About
Tchai is the word used by Ju/'hoansi to describe getting together to dance and sing; n/um can be translated as medicine, or supernatural potency. In the 1950's, when this film was shot, Ju/'hoansi gathered for "medicine dances" often, usually at night, and sometimes such dances lasted until dawn. In this film, women sit on the ground, clapping and singing and occasionally dancing a round or two, while men circle around them, singing and stamping rhythms with their feet.
The songs are wordless but named: "rain," "sun," "honey," "giraffe," and other "strong things." The strength of the songs is their n/um, or medicine, thought to be a gift from the great god. N/um is also in the fire, and even more so in the "owners of medicine," or healers. Most Ju/'hoan men would practice as healers at some point in their lives, and in this film we see several men in various stages of trance. A light trance gradually deepens, as the medicine grows "hot," and eventually some men will shriek and run about, falling on hot coals, entering the state Ju/'hoansi call "half-death."
The film opens with a brief introduction to the role of n/um tchai in healing and in warding off evil, followed by scenes from one all-night dance. The dance begins with a social gathering and becomes increasingly intense as the night wears on, finally concluding at dawn.
N/um Tchai was filmed on a 1957/58 expedition to the Kalahari Desert, led by Laurence K. Marshall and sponsored by the Peabody Museum of Harvard and the Smithsonian Institution.
This film is part of the John Marshall !Kung Collection which includes a total of thirty titles documenting a Ju/hoansi (!Kung) community in Namibia and produced between 1951 and 2002.
This title is available on the !Kung Shorts DVD. This compilation DVD includes a selection of the short sequence films documenting the Ju/hoansi community as Marshall experienced it in the 1950s. This collection combines fourteen of Marshall's short !Kung films onto two DVDs, complete with a full-color booklet containing photos, writings, and additional information about the series.
Disc One:
A Curing Ceremony (bw) (9:00)
A Group of Women (6:00)
A Joking Relationship (3:00)
N!owa T'ama: The Melon Tossing Game (15:00)
N/um Tchai: the Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen (bw) (20:00)
Lion Game (5:00)
An Argument about Marriage (18:00)
Men Bathing (14:00)
Disc Two:
Playing with Scorpions (5:00)
A Rite of Passage (15:00)
Debe's Tantrum (9:00)
The Wasp Nest (13:00)
The Meat Fight (14:00)
Baobab Play (8:00)
Orthography Note
The group of people depicted in these films are the Ju/'hoansi, speakers of the Ju/'hoan language. Ju/'hoan is part of the !Kung language group; the term !Kung was previously used by the Marshall family and others to refer to Ju/'hoansi. Although the term is outdated, it has been retained here for the sake of consistency with John Marshall's previously published work. The films and their related printed materials also employ antiquated spellings of names and places. For current Ju/'hoan orthography, please see the Ju/'hoan - English Dictionary, compiled by Patrick Dickens and the Ju/'hoan Peoples Literacy Committee.