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Namaqualand (Afrikaans '''Namakwaland'''; historically also '''Little Namaqualand''' or '''Klein-Namakwaland''', to distinguish it from Great Namaqualand north of the Orange River in present-day Namibia)

An arid region of the north-western Cape, in the Northern Cape province, which has served as setting, subject and site of production across South African writing, theatre, dance, film and television. In popular and theatrical usage the name is applied loosely, often stretching to Nieuwoudtville, the Bokkeveld and parts of Bushmanland.

== The region ==

Namaqualand was originally inhabited by the [[Nama]], a [[Khoi group]], and takes its name from them. [[Simon van der Stel]] led an expedition to its copper mountains in 1685, and copper mining later built the towns of Springbok, O'okiep, Nababeep and Concordia; diamonds built Kleinzee and Port Nolloth. Mission settlements including Steinkopf, Leliefontein, Komaggas, Kharkams and Pella remain centres of Nama community life. The spring flower season draws substantial tourism. The region has its own variety of the language, [[Namaqualand Afrikaans]], which derives from [[Orange River Afrikaans]] and carries strong [[Khoi]] influence.

== Writing ==

[[D.J. Opperman]]'s poem "Namakwaland" is among the best-known Afrikaans literary treatments of the region. [[George Weideman]] drew on Namaqualand and the Richtersveld in ''’n Staning onder sterre'' (1997)*, and [[Willem Steenkamp]] collected regional tales in ''Namakwalandse Oustories'' (1983). More recently [[Lynthia Julius]], who is from the region, has brought Nama vocabulary into Afrikaans verse in ''Uit die kroes'' (2020, [[Kwela Books]]), and [[Dianne Du Toit Albertze]] has published the play ''Huis van sand'' and the novel ''Bottelnek breek bek''* with [[Human & Rousseau]].

== Theatre ==

1986: ''[[The Horse Thief]]'' by [[Willem Steenkamp]] and [[Tony Robinson]], staged by [[CAPAB]].

2013: ''[[Koperkoors]]'', a chamber musical produced by [[Sakka Stone]]* at the [[Woordfees]], tracing the region from before European arrival to the discovery of copper in 1685.

2017: ''[[Nêrens, Noord-Kaap]]'' by [[Nico Scheepers]] premiered at the [[Vrystaat Kunstefees]], Bloemfontein, with [[Geon Nel]], [[Albert Pretorius]] and [[De Klerk Oelofse]] as the three Adendorff brothers. It won Best National Debut there and a [[Fiësta Award]] for ensemble work, and was published by [[Protea Boekhuis]]. The farm is located generically in the Northern Cape rather than in Namaqualand itself.

2018: ''Klip Kween'' by [[Dianne Du Toit Albertze]], directed by [[Jason Jacobs]], at the [[Woordfees]].

2023: ''My kroon se krank'' by [[Veronique Jephtas]] and [[Lynthia Julius]]*.

2024: ''Suurdeeg'' by [[Miché van Wyk]], directed by [[Sandra Temmingh]], premiered at the twenty-first [[Suidoosterfees]] on 27 April and played at the [[Woordfees]]. Set on a Namaqualand farm and named for the local bread-baking tradition, it follows two prospective sisters-in-law, Anna ([[René Cloete]]) and Emma ([[Jodine Ockers]]), who fall in love. [[Miché van Wyk]] was nominated for a [[Fiësta Award]] as Best Emerging Artist.

2025: ''Huis van sand'' by [[Dianne Du Toit Albertze]] won the [[Reinet Nagtegaal]] Text Prize and was staged at the [[Woordfees]] in October, with [[Tinarie van Wyk Loots]] as Sandy, alongside [[René Cloete]], [[Kristen Raath]] and [[Jefferson J. Dirks-Korkee]]. [[René Cloete]] and [[Jefferson J. Dirks-Korkee]] won Woordtrofees and [[Fiësta Award|Fiëstas]] for their supporting performances*.

2025: ''Kinderlê'' by [[Lynthia Julius]], at the [[Woordfees]], staging an episode of Namaqualand history from 1867, with [[Miché van Wyk]], [[Theodore Jantjies]], [[Lynette du Plessis]] and [[Damian Jacobs]].

2025: ''Skatkis vol stories'' by [[Danneline Ramsden]] and [[Miché van Wyk]], at the [[Suidoosterfees]], drawn from Kommagas.

2026: ''Kraal'' by [[Jason Jacobs]], presented at the [[National Arts Festival]] as his [[Standard Bank Young Artist Award]] production and performed in both a theatre and a matjieshut. It addresses the colonial legacy of the dop system and draws on knowledge of the Kamiesberge; an earlier version was staged at the Black2Normal Festival in Denmark.

The Cape Town company [[Djamaqua Productions]] took its name from Jamaqua, a disused Namaqualand copper mine.

== Dance ==

[[Alfred Hinkel]] founded [[Die Namakwalandse Dans Geselskap]] at Nababeep and O'okiep in 1976, the region's first dance company, and the beginning of his long association with [[John Linden]] and [[Dawn Langdown]]. From 1997 [[Dawn Langdown]] ran Namjive, [[Jazzart Dance Theatre]]'s Namaqualand Rural Dance Project. [[Hinkel]] and [[Linden]] returned to O'okiep in 2010 and founded the [[Garage Dance Ensemble]] there in 2011; its work includes ''Krummelpap, afval en Sunlightseepbaddens'' ([[Woordfees]], 2020), set to poetry by [[Ronelda Kamfer]], and it has toured internationally, appearing at the Ruhrtriennale in 2025. The rieldans (also ikhapara) and the Nama Stap are indigenous Nama dance forms of the region, now widely performed at competitions run by the [[ATKV]].

== Film and television ==

1969: ''Namaqualand'' / ''Namakwaland'', directed by [[Ashley Lazarus]].

1993: ''Die Manakwalanners'', written by [[Johan van Jaarsveld]] and directed by [[Koos Roets]] for [[SABC]] 2, ran for two seasons, with [[Hans Strydom]] as Nols Labuschagne and the storyteller Oupa Swartsak addressing viewers directly. Filmed at Nieuwoudtville, it is credited with carrying Namaqualand Afrikaans to a national audience.

2018: ''Nama Swaan'', the first short film written and directed by [[Jason Jacobs]], premiered at the [[kykNET Silwerskermfees]]. A boy is visited by a magical Nama "Oerstem" as he pursues a life in dance, the premise set against Tchaikovsky's ''Swan Lake''. With [[Joshua Vraagom]], [[Celeste Mathews]] and [[Quinton Manuels]].

2021, 2024: ''Nêrens, Noord-Kaap'', adapted by [[Nico Scheepers]] from his play, with [[Saartjie Botha]] as script editor, and co-directed by [[Scheepers]] and [[Johan Cronjé]] for [[Nagvlug Films]]. Two seasons of thirteen episodes each were broadcast on [[kykNET]] from 31 August 2021 and 17 September 2024, with [[Frank Opperman]] as Lourens Adendorff and [[Tinarie van Wyk Loots]] as Katja. Also filmed at Nieuwoudtville.

2024: ''Carissa'', co-directed by [[Jason Jacobs]] and [[Devon Delmar]], screened in the Orizzonti section at the Venice International Film Festival.

2026: ''Variations on a Theme'', co-directed by [[Jason Jacobs]] and [[Devon Delmar]], won the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Best African Film at the [[Joburg Film Festival]]. An eighty-year-old goat herder in the mountains above Kharkams, played by Jacobs's grandmother [[Hettie Farmer]], is defrauded by a scheme promising reparations for her father's wartime service in the [[Cape Corps]].

2026: ''Out of Mined'', a documentary directed by [[Arthur Neumeier]]*, on the legacy of mining in the region.

== Artists and companies based in the region ==

Two companies work from within Namaqualand rather than from the metropolitan centres. The [[Garage Dance Ensemble]] is based at O'okiep, and KRAAL, the collective of [[Jason Jacobs]] and [[Devon Delmar]], works between Kharkams and Cape Town; it received the 2026 [[SAFTA]] for Outstanding Provincial Contributor. Both run training and skills development locally. [[Jason Jacobs]], the 2026 [[Standard Bank Young Artist Award]] winner for theatre, lives and works at Kharkams, some 25 km south of Kamieskroon. Other theatre-makers and writers from the region include [[Dianne Du Toit Albertze]], [[Miché van Wyk]] (from Steinkopf), [[Lynthia Julius]], [[Geralt Cloete]], [[Marquen Carstens]], [[Danneline Ramsden]] and [[René Cloete]]*.

== The region in the cultural imaginary ==

Namaqualand has long circulated in popular culture through a small set of images: the spring flowers, the copper and diamond ghost towns, and a regional comic idiom built on Namaqualand Afrikaans. Screen versions of the region have frequently been filmed elsewhere, with both ''Die Manakwalanners'' and ''Nêrens, Noord-Kaap'' shot at Nieuwoudtville, which lies in the Hantam rather than in Namaqualand.

Artists from the region have objected to this treatment. Writing in the [[Woordfees]] festival newspaper ''INK'' in 2025, [[Dianne Du Toit Albertze]] stated that the period in which Namaqualand's narrative was appropriated by tourist writers was over, naming [[Hans du Plessis]]'s ''Innie skylte vannie Jirre'' and ''Boegoe vannie liefde'' as examples, and listed [[Miché van Wyk]], [[Geralt Cloete]], [[Marquen Carstens]] and [[Lynthia Julius]] as artists from the region now writing about it themselves.

== Sources ==

Du Toit Albertze, Dianne. 2025. 'Ons change die narrative van Namakwaland', ''INK'' ([[Woordfees]] festival newspaper), October 2025.

https://woordfees.co.za/en/ink-festival-newspaper-2025/ons-change-die-narrative-van-namakwaland/

Mabandu, Percy. 2026. 'Lifting the curtain on the Khoi', ''[[Sunday Times]]'', 18 July 2026.

Meyer, Naomi. 2017. 'Nêrens, Noord-Kaap by US Woordfees 2017: 'n onderhoud', ''[[LitNet]]'', 15 February 2017.

'Artikel: Namakwaland-Afrikaans', Afrikaans 100, 2024. https://afrikaans100.org/artikel-namakwaland-afrikaans/

[[National Arts Festival]]. 2026. Programme entry for ''Kraal''. https://tickets.nationalartsfestival.co.za/en/events/1335/kraal

Go to [[ESAT Bibliography]]

== Return to ==

Return to [[South African Theatre Venues, Companies, Societies, etc.]]

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Namaqualand - Revision history

Annelp: Created page with "Namaqualand (Afrikaans '''Namakwaland'''; historically also '''Little Namaqualand''' or '''Klein-Namakwaland''', to distinguish it from Great Namaqualand north of the Orange R..."