BERGDAMA, a Negro people inhabiting the northern half of south-west Africa, calling themselves nukhoin ("black peo ple") . Their original language is unknown, for they all now speak the language of the Nama Hottentots, to whom they have long been subject. Some of them keep sheep and goats, and cultivate various crops, but the majority still lead a hunting and collecting life. They are divided into small patriarchal groups which are politically independent of one another. They worship a supreme being known as I igamab, and an important part is played in their domestic cult by the sacred fire.