When Professor Henry Charles “Jatti” Bredekamp began his career as a historian of early Cape Town in South Africa, there was still a commonly held myth that the region’s native people, the Khoisan, had “all but disappeared”. This was in the wake of slavery, colonialism and apartheid, a system of racial segregation by white minority rule.
Bredekamp, who passed away in September 2023, was central in debunking this myth. Aside from his scholarship, he will be remembered for his influential role as a public historian and a conduit for the revival of Khoisan indigenous identity. Many within the movement fondly refer to him as the father of Khoisan revivalism.
