Two young Khoikhoi girls from the Korah tribe ('Korah Girls'), 1820

Samuel Daniell (1775 - 1811)

RA Collection: Art

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This image depicts two Khoikhoi (or Khoekhoe) girls from the Korah tribe; the Khoekhoen are a non-Bantu speaking indigenous nomadic group located in modern-day South Africa. This etching is an illustration from a book titled Sketches representing the Native Tribes, Animals and Scenery of Southern Africa (1820), originally drawn by Samuel Daniell and published posthumously by his brother William Daniell RA. The book was part of a British colonial tradition of ethnographic research and has demonstrates inherent racial prejudice, seeking to categorise indigenous groups into a Western-imposed knowledge structure. Samuel Daniell based this drawing on his encounters with indigenous people when he travelled to South Africa between 1799 and 1802. This expedition was only possible due to colonisation of the land and peoples by Dutch and British forces.