Khoi Indigenous team forms in South Africa

The South African Rugby League (SARL) has given its blessing to the establishment of a new team which will represent the Khoi community in the Western Cape.

An SARL statement reads:

“The indigenous team will all be descendants of the Khoi (as per the current Government terminology, the current ‘Coloured’ [note: this is a South African government term for people of mixed race] who were the inhabitants of the Cape before the Europeans arrived on our shores.

“The Khoisan people of the Northern Cape are descended from two different tribes. An amalgam of the original San hunter-gatherers and the later-arriving Khoi-Khoi, they the Khoisan culture lives on through some of the most compelling rock art on Earth.”

The team is set to be officially launched on March 4, when a Khoi team coached by Evan Geduld will play the South African Sables in Cape Town.

“This will help us to understand each other, it must be seen as a celebration of the Khoi culture,” said Denzil Watson, Vice President of the SARL.