Johan Frederik Holleman

Johan Frederik Holleman
Johan Frederik Holleman
Born	(1915-12-18)18 December 1915 Tulungagung, Dutch East Indies
Died	28 August 2001(2001-08-28) (aged 85) Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands
Occupation	Professor, ethnologist, legal scholar
Academic background
Alma mater	Stellenbosch University University of Cape Town

Johan 'Hans' Frederik Holleman (18 December 1915 – 28 August 2001) was a Dutch and South African professor, ethnologist, legal scholar, best known for his research into the indigenous legal systems of Southern Africa. During his life he published twenty books, including five works of fiction. He also published works using the pseudonyms 'Jacobus van der Blaeswindt' and 'Holmer Johanssen'.

Johan Holleman was born in Tulungagung in Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1915. His father was Frederik David Holleman (1887–1958), a Dutch and South African ethnologist and legal scholar working in the Dutch colonial service.

He studied law and ethnology at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, completing his bachelor's degree ethnology and Roman-Dutch Law in 1937, and his master's degree in ethnology (awarded cum laude) in 1938. During this time he became interested in the ethnography of Southern Africa, and lived in a Zulu kraal for a period of ten months. Here he studied Zulu customary law, and also photographed scenes of everyday life in traditional Zulu society. Holleman's photography was well received, and the subject of several photo exhibitions in Stellenbosch.

During this period his also published his first of several fiction books, a book called Gety which is regarded as an important contribution to New Realism.

Johan Holleman acquired South African citizenship in 1940. Between 1940 and 1945 he worked in the civil service, but was prevented from making full use of his knowledge of African Customary Law and instead 'banned' to Riversdal, far away from the African population. During his service there he also married his wife Marie Sem. In 1945, he left the civil service and, after a brief stint as an art director at a film company, was appointed a Beit Research Fellow at the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute in Lusaka in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Here he participated in Max Gluckman's research into Southern and Central Africa.