Sensing indigeneity: A sensory ethnography of the presence of the past among newly identifying indigenous people in South Africa

Abstract

Sensory ethnography offers hitherto under-explored perspectives on why and how people claim and experience indigeneity by elucidating how the past and the present become entangled through sensory experiences. I illustrate this by drawing on fieldwork that I carried out among newly identifying indigenous people in South Africa between 2014 and 2022. As they grapple with centuries of assimilation and destruction, including the myth of their extinction, ‘Khoisan revivalists’ deliberately target all the senses to make their newfound indigeneity as immersive and corporeal as possible. Among others, this entails cultivating indigenous plants, crafting apparel and accessories with Khoisan motifs, and celebrating indigenous sounds. Drawing on insights from indigenous- and settler-colonial studies, as well as Nadia Seremetakis and Charles Hirschkind, I argue that sensory experiences uniquely allow for ostensibly relatable, unmediated, and authentic ‘sensory gateways’ towards indigeneity.