (Nama) ‘A dog wears a ticket.’ This was the answer some- speakers in South Africa, while the number of people one from the town of Welkom, Free State, received in able to speak (some) Xiri (Griqua), !Ora (Korana) or 1961 when he enquired from the official why he had /Nu (≠Khomani) was less than thirty (Killian 2009). to register for a dompas (literally: a ‘dumb pass’), in which he was classified as a Coloured, meaning some- Apart from the project’s focus on the informants’ one who was not a White person or a Bantu. command of language, information was also gathered about issues related to their identities. The reason During 2005 the Unit for Khoe-San Studies, Depart- behind this was that the Population Registration ment of Anthropology, University of the Free State, Act, 1950 (Act 30 of 1950) took away the right to South Africa, started a research project titled ‘Khoe- self-identification of certain parts of the South African San Culture and Memory Project’. Its basic objective population, including the Khoe-San. The Act required was to identify speakers of Khoe or San languages all South Africans to be identified and registered from so that the Khoe and San language heritage could birth as one of, originally, three distinct racial groups: be preserved and fostered. In this regard, Grenoble White, Bantu and Coloured1. Those who were not and Whaley (1999) and Van Rensburg (2013) point White or Bantu were regarded as Coloured2, the um- out that, within fifty years after the arrival of the first brella concept for the ‘residue’ – those who did not fit White settlers in 1652, the Western Cape Khoekhoe in anywhere else. The Khoe-San were classified as language had begun to disappear, being gradually re- ‘Coloureds’ and were politically, socially and econom- placed as first language of the Khoekhoe by Dutch ically constrained to renounce their origins as Griqua, or ‘Khoi-Afrikaans’. Dealing with the same issue, Korana, Nama or San (Cultural Survival 2007; Jung Schapera (1965) reports that in the 1930s ‘a few of 2000). In this regard, Lee (2003) estimates: ‘Up to the older Khoe-San people still [knew] their own 2.5 million Coloured South Africans would identify language, but the great majority now speak only Af- themselves as Khoi or San, but until recently the op- rikaans, which is the regular medium of intercourse portunity for these peoples to explore their roots has 1 Under the Act as amended in 1962, Indians (i.e. South Asians from the former British India and their descendants) were included and various sub- groups were identified: Cape Coloured, Malay, Griqua, Chinese, Indian, Other Asian and Other Coloured. 2 According to Erasmus and Pieterse (1999), the notion of being ‘coloured’ had originated among freed slaves and their descendants between 1875 and 1910. In Jung’s (2000) view, the process started much earlier, as the social and political identities that had been created during the era of slavery were responsible for the development of coloured identities. Although the term was thus used long before the apartheid era, its meaning was more fluid in the nineteenth century (Lewis 1987). Manuscript processed and edited by M. Botes (Associate Editor) and M.F. Bates (Editor-in-Chief). 2 Erasmus & De Graaff—‘They say a Dog wears a Ticket’ been compromised and thwarted by the distortions of of a qualitative research paradigm. During 2007 in- Apartheid.’ Lee’s estimate was