The Hunter-Litigators

There aren't too many south Africans who can translate the motto on their country's new coat of arms, and even fewer who can pronounce its tongue-twisting clicks and glottals: "!ke e:/xarra //ke." Meaning "diverse people unite" in /Xam, one of the first known indigenous languages spoken in southern Africa, the phrase plays a part in the national identity that is more than symbolic. Now that apartheid is history, the forgotten "first people" minorities of South Africa's earliest past are claiming their heritage rights. /Xam, spoken by people known as the Khoisan, is now regarded as extinct. But descendants of the San...

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