{"id":264,"date":"2020-12-19T10:45:09","date_gmt":"2020-12-19T10:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thinkingthreads.com\/?page_id=264"},"modified":"2020-12-22T16:34:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T16:34:13","slug":"haiseb-stories-as-performance","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thinkingthreads.com\/index.php\/haiseb-stories-as-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Haiseb – stories as performance"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Stories as Performance<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Many Haiseb stories have been collected but mainly\u00a0in text and not using film and sound.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Stories carry more than words from the past.<\/span><\/p>

Here we experience\u00a0storytellers demonstrating how Haiseb moves and sings.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

It is impossible to know whether or\u00a0 not young people will continue to keep \u00a0the spirit of Haiseb alive. When his signs are not recognised, his presence felt and his ways not known, Haiseb’s movements\u00a0and \u00a0sounds may well be forgotten.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a0Haeseba ||\u014d, !huba \u01c2ha<\/span><\/p>

Haiseb is dead, the land is free<\/span><\/p>

Handrethe (Gaoxas) Guriras and Lisa Gorabes Masura with Suro Ganuses. At Kamanjab.<\/span><\/p>

Handrethe<\/strong>: <\/span><\/span>My grandmother told me that Haiseb put rocks under \u01c2huis trees [Bechamia]\u00a0and he made for himself death when still alive. The people said “no, we the people thought him dead and we buried him there”. The people say we cannot eat the berries here [under this tree] because we buried Haiseb here, so the people\u00a0moved to another side.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

When the people moved Haiseb woke up and they heard the sound of him eating berries. “Who could be eating?”\u00a0they said. When Haiseb heard the people talking he crept back in his hole.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Because Haiseb is death the people were pleased with his death. “Haiseb is death the land is now free for us” they sang.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Suro<\/strong>: <\/span><\/span>People were under the pressure of Haiseb. He was a KIng and they were under him.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Handrethe<\/strong>:Haiseb told the people “I am sick. Don’t touch me. I don’t know if I live or die. Bury me under the tree. We cannot eat the berries close to Haiseb or we get sick”. During the day Haiseb ate the berries and in the nights the people were singing and clapping hands:<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Tita Haise da ||o ts\u00ee \u00a0\u01c2\u00fbna m\u00fb ts\u00ee go ||\u014d !nada<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Haeseba ||\u014d !huba \u01c2ha<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Haiseb go ||\u014d freyba he ta go Haiseb go ||\u014d<\/span><\/span><\/p>

We are pleased at Haiseb’s death. The land is now free.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Elsie Tjihahura, at Kamanjab<\/span><\/p>

Note the bent arms and pointed fingers and the flick of the skirt at the end – all\u00a0characteristics of\u00a0Haiseb dances.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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<\/div>

Ellink ||Naobes<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>

and <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>

Augustus ||Naobeb<\/h2>
                                                                                                          Haiseb and the Bees<\/span>
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
                                                                                                   Translator: Mariane !Owos oas                                                                                                 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Ellinck ||Naobeb telling a story of Haiseb and the bees. Near Uis.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The story in the film is an excerpt from the lightly edited version translated below.<\/p>

It is an adaptation of a well known story about Haiseb and the Bees. It ends with Haiseb pretending to be dead and being buried under a tree, but he is not really dead and climbs out at night and dances and sings under the fruit tree, at which point he is discovered.\u00a0<\/p>

The singing and dancing around the tree is what features in the film above.\u00a0It is a theme that reoccurs in films on this site. In ‘the Bees’ Haiseb gives away his identity by rejoicing in his deception.<\/p>

\u200b<\/span>When telling this story Ellink ||Naobes began with a different\u00a0brief story that\u00a0\u00a0mirrors the typical Bees story in the way Haiseb covers his\u00a0sore and festering scalp with a cap. This brief introductory story seems to be about Haiseb bringing trouble on himself because of his silly shyness. It speaks of wider forms of correct household behaviour between men and women.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Erika Ganuses and Suro Ganuses (bottom right) of Sesfontein demonstrate some of the sing-song elements of Haiseb tales. Suro has been a great friend and the translation and knowledge behind my research for many years.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Haiseb and the Bees<\/p>

\u200b<\/span>Haiseb came to the women and while\u00a0there he got a girlfriend. She\u00a0cooked\u00a0rice and gives him a\u00a0plate of food to eat but he will not eat in front of her. She asks “why are you not eating in front of me?”\u00a0But he does not want to eat. One morning the woman goes somewhere while the pot is on the fire, the rice pot. When the woman is away Haiseb put the rice in his\u00a0cap.\u00a0While he is doing it the woman comes back and Haiseb puts the hat on his head but it is hot because it was in the fire and he cannot sit while the woman takes the pot out of the fire. But the woman was near and he did not have a chance to take off\u00a0the cap as the water runs out and it is hot. Then the woman says “take the cap off your head because you are getting warm and the water is running. What is going on?”. When he takes off the cap then his head was already well cooked and had red sores. It was his shyness that brought him there because he was getting shy to eat before the woman.<\/p>

\u200b<\/span>Haiseb went to where the Bees\u00a0are. They are making \u00a0honey. When he came there \u00a0the Bees poured water for him. Haiseb says “don\u2019t give me that much just the small one”. He thought it was the normal water. But when he tasted it he tastes honey, so he says, “I am on my way, but a man will come after me with a\u00a0small black dog. You have to pour for him the big honey water”.\u00a0 Haiseb then\u00a0took out one eye and went back to the bees with the dog, and\u00a0they gave him a big cup of the honey just as he had asked for, the children of the Lord, that is the water of the bees.\u00a0<\/p>

When the Bees give him the big honey he sleeps there, drinks and sleeps and drinks and sleeps.\u00a0 While he was doing that the Bees moved to get the ingredients\u00a0to make it again. Then he sleeps in between the mountain and then he sings, “the brothers and sisters, they see the same man again and they thought he was another one.\u00a0They pour him the big one water. He was enjoying himself drinking this honey of the Bees and sleeping between the mountains. But a Bee hears this song of Haiseb and says “listen, listen to this. This\u00a0 is the Haiseb who we give all our honey to. Haiseb, what are you saying, eh?”.<\/p>

Now when the Bees hear this they come together and bite\u00a0[sting] Haiseb. The one that is biting\u00a0takes the stomach, the \/nui !gah\u2026where your food is sitting inside. After all the bites Haiseb \u00a0collapses and the bees leave him alone. While they are gone Haiseb cut [off] those things which are outside [ bee sting sores] with a stone knife\u00a0and mixes them together with his stomach and he goes with it to the house and feeds\u00a0it to his household.\u00a0 It was very fat and he cooked it. When the wives arrived he said:\u00a0 \u201cI get for you the dassie, the fat dassie and we have to clean it and make it well done”. The first wife asks, \u201cwhat kind of meat is this, which has only the things inside\u2026the duodenum, I will not eat it?\u201d. This was the first wife of Haiseb who would not eat it.\u00a0 The others, the second wife, third and fourth, they eat and Haiseb comes and says \u201cAh leave me alone, why don\u2019t you allow me to touch you because you were eating, after all, eating my duodenum right now.\u201d \u201cNo, you are lying\u201d they reply.\u00a0 Haiseb says “go and take the things inside the duodenum, the gagaba [stool?].\u00a0He takes the things inside, the gagaba and show them that they eat the duodenum of it. Then the bees bite him on top of the head. Then he takes the cover [skin] of the dassie and he makes the cap so that the women will not see the sores on his head.\u00a0He covered the sores\u00a0with the skin of the dassie. And\u00a0 that cover he put on\u00a0 was wet, not dried in the sun and not smelling well.\u00a0It had those small white things that walk around (maggots). Those things went into the head of the Haiseb and he could not take his cap off again.\u00a0Those things grow in his head.<\/p>

The women decide that they have to take\u00a0 off Haiseb’s cap so the women tell Haiseb’s little boy,\u00a0“if we head out\u00a0today you have to sit on the back of your father and you will get his hat off”.\u00a0That was the decision of the first wife. Then the other women\u00a0say “go ride on your sisters back” and then,\u00a0“no, no,\u00a0no go to your mothers back”.\u00a0Then the father says “come my child let me carry you”.\u00a0And Haiseb carries the little one on his back.<\/p>

When they come back they brought food, the natural food like\u00a0\/naieen, \/naran\u00a0 !airon, n!aron, those are the things if the rain comes then the trees are getting those things for the people to eat.\u00a0<\/p>

The people then\u00a0\u00a0sit under the shadow of the big tree and that tree has the fruit they call !nuis.While they are sitting there Haiseb says\u00a0 “springbok will go and stay there that side, and then this side the kudu will stay, and this side the gemsbok will stay and the other side the\u00a0 zebras will stay and the ostrich the other side. That is the words of the Haiseb.”<\/p>

After he finished Haiseb said “I will sit here under this tree”. When he tried to put the child down the boy\u00a0came down with the hat. It fell down then Hiaseb\u00a0decides again that “the thing that have fallen down,\u00a0 there must be sons [?], some of them must become sons, some of them must become stones, some of them must become trees and some of them must become the different types of the things. You must bury me here under this tree. You have to cover me, but only my legs up to my waist the rest must be outside”. Then they buried him under the tree and went to stay at that far mountain. Then Haiseb gets up and he is doing\u00a0 the singing and dancing,\u00a0it was the song of the Haiseb.\u00a0When he get up in the night he was singing\u00a0[as per the film\u00a0on the previous page]. That was the song of the Haiseb and then the women came when he was dancing. Then he stayed and he was dancing, and\u00a0the people came, children were crying out \u00a0\u201ccome, come and see\u201d. And the people were hiding behind the tree and the Haiseb is dancing and singing. The women then punish him because he is lying\u00a0to them and Haiseb runs away. The women say lets go home, and Haiseb comes. The people say, “is it the\u00a0Haiseb that is coming now?”.<\/p>

\u200b<\/span><\/p>

\u200b<\/p>

CL:Would it be okay if we told these stories\u2026<\/p>

A:\u00a0It is very nice, we\u00a0enjoy it.<\/p>

CL: May \u00a0we use the film, show it and maybe stick it on the internet [this involves long discussion about the internet with which they are familiar]<\/p>

A. Yes it is fine and if the come and ask for her, then she will dance and they will have to buy the cool drink.\u00a0If the other people come again, if you put it on the internet, if they will come and the others will get for her the cool drink and she will dance.\u00a0it is fun for her.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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