Africa's |xam Language Honored at Oxford University

A new inscription in the southern African language lxam has been carved into Rhodes House at Oxford University, acknowledging the suffering and labor of those who contributed to Cecil Rhodes' wealth.

The lxam inscription was carved by UK stone mason Fergus Wessel, who works in response to a longstanding English Arts and Crafts tradition. The inscription's handcrafted aspect responds to the saying's reference to the difficult labour of southern African peoples that produced Rhodes's wealth.

lxam is now a sleeping language, meaning that it is no longer used by any group as a mother tongue. It was spoken until the early 1900s by descendants of the Khoesan peoples and Afrikaners of the Northern Cape. It was famously recorded by the linguists Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd at the end of the 1800s in Cape Town, where a number of lxam men were incarcerated at the Breakwater prison, itself a symbol of colonial conflict.