Xami

The Indigenous constellation Xami in Stellarium 2024. The Eyes of Xami are identified with α and β Centauri, which places α Cir (highlighted) necessarily inside the face.

The Indigenous South African constellation "Xami" was used by the San and by the Khoekhoe in the Western Cape area. It was adopted to the IAU-CSN in 2024 following the General Assembly of the IAU in Cape Town.

Etymology and History

Xami, The Beast (or The Lion) is an Indigenous constellation. The exact extent of this constellation is unknown. Still, the research by Suki Lock (SAAO) who worked with the Indigenous communities, concluded that the eyes of Xami are α and β Centauri. Thus, the SAAO-visualisation of Xami draws a lion head around these two stars placing α Cir necessarily inside the face of Xami. Looking for name suggestions for the nameless main stars of the official constellations, the IAU Working Group on Star Names adopted the name "Xami" for this star.

Circinus is a constellation artificially created by the French surveyor Nicolas de Lacaille in Cape Town in the early modern era, when the Cape Colony, the settlement around the Fort de Goede Hoop (Castle of Good Hope), slowly grew. At that time, the place was a way-station for European ships to the archipelago now called Indonesia, where tobacco, copper and iron were traded with the region's Khoekhoe clans in exchange for fresh meat and other important travelling implements. Lacaille invented the constellation "Le Compas" (in French) and grouped it together with Norma (his invention) and the Southern Triangle (Triangulum Australe), which was invented earlier by the Dutch. The group of drawing tools was considered to commemorate his everyday work, or the profession of a technical draughtsman.

The term "Xami" is from /Xam, a dialect of the Khoe-language which is now moribund, but audio records of this language preserve its sound.

IAU Working Group Star Names

As the French term "Le Compas" might cause confusion in English with Circinus, The Drawing Compas, and Pyxis, The Marine Compas, WGSN won't use it as a star name anyway. The name "Xami" was discussed and approved by the IAU WGSN in 2024 and adopted to the the IAU-CSN for α Circini, a 3.19 mag-star (SIMBAD).

Reference

The information on the identification of Xami with this area in Centaurus was provided by Suki Lock (SAAO), based on information supplied by Auke Slotegraaf, Themba Matomela, Thembela Mantungwa and Mdumiseni Nxumalo. Sivuyile Manxoyi initiated the project of researching the Khoekhoe/ San sky culture after discussions with Prof Jarita Holbrook and Prof Kevin Snedegar on African Cultural astronomy, cf. also Bleek and Lloyd (1911)