Lucy Lloyd

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Lucy Catherine Lloyd (born November 7, 1834 in Norberry , Staffordshire , England; † August 31, 1914 in Mowbray , Cape Town ) was Wilhelm Bleek's most important collaborator and made a fundamental contribution to the ethnological recording of South African cultures.

Life

Lucy Lloyd

youth

Lucy Lloyd was the second eldest daughter of William Henry Cynric Lloyd and his first wife, Lucy Anne Jeffreys. The father was principal in Norbury and vicar in Ranton, two towns in Staffordshire. He was also the chaplain of the Earl of Lichfield . The mother was the daughter of a clergyman, but died in 1842 when Lucy Lloyd was eight years old. From then on, Lucy Lloyd lived with her sisters with her uncle and his wife, Sir John and Caroline Dundas. The children received an adequate, liberal schooling.

Trip to africa

In 1847 Robert Gray (1809–1872) was ordained Bishop of Cape Town. He founded the Natal Diocese , where clergymen were now needed. In 1849, when Lucy Lloyd was 14 years old, her father was sent to Durban in southern Africa. He became a colonel and military chaplain and later archdeacon . He took his family to Africa and so did Lucy Lloyd with her sister Jemima, with whom she had a very close relationship. When Lucy Lloyd denied her father access to her inheritance, a falling out broke out and she was forced to leave her family. Lloyd then worked on the Middleton family farm and became engaged to the well-traveled George Woolley. Due to an intrigue, Lloyd broke off the engagement, which she regretted all her life. She also blamed herself for her fiancé's untimely death.

Mythology, Fables, Legends and Poetry
ǀAǃkunta (alias Klaas Stoffel) - The young man from the vicinity of Strontbergen was with Dr. Bleek in Mowbray from August 29, 1870 to October 15, 1873. He contributed two pieces to the book Specimens of Bushman folklore .

Working with Bleek

Lloyd's sister Jemima married Wilhelm Bleek on November 22, 1862 , who was curator of the Gray Collection at the South African Library in Cape Town. In a shipwreck on the voyage to her sister's wedding, Lloyd lost all of her belongings. From now on she lived with the Bleeks in Mowbray . When the first San came to Mowbray in 1870 , Lloyd began her studies in Oral Tradition , also known as Oral History . Bleek trained Lloyd so that she could help him in his work, particularly in his studies of the San, in documenting the language and folklore.

The subjects were mostly prisoners from Cape Town who had been convicted of crimes such as theft and murder. They were the last survivors after centuries of colonization in South Africa. The subjects were taken to Bleek's house, which was in a relatively rural area. Some San lived in Bleek's garden for months or even years. Some of the subjects were also visited by their relatives. Among them were both children and adults. They were all interviewed by Bleek and Lloyd. The interviews were documented as stories, drawings and watercolors. Lloyd proved to be a very docile student and until Bleek's death in 1875 she was responsible for two thirds of his texts as well as for the second report to the South African parliament. According to an addendum to Bleek's will, Lloyd continued his studies of the San after his death. She was supported by Bleek's widow, her sister.

Lloyd succeeded Bleek as the curator of the Gray Collection, albeit at half the salary. She was reluctant to accept the position. Now she edited Bleek's many manuscripts; in her spare time, however, she continued her own research. From 1875 she began to correspond with George W. Stow, who documented the art of the San. With Lloyd's support, Stow was able to publish his book The Native Races of Southern Africa in 1876 .

Lloyd's relations with the colonial authorities deteriorated so much that in 1880 Dr. Theophilus Hahn was appointed curator. This ended her work at the South African library . Lloyd considered Hahn to be incapable, but her interventions with the Trustees of the Gray Collection were unsuccessful. Hahn gave up two years later. The position was never filled again.

George W. Stow died in 1882, and Lloyd received his transparency drawings, copies of the "Bushman" painting, and manuscripts from Stow's wife. With the help of the historian George McCall Theal , Lloyd was able to edit these documents together with his own photographs and publish them in 1905.

Return to Europe

In 1883 Lloyd returned to England with her sister Fanny due to financial difficulties and health problems. Years of hard work and unhealthy life had exhausted her. Her next book was published in 1884. Around 1887 she began to teach her niece Dorothea Bleek , Wilhelm Bleek's daughter, the sans language. The Bleek family had meanwhile returned to Germany. Lloyd traveled back and forth between Germany, Switzerland and England.

In 1889 she sent the third report, Bushman Researches , to the Cape Town government. It contained 4,543 half pages of text. Between 1905 and 1907 she made several trips to South Africa. In 1911 Lloyd published the book Specimens of Bushman Folklore . It contained a selection of texts from Bleek's and Lloyd's projects, which Lloyd had edited despite her difficult personal situation. These include 87 San legends, myths and other traditional stories. The stories were captured in interviews with five men and later translated by Bleek. Drawings of the rock paintings are also included. She was the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Cape Town for her services . In 1912 Lloyd returned to Africa for good. She died in August 1914 at the age of 79 and was buried next to Wilhelm Bleek in the cemetery in Wynberg Cape Town.

Works

  • Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek, Lucy Catherine Lloyd, George McCall Theal: Specimens of Bushman Folklore , London 1911 (German short version: Myths and fairy tales of the Bushman peoples / from the collections of Wilhelm HI Bleek and Lucy C. Lloyd. , Basel, Zbinden and Hügin 1938 ISBN 3-85630-618-8 )
  • Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek, Lucy Catherine Lloyd: The Mantis and His Friends: Bushman Folklore , published 1924
  • The Bleek and Lloyd notebooks on ǃXam Bushman folklore. published by Andrew Bank, 2006

literature

  • Pippa Skotnes (Ed.): Claim to the Country: the archive of Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd , Ohio 2007
  • Andrew Bank: Bushmen in a Victorian Cape Town Home: The Making of the Bleek and Lloyd Archive of San Culture: The Remarkable Story of the Bleek-Lloyd Collection of Bushman Folklore. Double Storey, 2006, ISBN 978-1770130913
  • Neil Bennun: The Broken String: The Last Words of an Extinct People. Penguin 2005, ISBN 978-0141008233
  • Janette Deacon; Thomas A Dowson (Ed.): Voices from the Past: ǀXam Bushmen and the Bleek and Lloyd Collection. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg 1996

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lloyd, Lucy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lloyd, Lucy Catherine (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English linguist
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1834
PLACE OF BIRTH Norberry , Staffordshire , England
DATE OF DEATH August 31, 1914
Place of death Mowbray