N!xau

Birth : 1944-12-16, Tsumkwe, Namibia

Death : 2003-07-05

History

Nǃxau ǂToma(short: Nǃxau, alternative spelling Gcao Tekene Çoma; 16 December 1944 – 1 July 2003) was a Namibian bush farmer and actor who was made famous by his roles 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". 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.

Profile

Movies

Journey to Nyae Nyae

Self (as G/qa'o /'Hana)

N!xau (G/qa'o), the star of The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980), is visited in 1990 and shortly before his death in 2003; the way he and his fellow San (Bushmen) people live is not the idyllic lifestyle portrayed in the 1980 film.

The Gods Must Be Funny in China

N!xau

In the early 1990s, Nǃxau was cast in three low-budget unofficial sequels that continued the fish-out-of-water aspects of the first two films.

In Darkest Hollywood: Cinema and Apartheid

Self (as G!kau)

A documentary overview and ideological critique of the South African film industry and cinema's historical relationship with apartheid.

Crazy Hong Kong

N!xau

In the early 1990s, Nǃxau was cast in three low-budget unofficial sequels that continued the fish-out-of-water aspects of the first two films.

Crazy Safari

N!xau The Bushman

Two guys, one of them a magician, are transporting an ancient chinese vampire who can only be controlled by a series of yellow tapes, and is the ancestor of the other guy. On the way, while flying over Africa, their plane stalls. And of all places, where do they land? That's right, in the village of the tribe of "The Gods Must Be Crazy".

The Gods Must Be Crazy II

Xixo

Xixo is back again. This time, his children accidentally stow away on a fast-moving poachers' truck, unable to get off, and Xixo sets out to rescue them. Along the way, he encounters a couple of soldiers trying to capture each other and a pilot and passenger of a small plane, who are each having a few problems of their own.

The Gods Must Be Crazy

A Coca-Cola bottle dropped from an airplane raises havoc among a normally peaceful tribe of African bushmen who believe it to be a utensil of the gods.