Refusing to be the last woman standing – Katrina Esau of Upington
Phillip Segadika | Wednesday November 15, 2023 10:31
Her clinching of the South African Presidential Order of the Baobab Award in 2014 put then-President Jacob Zuma in a good light: committed to the recognition and revival of indigenous culture and languages. Esau attracted the attention of the London School of Oriental and African Studies who saw golden opportunities in sponsoring her language project and supported remarkable contributions including the Nluu Children's story book she authored, the language dictionary and online apps.
American researchers, including renowned lexicographer Chris Collins, collaborated with Esau and cooperated with a score of others to craft a Nluu alphabet and basic rules of grammar for teaching purposes. During that painstaking and applied investigation, the research team made a significant discovery: the Nluu language has five foundational clicks, as opposed to the cour common in click languages of Southern Africa. The outpouring of honours culminated with the South African Department of Culture declaring Esau a "Living Human Treasure" and prompting the University of Cape Town to bestow an honorary PhD earlier this year. Esa's hometown of Upington has a population of 87, 000 and a history as effervescent as her life story.
Upington was named after Sir Thomas Upington (1844–1898), a controversial colonial administrator and politician, who was at one time Attorney General, and later Prime Minister of the South African Cape Colony. In the pattern of colonial arrogance and occupation, the name Upington effectively replaced the original local name of //Kharahais. Yet, that too echoes Esau's life. At birth, her father called her N/aungkusi that can be loosely translated as "I saw you coming" but her mother called her Katrina, 'thinking to make it easy for future Afrikaner employers,' says Esau. Her given names soon proved superfluous as at a young age, her mother's Afrikaner employers renamed her Geelmeid, meaning yellow girl, in reference to her skin tone.
It was only in her 20s she insisted on being called Katrina or N/aungkusi in self-assertion against the derisive Geelmeid. As a teenager Esau started working on the farms as a housekeeper, where speaking the Nluu language was totally forbidden. That was a continuation of earlier restrictions experienced by her parents who were not allowed to speak their mother tongue in the sheep farms where they worked and where she grew up. Born from a family of 11 children, she now has two surviving siblings who speak some Nluu but who have forgotten most of it as a result of the history of restrictions. Amongst her own four surviving children, one has a passion for the language, as does her granddaughter who serves as the manager of the Nluu language revival project.
In the broader community of about 500 Nluu descendants, of whom she was recognised as leader since 2014, there are pockets of community members who comprehend some of the basics of the language especially after the revival led by Esau. Today, Esau is the only surviving fluent speaker of Nluu. Incidentally, and erroneously, Nluu was declared extinct by linguists in the 1970s until Esau, Elsie Vaalboois and others interpreted archival recordings of the language in the late 1990s. What has been the journey and inspiration of this woman, who has never been through a formal education system, rising to become a globally recognised educator? The awakening for Esau happened when reality struck when few of her relatives and society members, who were fluent in the Nluu language, were aging and dying.
"From 1992 I used to spend sleepless nights thinking about what I could do, who I would work with, and whether it would even be possible to teach young people my language." About 1995 Esau built a makeshift shelter in her backyard and invited neighbours to allow their children to come and learn the Nluu language and aspects of the Nxuu cultural practices, song and dance. For a time she faced many challenges, including the local municipality who forbid her from running a school in her home. Fortunately, with the help of her relatives and friends, Esau formed a Trust to exert pressure on the authorities and mobilise support. After a few years of struggle, she managed to acquire some land where the Trust built the Nluu language school, now with some help of the municipality. Her school, called in the Nluu language, 'Gaze at the Stars' is a reminder that the school is as much about language as it is about aiming high to revive the lost traditions and culture of the Nluu people. Despite the many heritage and language revival accomplishments, Esau refuses to be placed in a stereotypical cubicle. She is not the ardent and bitter activist who dismisses everything outside of her culture. Neither is she the typical heritage practitioner who consults the spirits of the ancestors. She is a committed church leader but one who cherishes the cultural upbringing that shaped her formative years. She fondly recalls being taken indoors for almost two weeks during initiation confinement where she was given intensive moral and cultural lessons by her mother and aunties. She still fondly remembers the memorable initiation graduation party that was thrown for her on completion.
"The whole community made a party for me; I was looking extremely pretty and healthy from all the week of nourishing, bathing and applying the ochre." Esau regrets the breaking up of the family unit and the cultural fabrics that held Nluu people together az it has left people in a vacuum, often times resulting in their lives being destroyed through excesses like alcohol with nothing to motivate restraint. In her case, she filled that vacuum when she converted to Christianity. She traces her initial conversion to the evangelistic efforts of the Pentecostal Protestant Church when the Evangelist van Wyk preached in the Kimberly area in the late 1970s. However, she immediately joined the Church of God of Prophecy under Piet van Nel and the late Paul Cloete as it was active in her home area. Esau's cordial relationship and adherence to an American originated church, led by a white South African, whose ancestors would be seen to have caused untold economic and cultural damage to black and San communities, is a story for further exploration.
How has Esau transitioned beyond blame-games into the realm of forgiveness, reconciliation and action? She speaks in glowing terms of Bishop Nathaniel Botha, an Afrikaner Pastor, who, in a separate interview, is revealed as Esau's number one fan. Bishop Botha appreciates the dedication of Esau in serving her community by restoring the dignity lost through many years of colonialism, apartheid and forced acculturation. His following comment on Esau explains why he always wants Esau to speak or sing in the Nluu language at the Annual National Church Convention. "Ouma Katrina lives an exemplary and sober Christian life in her community. She is dedicated to the Nluu language revival mission and refuses to be the last and only woman standing. She selflessly transfers her knowledge to others. So, Katrina is a constant inspiration to other members of her community to pick what they can of the Nluu language and of her faith," says Botha. I am tempted to ask Katrina if she does not think Christianity has also destroyed her culture. However, since she knows I am also a pastor, I cannot help but recognise how conflicted an interviewer I am. Instead, I opt to ask what her favourite scripture is in the Bible.
Without hesitation she quips, "Isaiah 59, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear." In between her language projects, and despite her age, Esau is a regular presence on the Thursday and Sunday services where she serves as an intercessor in the local church at Rosedale, Upington. Her Church of God of Prophecy operates in 135 nations and at 4, 000 preaching points worldwide, of which there are 23 in Botswana, and about 300 in South Africa and Eswatini. Lastly, I ask Esau what last message she has for readers in Botswana and the world. To that she smiles and raises her head, "If you have a vision, start working on it and it will succeed. Like my name, N/aungkusi, God can see you long before you arrive; He is ahead of you. Whatever your life's challenges are, God is with you." Granted her many feats, I conclude that a lot has been said and written about Esau but very little about her faith and her church activism.
*Phillip Segadika writes in his personal capacity. However, the trip to South Africa was sponsored by the Church of God of Prophecy Africa and South Africa National Offices. katrina alone.jpg