Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

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John Marshall Ju/’hoan
bushman film and video
collection, 1950–2000
Inscribed 2009
What is it
This collection, created over a span of fifty years,
is an unparalleled historical record not only of an
indigenous people’s traditional way of life, but also
of its transformation caused by the rapidly changing
social and economic landscape, combined with the
struggle for Namibian independence.
Why was it inscribed
It is one of the seminal visual anthropology projects
of the 20th century, unique for the scope of its
sustained audiovisual documentation of one cultural
group, the Ju/’hoansi of the Kalahari desert in
northeastern Namibia.
Where is it
Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, DC, USA
John Marshall first visited the Kalahari desert in
northeastern Namibia in the 1950s, when his parents
travelled there on sponsored expeditions between 1950
and 1958. These early visits were the start of a lifelong
bond between him and the Ju/’hoansi, a group of
hunter-gatherer bushmen from the Nyae Nyae area
� John Marshall relaxing with Ju/’hoan friends in 1955. Marshall
immersed himself in Ju/’hoan life, learning to speak the language
fluently and participate in rituals.
500 John Marshall Ju/’hoan bushman film and video collection, 1950–2000
� Tsamko Toma (in suit and tie) at a SWAPO political rally before
Namibia’s first democratic elections. An important leader in the
Ju/’hoan community, Tsamko was the first president of the Nyae
Nyae Farmers’ Coop, a local governing body formed by Ju/’hoansi
as they organized themselves and entered into Namibian politics
in the 1980s.
of the desert. Marshall became one of the world’s
foremost anthropological filmmakers and his crowning
achievement is the record he has made of the changing
lifestyle of the Ju/’hoansi over fifty years. His relationship
with them is close and he has created a foundation to aid
their development and dedicated most of his adult life
to advocacy on their behalf.
In the 1950s the Ju/’hoansi were still surviving
using traditional hunter-gathering practices that had
remained unchanged for centuries. In the decades that
followed, their way of life was influenced by increasing
contact with the modern world. As their opportunities
to survive by hunter-gathering were reduced, Marshall
recorded their difficult entry into the modern global
community, including: their decline into malnutrition,
influenced by their attempts at subsistence farming;
the impact of alcoholism and domestic violence; their
struggles for rights to traditional land and waters and
their grassroots political campaigning. These changes
happened against a backdrop of conflicting needs and
interests of neighbouring ethnic groups, international
aid programmes, the fight for Namibian independence
and then dealing with Namibia’s new democratic
administration.
His work among the Ju/’hoansi has produced hundreds
of hours of film, video and audio recordings as well as
twenty-three edited films and a five-part video series,