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The San People- Africa's Ultimate Survivors
Intoduction
The San people of southern Africa are among Africa’s
most intriguing people. Genetic evidence suggests
that they are some of the earth’s most ancient
people, having been around for the past 22,000 years.
These itinerant hunter-gatherer people have for ages
resided in and around the Kalahari Desert. They
have amazingly defied the Kalahari's harshness, and
can even claim to have mastered it.
The San have always lived a distinctly aboriginal
lifestyle. Through the generations, they have told
their story through song and folklore, and the rock
paintings that are found across large areas of
southern Africa. Commonly referred to as the Bushman
tribe, there are today about 100,000 of them in:
South Africa (4,500), Namibia (38,000), Zambia
(1,600), and Zimbabwe (1,200) by the count of the
Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern
Africa (WIMSA).
The San are believed to have inhabited the entire
south of the African continent, way before the
migration of the Bantu. They were displaced by the
southward movement of the Zulu, Nguni, Sotho,
Khoi Khoi, Nama, and other African groups. As they
did not keep livestock, they did not appear to
have any use for pasture. They retreated northwards
and permanently occupied the drier regions. It is
by their adaptation in the Kalahari- which means‘Great Thirst’ - that they have earned a name for
themselves as ultimate survivors.
The Kalahari Basin stretches over Botswana, Namibia
and the north of South Africa, and has a little
spillover into Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The
parched basin covers 2,500,000 square km, with a
desert core that spreads over 900,000 square km.
The Kalahari is challenging, but it is really not
a true desert of the Sahara kind. Most of the region
is semi-arid, except for the southwest which is
truly arid. It receives about 250 mm of rainfall
annually. This allows it to support a rich count
of flora and fauna, and its landscape is painted
with vast grasslands, thorn shrubs, and strands of acacia.
The lifeline of the Kalahari and the only permanent
river in the region is the Okavango. The river
flows into Botswana’s delta of the same name. It
hosts 3 game reserves: Central Kalahari Game
Reserve and Kutse Game Reserve in Botswana, and
the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park shared by
Botswana and South Africa.
The Kalahari wilderness supports a variety of
wildlife species including: the meerkat, wild dog,
jackal and hyena, eland, and an array of
antelopes –including oryx and gemsbok. Occasionally,
some big cats -lion, leopard and cheetah are spotted.
The San are a light skinned folk, whose distinct
yellow-brown skin wrinkles prematurely. They have
a body structure slightly smaller than that of the
average person. They appear to have bulging
foreheads, ears without lobes, and have taut tufts
of flimsy hair. The women tend to have ponderous
posteriors- an excellent way for storing fat for lean seasons.
They wear hide slings to cover their essentials.
On the move they always carry their animal skin
blankets, and a small hide bag, and a cloak called
‘kaross’. The kaross is a multipurpose carrier
pouch in which they carry their very modest
material belongings, veld goodies, babies and tools.
They speak in Khoisan, a language characterized
by numerous clicks and many idiosyncratic sounds.
Their phonetics are complex, such that in writing,
symbols rather than letters are frequently
employed. Various click sounds are expressed
differently, for example, the slash (/) for the
dental click, the Alveolar (!) for the palatal
click, and double slash (//) for the lateral
click. They have influenced the languages of
many southern African tribes who have interacted with them.
The San have been under great pressure to abandon
their itinerant lifestyle, and from the 1950's
most have become farmers. For example, today in
Botswana- the country with the largest San
population, out of a population of 50,000, only
about 3,000 follow the ancient way of life.
The traditional San live in small groups called
bands. Each band comprises of 15 to 25 related
individuals who form a close-knit clan unit. As
nomads, they have no need for permanent shelters.
At times they live in rough and ready accommodation
- such as caves or erect tent-like structures. These
makeshift structures are made with frames of sticks
and thatched with grass and twigs.
In unfavourable weather, animal hide is used in place
of grass. The band clusters their shelters together to
form a ring, with each family living in a single tent.
Each tent has its own campfire, but there is a central
fireplace where the clan gathers to bond and unwind as
nightly stories are told. The fires are kept alive at
all times. Here, stories of hunting experiences,
gathering jaunts, daily goings-on, ancient legends,
past music and dance, and religious beliefs are
exchanged and passed on.
Though a new birth is important, death is even more
significant. The spot where a San dies is avoided, and
camp must be shifted after the event. The family
immediately buries its dead, and never intentionally
goes back or crosses the place of burial. If accident
or necessity forces them back, they throw small stones
at the grave, and mumble under their breath as they
seek peace with the spirit of the departed.
The San have no centralised political system or social
hierarchy, and decisions touching on community affairs
are arrived at through consensus of both male and
female adults, and at times even children are consulted.
When consensus fails, the opinion of the older members
of the band is granted more weight. But when a tie is
apparent among the elders or among age-mates, the name
rule is invoked. The controversy is resolved in favour
of the individual named after a more elderly member of the clan.
The San practice a division of labour based on gender:
the men hunt, while the women gather. The children
usually just trail along, helping where they can as
they assimilate the experience of adults. The older
members of the band mostly remain at camp, and watch
over the children when their parents are out hunting and
gathering.
This is an opportunity for the elders to pass on their
extensive knowledge of their world to the children in the
form of stories and song. The San are excellent mimics,
and it is fun all round as they mimic various animals,
while asking the children to name the animal in play.
The elderly are the pillars of San spiritual life. This is
an important role as the San are quite a spiritual people,
believing in the supernatural world and the existence of
a supreme God. This belief permeates everyday life, and
nearly every aspect of their simple lives has a spiritual
dimension. For example, they believe that to hunt is to
dance in the spirit.
The principle manifestation of their spiritual life is a
ritual known as the trance dance. In the setting for a
trance dance, the women and children sit around the fire,
while singing and clapping in rhythm. The men encircle
the fire in front of the singers and chant frantically,
while thumping the ground with their feet. The resident
shaman- a spiritual healer- runs around the fire in
circles, as he communicates with the spirit world.
When the dance mood strikes right, the shaman enters
into a trance. In this state he is said to have entered
the spirit world, where he is able to consult with the
spirits of long departed ancestors and those causing
illness and pain. If the consultation goes well the
sick are cured, and if not they depart unto death. The
dance is usually performed at the time of the full moon.
The shaman is always an elderly man, who in addition
to the usual leather sling, is adorned in a beaded
headband to which an ostrich feather is attached. The
shaman's gift is deployed in healing, hunting, rain
making, and negating ill-winds in society.
Animals and their interaction with man -especially in
the hunt, have a significant role in San society. The
men hunt with simple but very effective weapons –bows
and arrows. Their hunting and tracking skills are
second to none. They tip their arrows with poison
obtained from beetles, snakes, scorpions, tree gum
and many others from their catalogue of poisonous
animals and plants.
The arrows are carried in quivers, and are made in
such a way that the shaft dislodges from the head on
impact. This is to prevent the animal from extricating
the poisonous arrowhead and running off.
The San have a keen and highly trained eye for the
hunt. Fresh animal droppings are an easy giveaway.
But most of the time, it is not so easy. By analysing
animal tracks, they are able to guess how far an
animal is gone. This involves observing grass blades,
trampled termite nests and other clues in the path
taken by an animal.
These observations can yield surprisingly precise
details: species, age, sex, and size of an animal.
For example an examination of the texture of animal
droppings hints at the roughage content, and thus an
estimate of an animal’s age: high fibre points a tired
digestive system of an older animal.
In a hunt, utmost silence is essential for some
animals have very sensitive hearing. Hunters
communicate only through hand signals and signs.
The hunt is a team work experience, and is a test of
character and discipline. Tracking can sometimes go
for more than a day, calling for patience and
endurance. Once the prey falls within shooting range,
the most advantageously placed hunter releases his
arrow. There is no rush to immediately subdue the
animal, for the poison must be given time to take its toll.
If the prey runs off or goes into hiding, the San
call on their intimate knowledge of animal behaviour.
They stand at the point where the animal was shot,
mimic its movements until they are able to retrace
its tracks. This they believe is done from a
spiritual dimension.
Knowledge of animal behaviour is an integral part of
San socialization. Reading the mood of an animal
determines the hunt technique to be deployed. For
example the hunters may decide that no subterfuge is
required and simply chase an animal to exhaustion. This
practice is well captured in a recent documentary film,
‘The Great Dance, a Hunter’s Story’. This film about San
hunting and tracking was made by James Hersov, Craig and
Damon Foster, and Ellen Windemuth.
To the San, hunting is an imperative social and spiritual
undertaking. It is a cooperative not a competitive affair,
where all work together to bring down the prey and share
in the reward equally. The person whose arrow brought down
the animal has however first priority to pick his portion of choice.
With the San certain animals score higher on the spiritual
scale. The eland in particular enjoys high esteem and has
a sacred place in the heart of the San. It is only hunted
when necessary or for special occasions, for the San
believes the eland is first among animals, and is his
nearest kin in the animal world.
Folklore instructs them that animals were once humans who
after a disagreement turned into elands. All the other
animals were subsequently born of the eland. Every time
an eland is hunted, is a time of great celebration,
divination and dancing. These animals are a great
subject in most San rock paintings.
The primary daily task of San women is to gather food
from the open country, and to take care of the young and
the elderly. All the women of a band go out gathering
together, each taking her baby kaross, a digging stick
and small leather bags. They gather berries and other
fruits, tubers, bulbs, nuts, tortoises, lizards, snakes,
insects, eggs and small mammals. These foods make a
healthy low fat and low calorie diet which keeps the
San very lean.
The women are very knowledgeable about the wild things of
the veld. They seek out many indicators and can tell what
to find where.
As the Kalahari has no surface water, the San have had to
figure out how to do with little or no water. San women
have a way of prospecting for water from the ground
using reeds. But this is usually not necessary as their
main source of drinking water is the tsamma melon. This
blessed fruit is a wild desert melon, whose leaves are
usable as vegetables, and its seeds are a source of protein and oil.
The San's stomach is very strong and versatile. They
eat tortoise, lizards, insects, nuts -either raw or
roasted, tubers, bulbs, and many little animals and
birds. The San waste little - ostrich egg shells are
used for water storage, and tortoise shells serve as cutlery.
San children are socialised together regardless of
gender. But as the children grow older, the boys are
required to tag along with their fathers on hunting
trips. This marks the onset of their initiation process.
As they gain in knowledge, they are allowed to shoot a
few arrows. When judged to be ready they are taken on
their first eland hunt, and actually allowed to lead.
If the hunt is successful, a boy is automatically
initiated into manhood. This is marked by a celebration
following the hunt, after which the boy is at liberty
to marry and start a family.
Unlike many African communities, the San do not
practice circumcision.
For girls, initiation into womanhood is entrusted to
nature. Girls are taken as children until their first
experience of menstruation. Because of the San's low
fat and calorie diet, this is unlikely to happen until
about the age of 19 years. After this event, the women
hold a party in the girl’s honour. They perform the
‘eland bull dance’ in which they imitate the animal’s
mating dance. At this point, she is considered a woman,
ready to be married off to a fine young hunter.
It is acceptable for the parents to find a suitor for
their daughter. But girls are not pressured to accept,
and are still free to come up with their own choice. Like
the rest of their lives, the San wedding ceremony is a
simple affair. On a set day, the women apply a mixture of
eland fat and red ochre on the bride. They sing and make
merry as they wait for the groom to return from his hunt.
On return, the groom presents his hunt to the bride’s
parents, and takes his bride away.
The newly weds build their tent-house and start their
little hearth. They are free to choose whether to live
with the bride’s or groom’s kin. There is no immediate
pressure to start a family; the women chew on a special
tree bark which has contraceptive properties. If a
marriage fails to work, the wife simply returns to her
parents’ fireplace, without any life sapping drama.
The San thrive on an economy of gift exchange. They have
little understanding of the concept of private ownership,
as their demands on the world are so few. Since they
are nomads, and are constantly on the move, movable
wealth is an unwelcome burden. There is little cause
for trade as they share nearly everything they need,
while the rest can almost certainly be picked from the
bush with only a little exertion.
Animal skins serve as clothing, while a nice robe can
be made from fibrous and climber plants. Tools are made
from stones, bones, sticks and occasionally, iron.
The San and their peculiar way of life have always
confounded many. You can tell this from the names
others have bestowed on them. Some communities in
Zimbabwe call them ‘Batwa’, a Bantu word meaning
‘people of the unknown’. In Zambia they are referred
to as Amasili; Kwankhala in Angola; Basarwa in
Botswana, and San in Namibia and South Africa.
San is a Khoikhoi and Nama word meaning ‘outsider’.
The Dutch called them ‘Boschjesmanne’ meaning ‘people
of the boschveld’, from which the name Bushman is
derived. But the different Kalahari San communities
call themselves by different names: for example, a
Kalahari group living on the border of Botswana and
Namibia call themselves the Ju/'hoansi, or "the real
people." The bushman term is however today
considered to be derogatory, and in South Africa
they are officially referred to as the San.
The San people - and their culture and click consonant
language- first came to the attention of the western
world in the 1950s through Laurens van der Post's
book 'The Lost World of the Kalahari'. This
outstanding work was later turned into a BBC TV series.
Many more people came to know of the San through
the hilarious and unforgettable 1980's movie "The
Gods Must be Crazy". In this movie, a San band
encounters the marvels of the outside world in the
form of a coke bottle which falls from a light
aircraft. They initially take the bottle to be a
gift from heaven, but in the end come to see it as
a curse. The documentary, ‘Bushman’s Secrets’ by
Rehad Desai also gives an excellent introduction
to the world of the San.
The arrival of the Dutch and other colonials in the
17th century in San territory marked the beginning
of a very difficult period for the San. They
experienced the most barbaric treatment ever meted
on a people. The colonials did not concede their
humanity- they viewed them as animals, and treated
them as such. They shot them at every encounter, and
took over much of their land for farming and ranching.
The Dutch also captured the San to serve as slaves
and servants. For such a free ranging people, this
was a terrible fate, and very few adapted well. The
British on their part made attempts to civilize them
first, and then domesticate them. They met with little
success, and thus begun to look at them as vermin
and competitors for good and vast grazing fields.
Believe it or not- the British began to issue
licences to game hunters to wipe them out. By such
measures, the San population in the affected areas
was greatly thinned. By 1870, the San of the Cape of
Good Hope had been hunted to extinction. The
extermination lasted until 1936, when the last of
the hunting licences was issued in Namibia. Most of
the San had meanwhile gone into hiding, their
population reduced to less that a quarter of what
they are today.
The shabby treatment of the San, and that it went
on for so long appears shocking today. No one spoke
loudly enough for them, and perhaps only the
weeping of the angels in heaven finally moved their earthly masters.
At present, about 100,000 San exist across southern
Africa, with the largest populations in Botswana and
Namibia. The San have remained so stubbornly attached
to their traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle, even
into the recent past. The promise of stability,
together with government efforts has pressured most
of them to convert to a modern sedentary lifestyle.
It has been a long struggle -physically and
spiritually: they have had to abandon the shaman’s
divinations in favour of hospitals, and their
children miss out on instruction from elders as
they attend schools.
Not all of the San are happy with change, and
particularly at efforts to move them from their
traditional habitats. Together with their
international supporters they have recently waged a
noisy media campaign against the Botswana government.
In 2006 they obtained a reprieve when they won a court
case against the government in contesting their
forcible move from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve
supposedly to preserve wildlife, but according to
some to clear the way for diamond mining.
Today the San and their lifestyle arouse much the
curiosity of tourists. Their ancestral lands also
habour wildlife, and numerous rock art. These ancient
artworks -some dating to the Stone Age, are Africa's
oldest art paintings. They can best be seen at the
Twyfelfontein in Namibia, Drakensberg in Lesotho,
Tsodilo Botswana, Brandberg, Kruger and Kagga
Kamma in South Africa, and the Matobo Hills of Zimbabwe.
You can interact with the San, and at the same time
see the wildlife and other attractions that share
their ancient domicile on a guided wildlife and
cultural tour in South Africa.
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