Background
She was born into her profession as the fifth daughter of Wilhelm Bleek, a pioneering philologist studying the languages and cultures of southern Africa in the late 1800s.
She was born into her profession as the fifth daughter of Wilhelm Bleek, a pioneering philologist studying the languages and cultures of southern Africa in the late 1800s.
The work of Dorothy Bleek was largely a continuation of her father and aunt"s research, but she also made numerous notable contributions of her own to the field Her culminating work, published after death, was the book A Bushman Dictionary, still referenced today. This is in the introduction to The Heart of the Hunter (1961), a follow-up to The Lost World of the Kalahari, the book based on the British Broadcasting Corporation series that brought the Bushmen to international attention.
This has led to a perception of her as a racist.
Despite this, Bleek"s research on the language, customs, and especially rock art of the African native populations in present-day South Africa, Tanzania, Botswana, and Namibia stands as a vital contribution to scholarship on the region. Her photographs and audio recordings were especially important to later researchers.