Nǃxau ǂToma


Nǃxau ǂToma was a Namibian bush farmer and actor who starred in the 1980 movie 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 San, also known as Bushmen. He spoke Juǀʼhoan, Otjiherero and Tswana fluently, as well as some Afrikaans. He did not know his own exact age, and before his appearance in the films he had little experience of typical "modern" living: he had only ever seen three white people before being cast and was unaware of the value of paper money, allowing his first earnings for The Gods Must Be Crazy to literally blow away in the wind. He came from a culture that did not value the material things that money could buy and consequently had never before learned money management skills, although he used some of his income to build a brick house with running water and electricity for his family.
In addition to The Gods Must Be Crazy, Nǃxau starred in a series of sequels: 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. The Namibian local daily New Era stated that he simply could not count further than 20.
Nǃxau converted to Christianity. In July 2000, he was baptized as a Seventh-day Adventist.
On 5 July 2003, he died from multiple-drug-resistant tuberculosis while he was out on an excursion for hunting guinea fowl. 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 at Tsumkwe, next to the grave of his second wife. He had six surviving children.

Filmography