Saartje Baartman, wat weerst du för'n Slaav [∫la:v]. Saartje Baartman, treated as a slave.

This is the first track of a group of four about the life and times of Sara Baartman (1789-1815). Sara Baartman was born as a Khoisan. In all probability this is not her original name. More likely she was orphaned at a very early age. The name Baartman may have been imposed on her by her master. He may even have been her slave owner. When conducting fieldwork in Botsuana with the ethnomusicologist Jürgen Schöpf in 1999, I was simply unaware that Bartmann or Baartman was a common name throughout southern Africa. No one told me, and certainly nobody mentioned Sarah Baartman. In Botsuana, Jürgen and I were entering a very secretive culture (Bartmann 2011:225-236). Nevertheless, my work on Sara Baartman (no relation) aims to reveal some of the intricate mechanisms that transformed the concept of her ancestry and origins into a racist idea, which was then applied to other perceived cultural issues almost all over Europe. This occurred despite there being little or no understanding of the Khoekhoe people, or of their unique culture. Even less was understood about their languages and musics.

Sara Baartman's life history should be viewed in the light of the fact that she became one of the forerunners of what were to become exhibitions of so-called exotic humans from other cultures. She was smuggled to London in 1810 to be exhibited in Piccadilly. People felt attracted by her large behind which was extraordinary to European eyes. Other parts of her body were still displayed in the Parisian Musée de l'Homme (= Museum of Mankind) for many years after her death in 1815. The remains were brought back to South Africa in order to be buried in Sara Baartman's ancestral homeland in 2002. So it took her almost two centuries to get back home again.

There are several books on Sara Baartman's story (Crais/Scully 2008; Holmes 2007ab). Holmes thinks that “someone taught her to play music at an early age” (Holmes 2007a: 13). This may be a very Western idea of how Baartman was musically encultured. I doubt that in the late 18th century instrumental tuition or even formal musical instruction was very common amongst the Khoekhoe. Schöpf points out that “the concept of 'enculturation' ... should not be restricted to childhood and youth only, but rather be understood as a lifelong social communication.” (Schöpf 2008: 140, footnote 82).

Khoekhoe literally means 'people people', which stands for 'real people'. European settlers labeled them 'Hottentots'. From at today's perspective, this term has to be considered pejorative, to say the least. It is a racial term that may have been coined to imitate, and simultaneously devalue, the sound of Khoisan languages because of the 4 click sounds they use as consonants. In Afrikaans the term 'Hottentot' is associated with stuttering. Consequently, Sara Baartman was billed as 'Hottentot Venus' in Europe. Sadly enough, it was to become her stage-name for the rest of her life (Holmes 2007ab).

Strangely enough, in the late sixties and beyond the term 'Hottentot-music' was very common all over North Germany. It was used in order to depreciate the musics which the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other bands had popularised. The intention behind so-called beat music was to break free from convention. To conformists, the beatniks' aesthetic — especially that of the long-haired young men — appeared strange, wild and disorganised, probably in much the same way as how click sounds appeared unfamiliar and therefore unwelcome to those who were not used to them. Nevertheless, the zeitgeist of the time was not interested in the characteristics that defined beat music, let alone remote musics from Southern Africa although Kirby's book, which is still readable today, had already been reprinted in the early fifties (Kirby 1953).

Racism took its toll as soon as othernesses were regarded as 'uncivilised' and therefore 'wild', a view that was to prevail for centuries. Nicholas Hudson's essay “'Hottentots' and the evolution of European racism'” (Hudson 2004) concludes that “‘racism’ (...) involves not merely the exclusion, but an approximation and appropriation of the ‘Other’ into Western systems of thought: the ultimate and fatal destiny of this highly distinct and independent culture.” (Hudson 2004, abstract). This may explain why this racial slur ended up being attributed even to European beat music. These and other weird transferences were to arise very quickly. They soon got encouraged, the more so as they followed the crude logic of racism.

The scull of a baboon, a defensive magic caught inside the compound of the traditional doctor Pae Moeketsane (+2003) in Tlôkweng, Botsuana 1999 © photo Manfred Bartmann

Meanwhile, there is plenty of reliable information about Khoekhoe music, such as the trail blazing works of Kubik and Rycroft, to mention but a few. One should also take into account that the term Khoekhoe comprises different tribes and therefore different musics sometimes. Nevertheless the Khoekhoe are said to have disseminated musical bows all over sub-Saharan Africa.

We recorded and learnt the melodic pattern that makes up this track in Botsuana in 1999. It was played on a serankure or segaba which is a bowed bow. It is common in the Tsuana as well as in San traditions. In Botsuana this piece of music is called 'morapama' which according to Schöpf is Setsuana for 'lazy woman'. The instrument is often called 'herdboys' fiddle' which refers to a widespread misunderstanding. The way the pitches are produced on a serankure is very different from how to play a tune on a fiddle or cello.

The bow I used for these recordings is a beaten bow. It originally was a homemade toy bow. In order to make a musical bow out of it I strung it with a nickel wound metal guitar string. The Zulu as well as the Xhosa name for a bow like this is umqangala (Kirby 1953: 225). The San from the Kalahari desert call this bow nqaoh.

Manfred Bartmann 2010, playing the umqangala © photo courtesy of M. H. Sardehaii

In order to play this musical bow I press one tip of it against my cheek. Holding the bow with one hand, I use the other one to strike the string with a chop-stick. I find it useful to hold the beater quite loosely in order to allow it to bounce off the string. More advanced players may also try to vary the fundamental frequency by stopping it with a finger or thumb.

See Bartmann 2003, 2011, 2012; Crais/Scully 2008; Holmes 2007ab; Hudson 2004; Kirby 1953; Kubik 1999, 2001; Qureshi 2004; Rycroft 2001ab; Schöpf 2008.

Search keywords for Wikipedia: Beat music, Musical_bow, Click_consonant, Harmonic_series_(music), Hottentot_(racial_term), Sarah Baartman, Spectrogram.

Search keywords for YouTube: Bushmen of the Kalahari, KhoeKhoegowab, Khoekhoe Language, mouth bow, umqangala, Xhosa lesson.

This track starts off with a bow pattern. The whole track is actually based on it, displayed here as a spectrogram — a visual representation of an acoustic signal showing how the spectral density varies with time. The melodic pattern can be read very clearly; the constant fundamental frequency has a pitch of c′. Of course this fundamental pitch is not meant to make up the music — more likely the listener is asked to focus on modulations of timbre. © Manfred Bartmann 2011.

Last amended 2026/09/09.

1: Low German is my mothertongue, mien Moderspraak mi heilig is.
My identity most likely is dor wor hoch de Dieken stahn (where the dikes are oh so high).

2: Mien Moderspraak is minderseert (depreciated), mien Heimat isn Bült koller worn.
My mother tongue is left forlorn, my identity impaired.

3: In uns Schooltied hemm wi so leden, uns Moderspraak, de weer nix wert.
With grief our life was laden, dor wor hoch de Dieken stahn.

Refrain 1: Sall uns Fresentaal nu upwaken! Elkeen wort dordör een Fresenkind.
East Frisian tongue to be awakened, my own roots need a reprint.

4: Give me awareness and compassion, words of comfort, demurely sung.
Mien Platt dat steiht foer Minskenrechten, för Pathos, liesen Averschwang.

5: An mien Platt will ick mi warmen, Platt mutt int School lehrt worn.
With Europe I made a bargain, to create my mother tongue's dawn.

6: Mien Platt maakt mi besünners, Plattdütsch is mien moijste Tracht.
Ok för mien Fro un Kinners, dor wor hoch de Dieken stahn.

Refrain 2: Sall uns Fresentaal weer upwaken! Ok du worst dordör een Ostfresenkind.
East Frisian tongue to be awakened, your own roots need a preprint.

7: Und gifft dat waarns ne genoog Platt, denn kummt de Plattdütschpolizei.
Lehrers springen, maken Puhei (brouhaha), n' Bußgeld hemm wi ook all hat.

8: S'avends in mien Bedd ik mie fraag: Wat hebb ik daan för mien Platt vandaag?
I invented words, got them corrected, I even use them if they were rejected.

9: You should believe in Low German, your heritage you have to serve.
Bist du ok noch fast in dien Gloov, dor wor hoch de Dieken stahn?

Refrain 3: I must not sing my refrain in English, Ik bin doch een Ostfresenkind!
Frisian tongue to be awakened, my own roots need a reprint. Dor wor hoch de Dieken stahn!

This is my homage to the many flag-waving songs that are meant to induce an everlasting loyalty to the many charms and beauties of East Frisia. Most of them are products of the 19th century which in East Frisia seems to have lasted much longer than a mere 100 years. I will always be indebted to the mighty singer Grete Mennen who lived in Südcoldinne in East Frisia, for having passed the emphatic traditional tune I used in this song on to me in 1984. I was to put my own lyrics. In my linguistic play, I move back and forth between English and Low German. This is due to the historical fact that Low German is more closely related to English than to Standard German.

This is a song seen through someone else's eyes, although some people might be led to believe it is me speaking. However, like any other song of mine, it is basically theatre, a kind of role-playing. And at the end of the song it's all over. In much the same way the great singer/songwriter Richard Thompson once put it in an interview I am keen to insist: Please don't come to my house and tell me it is not over ! Anyway: Even if I do manage to convince someone that this is really me, at least I would have succeeded in conveying something to somebody.

This song is not based on a single story. It is made up of plenty of them, and is rather dedicated to the many soulful knights in polished armours who passionately fight the fact that their small languages are sinking into insignificance.

Since 1992 they feel encouraged by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (Lesle 1999, 2004b, 2015; Roth Lesle 2016). In its heydays the Low German preservation movement could rely on a considerable number of ardent and enthusiastic supporters and activists. However, even then, considerably fewer of them were encultured in an environment where native speakers were dominant. Over time, organisations dedicated to preserving Low German became increasingly susceptible to the temptations of populist identity politics. Roth and Lesle (2016) have examined the influence of nationalist networks. From an ethnological point of view this is typical for so-called revitalisation movements that remind one of the cargo-cults ethnologists first became aware of in Melanesia (Haller 2005: 89, 237).

See also Arendt 2010; Atkinson 2004; Bartmann 1998ab, 2011, 2012 (Review of Arendt 2010); Bartmann/Schobeß 1994; Byl/Brückmann 1992; Cantwell 1996; Haefs 1983; Haller 2005; Lesle 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004ab, 2015; Mühlmann 1961; Revers 1998; Rosenberg 1993; Roth/Lesle 2016, Seifert 1997; Wallace 1956, 1968; Weiss 1988.

Last amended 2026/09/09.