Nǃxau ǂToma (short: Nǃxau, alternative spelling Gcao Tekene Çoma; 16 December 1944 – 5 July 2003) was a

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

n bush farmer and actor who starred in the 1980 film '' The Gods Must Be Crazy'' and its sequels, in which he played the Kalahari Bushman Xixo. '' The Namibian'' called him "Namibia's most famous actor".

Biography

Nǃxau was a member of the ǃKung people, one of several peoples known as

Bushmen The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are the members of any of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the Indigenous peoples of Africa, oldest surviving cultures of the region. They are thought to have diverged fro ...

. N!xau was a Namibian who starred in the 1980 movie ''The Gods Must Be Crazy'' and its sequels, in which he played the Kalahari Bushman Xixo. He spoke Juǀʼhoan, Otjiherero, and Tswana fluently, as well as some

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

. He did not know his exact age, and before his appearance in the films he had little experience beyond his home. He had only ever seen three white people before casting, and when director Jamie Uys gave him his first cash payment of $300 for '' The Gods Must Be Crazy'', he allegedly let it blow away in the wind because he did not understand its value. This was despite money already being a serious matter for other San since many of them depended on purchased food and government aid and/or had enlisted in the

South African Army The South African Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of South Africa, a part of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), along with the South African Air Force, South African Navy and South African Military Health Servi ...

due to the high wages it paid. He was, however, able to negotiate for near several hundred thousand for his appearance in the sequel. He came from a culture that did not value the material things that money could buy and consequently had not learned money management skills, although he used some of his income to build a brick house with running water and electricity for his family. He also bought a used car and subsequently hired a

chauffeur A chauffeur () is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or a limousine. Initially, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to s ...

, as he had no desire to learn to drive. Nǃxau converted to Christianity and in July 2000, he was baptized as a Seventh-day Adventist. He was found dead in late June 2003 near his home in Namibia after going out to collect wood and on an excursion to hunt

guineafowl Guinea fowl () (or guineahen) are birds of the family Numididae in the order Galliformes. They are endemic to Africa and rank among the oldest of the gallinaceous birds. Phylogenetically, they branched off from the core Galliformes after the C ...

. He died from multiple-drug-resistant tuberculosis. According to official estimates, he was about 58 or 59 years old at the time. He was buried on 12 July in a semi-traditional

ceremony A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan language, Etruscan origin, via the Latin . Religious and civil ...

at Tsumkwe, next to the

grave A grave is a location where a cadaver, dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is burial, buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of buria ...

of his second wife. He had six surviving children.

Career

In addition to ''The Gods Must Be Crazy'', Nǃxau starred in a series of

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

s: ''The Gods Must Be Crazy II'', '' Crazy Safari'', '' Crazy Hong Kong'' and '' The Gods Must Be Funny in China''. After his film career ended, he returned to Namibia, where he farmed maize, pumpkins, and beans, and kept several head of cattle (but no more than 20 at a time because, according to ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', without the complex farming systems of the "modern world", he had trouble keeping track of more; the Namibian local daily '' New Era'' stated that he simply could not count further than 20).

Filmography

TV variety show

*'' Sekai Ururun Taizaiki(世界ウルルン滞在記)'' (1996) – Self

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nxau 1944 births 2003 deaths People from Otjozondjupa Region 21st-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Namibia San people Converts to Adventism Namibian Seventh-day Adventists 20th-century Namibian people 20th-century male actors 20th-century farmers Namibian male actors