!Khwa ttu San Heritage Centre provides a platform for San to share and explore San history and culture among both San community members and local and international visitors.

At !Khwa ttu we gather and disseminate information recorded about San to San, and we encourage all to engage in sensitive learning about San culture and the ancient and recent history of the San.

Our historical exhibitions draw particular attention to the longevity of San history and its links to human origins, issues of colonial genocide and discrimination against San.

Our community section deals with San resilience and development initiatives across the San. Our ‘Way of the San’ building sees visitors step into the heart of ‘traditional’ San life in the Kalahari.

At the heart of our Heritage Centre lies the recognition that to really understand San lifeways, we must move away from traditional, colonising museum approaches toward new and innovative curation strategies.

It is our aim to remind visitors that there are different, yet ultimately familiar, ways of being in the world. Not so long ago everyone’s ancestors were hunters and foragers.

We wish to stimulate ways of learning, knowing, and being that are unfamiliar in classroom settings, thereby bringing visitors towards a better understanding of both the San and who we all are as human beings.

A further pillar in our strategy entails flagging environmental concerns and issues of sustainability.

12,000 years ago everyone lived by hunting and foraging. With the recent change in our subsistence strategy we risk the end of humankind and the end of our planet.

We believe that if anyone can teach us how to live in a sustainable manner it is the San, with their low-impact lifestyles, their minimal need of material possessions, and their abilities to live in extremely challenging environments.

• Annette Hoffman
• Lorenz Homberger
• Petro Keene
• Isabell Schneider
• Irene Staehelin
• Jos Thorne
• Paul Weinberg
• Roger van Wyk

!Khwa ttu is not a collections museum, but we do hold a limited collection of special, endangered, and otherwise appropriate San artefacts, artworks, and archival documents.

Alongside a small selection of wider material, !Khwa ttu is very grateful for the donation of:

• the Kalahari People’s Fund and Dr Megan Biesele for the Megan Biesele San Collection
• Axel Thoma, for his personal collection of assorted San cultural items
• Isolde Mellet-Pocock, for her personal collection

We are very grateful for loaned collections from Iziko Museum, the UCT Department of Archaeology, and Darling Museum, as well as the generous conservation support of Iziko Museum.

For collections enquiries please contact Magdalena Lucas.

Watch this space for developing heritage programmes. 

!Khwa ttu is in the process of assembling an online database of our learning resources and wider archival material.

Useful Resources & Links

San Code of Ethics

Roy Sesana Right Livelihood Award speech

UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples

Museum Worlds Extract

Presentation on the Cape Floristic Region Partnership

Integrating various knowledge forms in restoration of degraded farmlands