Customs & Beliefs of the |Xam by J Hollman

Dorothea Bleek’s selection of xam narratives from the well-known Bleek and Lloyd Collection were originally published in the journal Bantu Studies during the 1930s. Decades later, Jeremy Hollmann collated and edited these extracts, adding notes on each of the narratives as well as Dorothea Bleek’s ‘sketch ‘of xam grammar. The first edition of his book was published in 2004.

This substantially revised second edition integrates new scholarship on the Bleek and Lloyd archive, and restores previously omitted material. The introduction to each narrative is expanded to contextualise it within the archive as a whole and, where relevant, reference it to the Notebook of which it is a part. The texts are critically reassessed, with additional notes and commentaries, particularly on English translations of the xam language.

Customs and Beliefs of the xam, second edition, is an in-depth, authoritative resource that will be invaluable to scholars, heritage workers and activists.