Cxam Kaqe

ǀXam was a San language of the Karoo, spoken across the dry interior north of the Cape. Its speakers hunted game and gathered wild foods among plains and rocky hills; their history is also reflected in the region's paintings, engravings and stone tools. In the eighteenth century colonial stock farmers moved onto the escarpment and into ǀXam country. The ensuing struggle over land and livestock brought raids, retaliatory expeditions and the loss of many lives.