ErostrateDiscovering the world's cultures, one work at a time
My list 0

How the works were chosen

Namibia

Author · Namibia

Wilhelm Bleek

Died in 1875

Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek was born in Berlin on 8 March 1827, the son of the theologian Friedrich Bleek. A doctor of linguistics from the University of Bonn in 1851, he went to Natal in 1855 at the invitation of Bishop Colenso, to work on a Zulu grammar, then to the Cape, where he was interpreter to the governor Sir George Grey and curator of his library. Regarded as the father of Bantu philology, he coined the term Bantu and, with Lucy Lloyd, collected the language and the narratives of the ǀXam. He died near Cape Town on 17 August 1875.

In the catalogue 1