102-609: The Oorlam or Orlam people (also known as Orlaam, Oorlammers, Oerlams, or Orlamse Hottentots) are a subtribe of the Nama people , largely assimilated after their migration from the Cape Colony (today, part of South Africa) to Namaqualand and Damaraland (now in Namibia). Oorlam clans were originally formed from mixed-race descendants of indigenous Khoikhoi , Europeans and slaves from Mozambique, Madagascar, India and Indonesia. Similar to
204-500: A 1993 film , are about a white boy encountering a wandering San and his wife, and how the San's life and survival skills save the white teenagers' lives in a journey across the desert. James A. Michener 's The Covenant (1980), is a work of historical fiction centered on South Africa. The first section of the book concerns a San community's journey set roughly in 13,000 BC. In Wilbur Smith 's novel The Burning Shore (an instalment in
306-678: A 1997 conference in Cape Town on "Khoisan Identities and Cultural Heritage" organized by the University of the Western Cape . The term San is now standard in South African, and used officially in the blazon of the national coat-of-arms . The "South African San Council" representing San communities in South Africa was established as part of WIMSA in 2001. The term Basarwa (singular Mosarwa )
408-418: A Kalahari San group's first encounter with an artifact from the outside world (a Coca-Cola bottle). By the time this movie was made, the ǃKung had recently been forced into sedentary villages, and the San hired as actors were confused by the instructions to act out inaccurate exaggerations of their almost abandoned hunting and gathering life. " Eh Hee " by Dave Matthews Band was written as an evocation of
510-405: A beehive shape. It is a dwelling house for all seasons– it is cool and well ventilated in summer, it is naturally insulated by reed carpets in winter, and protected from the rain by the porous stems which swell with water. All materials are organic and not over-harvested; this is a home that truly respects the environment. Women and men take part in the making of it, in the collection of materials, in
612-438: A church and mission station, and also helped found an RMG school in the settlement. In June 1884 Hendrik Witbooi had taken over leadership from his father, and in that year he began the first of his several treks with his people north into central Damaraland in search of new settlement. He had just resigned from his position in church as an elder a year before (1883), he styled himself as a biblical prophet and gained support of
714-510: A communialist society centered on cattle, trade and Christianity. After his death in 1875 Moses Witbooi (Hendrik Witbooi's father) assumed chieftaincy and remained in that position until 1883. Like his father Moses followed Christian practices and worked closely with Johannes Olpp, a Protestant missionary affiliated with Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft ( Rhenish Mission Society , RMG) who arrived in Gibeon in 1868. Moses supported Olpp's efforts to build
816-521: A deputy officer to Göering wrote to Witbooi inviting him to participate in a conciliatory meeting between the various warring communities in Walvis Bay. With this meeting German authorities had hoped to facilitate a peace treaty, however the Namaqua chief did not comply with the request but instead he wrote a letter in response telling Nels that he will not listen to him. He made it known to Nels that he (Witbooi)
918-487: A hunter is able to obtain enough food, he can afford to have a second wife as well. Villages range in sturdiness from nightly rain shelters in the warm spring (when people move constantly in search of budding greens), to formalized rings, wherein people congregate in the dry season around permanent waterholes. Early spring is the hardest season: a hot dry period following the cool, dry winter. Most plants still are dead or dormant, and supplies of autumn nuts are exhausted. Meat
1020-538: A mere "tribesman" whom he could defeat easily. He had a notion that his predecessors acted weakly in dealing with the Nama chief and they made too many concessions. François strongly believed that nothing but relentless severity would end Witbooi's resistance decisively. Initially the German official tried to entice with an annual payment of five thousand marks if he would submit, however the Nama chief maintained his stand. François
1122-425: A reservation too small to support them. South African film-maker Richard Wicksteed has produced a number of documentaries on San culture, history and present situation; these include In God's Places / Iindawo ZikaThixo (1995) on the San cultural legacy in the southern Drakensberg; Death of a Bushman (2002) on the murder of San tracker Optel Rooi by South African police; The Will To Survive (2009), which covers
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#17330855882161224-541: A root saa "picking up from the ground" + plural -n in the Haiǁom dialect . "Bushmen" is the older cover term, but "San" was widely adopted in the West by the late 1990s. The term Bushmen , from 17th-century Dutch Bosjesmans , is still used by others and to self-identify, but is now considered pejorative or derogatory by many South Africans. In 2008, the use of boesman (the modern Afrikaans equivalent of "Bushman") in
1326-534: A slow-acting arrow poison produced by beetle larvae of the genus Diamphidia . A set of tools almost identical to that used by the modern San and dating to 42,000 BC was discovered at Border Cave in KwaZulu-Natal in 2012. In 2006, what is thought to be the world's oldest ritual is interpreted as evidence which would make the San culture the oldest still practiced culture today. Historical evidence shows that certain San communities have always lived in
1428-580: A study published in March 2011, Brenna Henn and colleagues found that the ǂKhomani San, as well as the Sandawe and Hadza peoples of Tanzania , were the most genetically diverse of any living humans studied. This high degree of genetic diversity hints at the origin of anatomically modern humans . A 2008 study suggested that the San may have been isolated from other original ancestral groups for as much as 50,000 to 100,000 years and later rejoined, re-integrating into
1530-472: A trans-frontier park from the west coast of southern Africa to the desert interior, absorbing the Richtersveld National Park. Today, the Richtersveld National Park is one of the few places where the original Nama traditions survive. There, the Nama move with the seasons and speak their language. The traditional Nama dwelling – the |haru oms, or portable rush-mat covered domed hut – protects against
1632-430: A wealth of information in anthropology and genetics . One broad study of African genetic diversity , completed in 2009, found that the genetic diversity of the San was among the top five of all 121 sampled populations. Certain San groups are one of 14 known extant "ancestral population clusters"; that is, "groups of populations with common genetic ancestry, who share ethnicity and similarities in both their culture and
1734-664: Is a chief of his tribe who is free and an autonomous man who answers only to God. The German officials did not respond to Witbooi's diplomatic reproach. With the limits of German on full display, imperial officials were at a loss about how to end the violence in GSWA. In June 1888, Göring wrote Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck and described the overall situation as "not very encouraging". April 1889 Göring went so far as to threaten open war against Witbooi and his tribe if he did not halt his attacks against groups allied with Germany. Witbooi's resistance prompted policy makers to seek immediate solutions to
1836-400: Is also celebrated in reverse at the man's family home. White flags are mounted on both families' houses which may not be taken off but wither or are blown off by the wind one day. The wedding preparations can take up to a year. The family of the groom makes a gift to the bride's mother, traditionally a cow and a calf, for she has raised the bride at her breast. A bargaining process accompanies
1938-401: Is particularly important in the dry months when wildlife cannot range far from the receding waters. Women gather fruit, berries, tubers, bush onions, and other plant materials for the band's consumption. Ostrich eggs are gathered, and the empty shells are used as water containers. Insects provide perhaps 10% of animal proteins consumed, most often during the dry season. Depending on location,
2040-530: Is used for the San collectively in Botswana. The term is a Bantu ( Tswana ) word meaning "those who do not rear cattle", that is, equivalent to Khoekhoe Saan . The mo-/ba- noun class prefixes are used for people; the older variant Masarwa , with the le-/ma- prefixes used for disreputable people and animals, is offensive and was changed at independence. In Angola, they are sometimes referred to as mucancalas , or bosquímanos (a Portuguese adaptation of
2142-705: The Die Burger newspaper was brought before the Equality Court . The San Council testified that it had no objection to its use in a positive context, and the court ruled that the use of the term was not derogatory. The San refer to themselves as their individual nations, such as ǃKung (also spelled ǃXuun , including the Juǀʼhoansi ), ǀXam , Nǁnǂe (part of the ǂKhomani), Kxoe (Khwe and ǁAni), Haiǁom , Ncoakhoe , Tshuwau , Gǁana and Gǀui (ǀGwi) , etc. Representatives of San peoples in 2003 stated their preference for
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#17330855882162244-557: The Bantu-speaking Hereros for a period. Emerging from populations of Khoikhoi servants raised on Boer farms, many of them having been orphaned and captured in Dutch commando raids, Oorlams primarily spoke a version of Dutch or proto- Afrikaans and were much influenced by Cape Dutch colonial ways of life, including adoption of horses and guns, European clothing, and Christianity. However, after two centuries of assimilation into
2346-526: The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The San have yet to profit from this agreement, as P57 has still not yet been legally developed and marketed. The San of the Kalahari were first brought to the globalized world's attention in the 1950s by South African author Laurens van der Post . Van der Post grew up in South Africa, and had a respectful lifelong fascination with native African cultures. In 1955, he
2448-501: The Dutch term for "Bushmen"). The terms Amasili and Batwa are sometimes used for them in Zimbabwe . The San are also referred to as Batwa by Xhosa people and as Baroa by Sotho people . The Bantu term Batwa refers to any foraging tribesmen and as such overlaps with the terminology used for the "Pygmoid" Southern Twa of South-Central Africa. The hunter-gatherer San are among
2550-550: The Khoekhoe and descendants of more recent waves of immigration such as the Bantu , Europeans , and Asians . In 2017, Botswana was home to approximately 63,500 San, making it the country with the highest proportion of San people at 2.8%. 71,201 San people were enumerated in Namibia in 2023, making it the country with the second highest proportion of San people at 2.4%. In Khoekhoegowab ,
2652-602: The Khoisan peoples of South Africa and southern Namibia maintained a nomadic life, the Khoikhoi as pastoralists and the San people as hunter-gatherers. The Nama are a Khoikhoi group. The Nama originally lived around the Orange River in southern Namibia and northern South Africa. The early colonialists referred to them as Hottentots . Their alternative historical name, "Namaqua", stems from
2754-698: The Nama language of the Khoe-Kwadi language family, although many Nama also speak Afrikaans . The Nama People (or Nama-Khoe people) are the largest group of the Khoikhoi people, most of whom have disappeared as a group, except for the Namas. Many of the Nama clans live in Central Namibia and the other smaller groups live in Namaqualand , which today straddles the Namibian border with South Africa. For thousands of years,
2856-608: The Transgariep ) retained links to Oorlam communities in or close to the borders of the Cape Colony. In the face of gradual Boer expansion and then large-scale Boer migrations, such as the Dorsland Trek , away from British rule in the Cape, Jonker Afrikaner brought his people into Namaqualand by the mid-19th century, becoming a formidable force for Oorlam domination over the Nama and against
2958-493: The "principal human rights concern" of that country. The San kinship system reflects their history as traditionally small mobile foraging bands. San kinship is similar to Inuit kinship , which uses the same set of terms as in European cultures but adds a name rule and an age rule for determining what terms to use. The age rule resolves any confusion arising from kinship terms, as the older of two people always decides what to call
3060-406: The 1800s, and this traditional clothing is today an integral part of the Nama nation's culture. The Nama people's hut, also called matjieshuis, is a round hut traditionally made of beautifully designed reed mats on a skeleton of sticks. It corresponds to their nomadic life of the past; matjieshuis is still part of the life of the inhabitants of Richtersveld– a region made up of mountainous deserts in
3162-423: The 1870s, the last San of the Cape were hunted to extinction, while other San were able to survive. The South African government used to issue licenses for people to hunt the San, with the last one being reportedly issued in Namibia in 1936. From the 1950s through to the 1990s, San communities switched to farming because of government-mandated modernization programs. Despite the lifestyle changes, they have provided
Oorlam people - Misplaced Pages Continue
3264-512: The 18th and 19th centuries, as conflicts intensified and Dutch settlement was expanding and taking up much space in the colony, the expansion of the colony frontier pushed the Khoikhoi Eastwards into the easternmost Cape & the eventual "closed frontier" native reserves (Transkei &Ciskei) and Northwards across the so-called "open frontier" (Northern Cape & South West Africa/Namibia). Some descendants of Khoikhoi communities, including
3366-545: The Dutch made a stop at the Cape on the way to the Indonesian archipelago, they were concerned with getting fresh produce and water for their people. Indonesia was rich in crops and spices which could not be produced in Europe, which is why the Dutch had major interest there. The Dutch had enslaved a large number of Indonesians to work on their plantations. In the Cape, Van Riebeek initially attempted to get cattle, land, and labour from
3468-477: The German protection. These rivalries between the Nama people and other tribes posed a significant problem for the imperial government because the Germans' mandate for the colony was gradually being weakened. German leaders therefore sought to bring immediate end to the conflicts between Herero people and Witbooi Namaqua. In June 1886, Reichskomissar Göring wrote Witbooi, encouraging him to end his hostile actions in
3570-502: The Hunter, a narrative which he admits in the introduction uses two previous works of stories and mythology as "a sort of Stone Age Bible," namely Specimens of Bushman Folklore ' (1911), collected by Wilhelm H. I. Bleek and Lucy C. Lloyd , and Dorothea Bleek 's Mantis and His Friend. Van der Post's work brought indigenous African cultures to millions of people around the world for the first time, but some people disparaged it as part of
3672-521: The Khoikhoi people through negotiation, but when these negotiations failed, conflicts began to occur. The Dutch settlers waged wars against the Khoikoi, and seized their lands to construct farms for wheat and other produce, and forced many Khoikoi people to work as labourers. Their livestock was also taken and they were denied access to grazing and water resources unless they worked for the Dutch settlers. During
3774-571: The Khoikhoi there, who had settled in the Cape region at least a thousand years before the Dutch arrived. The Khoikhoi at the Cape practiced pastoral farming; they were the first pastoralists in Southern Africa. They lived beside the San people , who were hunter-gathers. The Khoikhoi had a lot of Nguni cattle and small livestock which they grazed around the Cape. The region was well suited to their lives as pastoralists because it provided enough water for them and their livestock. Initially, when
3876-455: The Nama and the Herero (a group of Bantu pastoralists), leading to the Herero and Namaqua genocide and a large loss of life for both the Nama and Herero populations. This was motivated by the German desire to establish a prosperous colony which required displacing the indigenous people from their agricultural land. Large herds of cattle were confiscated and Nama and Herero people were driven into
3978-459: The Nama culture, many Oorlams today regard Khoekhoe (Damara/Nama) as their mother tongue. The distinction between Namas and Oorlams has gradually disappeared, such that they are regarded as a single ethnic group, despite their differing origins. The Orlam people comprise various subtribes, clans and families. In South Africa, the Griqua are an influential Oorlam group. The clans that migrated across
4080-499: The Nama culture, many Oorlams today regard Khoikhoigowab (Damara/Nama) as their mother tongue, though others speak Afrikaans . The distinction between Namas and Oorlams has gradually disappeared over time to an extent where they are today regarded as one ethnic group, despite their different ancestries. In general, the Nama practice a policy of communal land ownership. Music, poetry and story telling are very important in Nama culture and many stories have been passed down orally through
4182-489: The Nama people from summer rain. These Huts are very mobile, but also stable, being able to break them down in less than an hour. The huts are also reusable. They have largely abandoned their traditional religion through the sustained efforts of Christian (and now Muslim) missionaries. The majority of the Nama people in Namibia today are therefore Christian while Nama Muslims make up a large percentage of Namibia's Muslims. In
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4284-470: The Nama people in South Namibia have lost their lands during German colonialism. New Namibian minister of land reform, Uutoni Nujoma has been accused of preferring other Namibians from other regions over native Namas. The traditional dress of Nama women consists of long, formal dresses that resemble Victorian traditional fashion. The long, flowing dresses were developed from the style of the missionaries in
4386-502: The Nama, fled north of the colony and crossed the Orange River into German South West Africa (present day Namibia ). In 1991, a part of Namaqualand (home of the Nama and one of the last true wilderness areas of South Africa) was named the Richtersveld National Park . In December 2002, ancestral lands, including the park, were returned to community ownership and the governments of South Africa and Namibia began creating
4488-556: The Oranje into South West Africa are, in order of their time of arrival: of the faction supporting SWAPO ; of the faction supporting DTA ; leader of the reunified group ; of the faction supporting the German Empire ; of the faction opposing German Empire; ; acting Nama people Nama (in older sources also called Namaqua ) are an African ethnic group of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana . They traditionally speak
4590-539: The San consume 18 to 104 species, including grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, moths, butterflies, and termites. Women's traditional gathering gear is simple and effective: a hide sling, a blanket, a cloak called a kaross to carry foodstuffs, firewood, smaller bags, a digging stick, and perhaps, a smaller version of the kaross to carry a baby. Men, and presumably women when they accompany them, hunt in long, laborious tracking excursions. They kill their game using bow and arrows and spears tipped in diamphotoxin ,
4692-511: The San occupied the southern shores throughout the eastern shrubland and may have formed a Sangoan continuum from the Red Sea to the Cape of Good Hope . By the end of the 18th century after the arrival of the Dutch, thousands of San had been killed and forced to work for the colonists. The British tried to "civilize" the San and make them adopt a more agricultural lifestyle, but were not successful. By
4794-446: The San people (or Basarwa ), was conquered during colonization. Loss of land and access to natural resources continued after Botswana's independence. The San have been particularly affected by encroachment by majority peoples and non-indigenous farmers onto their traditional land. Government policies from the 1970s transferred a significant area of traditionally San land to majority agro-pastoralist tribes and white settlers Much of
4896-701: The Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA), the South African San Council and the South African San Institute. This benefit-sharing agreement is one of the first to give royalties to the holders of traditional knowledge used for drug sales. The terms of the agreement are contentious, because of their apparent lack of adherence to the Bonn Guidelines on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing, as outlined in
4998-528: The World (2005) compares San cave paintings from 200 years ago to Paleolithic European paintings that are 14,000 years old. Because of their similarities, the San works may illustrate the reasons for ancient cave paintings. The presenter Nigel Spivey draws largely on the work of Professor David Lewis-Williams , whose PhD was entitled "Believing and Seeing: Symbolic meanings in southern San rock paintings". Lewis-Williams draws parallels with prehistoric art around
5100-436: The actual burial. During the first two nights of the mourning, there is singing of hymns, preaching, and praying. On the last day of the mourning and the day of the burial, there are speeches presented and messages of condolences. The grave site itself is lined with brick, and once the body is inside, a wooden board is laid upon the top before it is covered with dirt. This style of the burial site makes it easy for preservation of
5202-482: The addition of the Khoekhoe language suffix "-qua/kwa" , meaning "place of" (found in the names of other Southern African nations like the Griqua ), to the language name. In April 1652, Jan van Riebeeck , an official of the Dutch East India Company , arrived at the Cape of Good Hope with 90 people to start initial Dutch settlement at the request of the company. They found the indigenous settlers called
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#17330855882165304-462: The ancestral land-rights of all San. John Marshall, the son of Harvard anthropologist Lorna Marshall , documented the lives of San in the Nyae Nyae region of Namibia over a period spanning more than 50-years. His early film The Hunters, shows a giraffe hunt. A Kalahari Family (2002) is a series documenting 50 years in the lives of the Juǀʼhoansi of Southern Africa, from 1951 to 2000. Marshall
5406-510: The appropriation of traditional lands that had begun early in the colonial period. Under apartheid , remaining pastoralists were encouraged to abandon their traditional lifestyle in favour of village life. At the dawn of the 19th century, Oorlam people encroached into Namaqualand and Damaraland . They likewise descended from indigenous Khoikhoi but were a group with mixed ancestry including Europeans and slaves from Madagascar , India, and Indonesia . After two centuries of assimilation into
5508-518: The blistering sun, and is easy to move when grazing becomes scarce. Some Khoikhoi groups including the Nama under the leadership of David Witbooi ( Hendrik Witbooi 's grandfather) had crossed the Orange River into South West Africa. David Witbooi was the first Khoikhoi leader to establish a permanent Namaqua settlement north Orange River beginning in the mid-1840s. In 1863, he eventually led his people to Gibeon (south-central Namibia) where he developed
5610-460: The body. Namas have a complicated wedding ritual. First, the man has to discuss his intentions with his family. If they agree they will advise him of the customs to ask the bride's family and then accompany him to the place she lives. The yard at the bride's living place is prepared prior to the future husband's family's arrival; animal hides are laid out in the corners for the different groups to sit down and discuss. The groom's family will ask for
5712-545: The colony. He pleaded with the Nama Chief to return home to Gibeon to be with his father and tribe and live in peace there; he warned that the German government could not allow chieftains who have placed themselves under German protection to support his ambition of driving a protected chiefdom into war. Witbooi and his people ignored this warning and continued his campaign for dominance against the Herero. Later that same year Louis Nels,
5814-412: The conflict began, Maharero had finalized a protection agreement with officials from the newly arrived German colonial administration. Although he knew about Maharero's treaty with Germany, Witbooi never waivered in his decision to confront the Herero people. Witbooi was campaigning for his tribe's supremacy in the colony and he continued to clash with other tribal communities that were under the auspices of
5916-426: The desert and in some cases interned in concentration camps on the coast, for example at Shark Island . Additionally, the Nama and Herero were forced into slave labor to build railways and to dig for diamonds during the diamond rush . In the 1920s diamonds were discovered at the mouth of the Orange River , and prospectors began moving there, establishing towns at Alexander Bay and Port Nolloth . This accelerated
6018-588: The desert regions of the Kalahari; however, eventually nearly all other San communities in southern Africa were forced into this region. The Kalahari San remained in poverty where their richer neighbours denied them rights to the land. Before long, in both Botswana and Namibia, they found their territory drastically reduced. Various Y chromosome studies show that the San carry some of the most divergent (earliest branching) human Y-chromosome haplogroups . These haplogroups are specific sub-groups of haplogroups A and B ,
6120-424: The early phases of European colonization, tens of thousands of Khoekhoe and San peoples lost their lives as a result of genocide, murder, physical mistreatment, and disease. There were cases of “Bushman hunting” in which commandos (mobile paramilitary units or posses) sought to dispatch San and Khoekhoe in various parts of Southern Africa." Much aboriginal people 's land in Botswana, including land occupied by
6222-414: The far right, while younger brothers and their families on the left. There are no enclosures for adult livestock. They are expected to sleep in front of their owners huts. Calves and lambs are placed in an enclosed area in the middle of camp. The huts were lined with reed mats made by women, and the mats are placed on wooden frames. The reeds are able to soak and absorb water well, thus being able to protect
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#17330855882166324-432: The film "constitutes an act of preservation and a requiem." Spencer Wells 's 2003 book The Journey of Man —in connection with National Geographic 's Genographic Project —discusses a genetic analysis of the San and asserts their genetic markers were the first ones to split from those of the ancestors of the bulk of other Homo sapiens sapiens. The PBS documentary based on the book follows these markers throughout
6426-401: The foraging San collectively. It was coined by Leonhard Schulze in the 1920s and popularized by Isaac Schapera in 1930. Anthropological use of San was detached from the compound Khoisan , as it has been reported that the exonym San is perceived as a pejorative in parts of the central Kalahari. By the late 1990s, the term San was used generally by the people themselves. The adoption of
6528-435: The gate to be opened. If this is granted, the groom is interrogated about details of the bride, including the circumstances of their first meeting and how to identify her body marks to make sure both know each other well. If the bride is pregnant or already has children from her future husband or someone else, the bride is subjected to the "door cleansing" ceremony (slaughtering and consuming a snow-white goat). After several days
6630-450: The gathering of food, but sometimes also partake in hunting. Water is important in San life. During long droughts, they make use of sip wells in order to collect water. To make a sip well, a San scrapes a deep hole where the sand is damp, and inserts a long hollow grass stem into the hole. An empty ostrich egg is used to collect the water. Water is sucked into the straw from the sand, into the mouth, and then travels down another straw into
6732-441: The generations. The Nama have a culture that is rich in the musical and literary abilities of its people. Traditional music, folk tales, proverbs, and praise poetry have been handed down for generations and form the base for much of their culture. They are known for crafts which include leatherwork, skin karosses and mats, musical instruments (such as reed flutes), jewellery, clay pots, and tortoiseshell powder containers. Many of
6834-416: The gift that can take weeks in itself. On wedding day, both families provide animals and other food and bring it to the bride's home. The wedding itself takes place in a church. Festivities afterward go on for several days. The first night after the wedding the couple spends separately. On the next morning, they set off for their own home. San people The San peoples (also Saan ), or Bushmen , are
6936-655: The government's policy regarding land tended to favor the dominant Tswana peoples over the minority San and Bakgalagadi . Loss of land is a major contributor to the problems facing Botswana's indigenous people, including especially the San's eviction from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve . The government of Botswana decided to relocate all of those living within the reserve to settlements outside it. Harassment of residents, dismantling of infrastructure, and bans on hunting appear to have been used to induce residents to leave. The government has denied that any of
7038-454: The history and situation of San communities in southern Africa today; and My Land is My Dignity (2009) on the San's epic land rights struggle in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve . A documentary on San hunting entitled, The Great Dance: A Hunter's Story (2000), directed by Damon and Craig Foster . This was reviewed by Lawrence Van Gelder for the New York Times , who said that
7140-418: The instability in GSWA. The Namaqua resistance provoked the German authorities to act decisively, after 1889 Germany's military presence in the colony began to grow exponentially. In March 1893 Chancellor Von Caprivi proclaimed GSWA a German settlement colony. November same year Kaiser Wilhelm II appointed Curt von François as Landeshauptmann . A fanatic, François looked at Witbooi with disdain and called him
7242-412: The late 18th century, Oorlam communities migrated from the Cape Colony north to Namaqualand . They settled places earlier occupied by the Nama. They came partly to escape the colonial Dutch East India Company conscription, partly to raid and trade, and partly to obtain herding lands. Some of these emigrant Oorlams (including the band led by the outlaw Jager Afrikaner and his son Jonker Afrikaner in
7344-524: The lives of the ǃKung San people between the 1950s and 1978 in Nǃai, the Story of a ǃKung Woman. This film, the account of a woman who grew up while the San lived as autonomous hunter-gatherers, but who later was forced into a dependent life in the government-created community at Tsumkwe, shows how the lives of the ǃKung people , who lived for millennia as hunter gatherers, were forever changed when they were forced onto
7446-497: The members of any of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the oldest surviving cultures of the region. Their recent ancestral territories span Botswana , Namibia , Angola , Zambia , Zimbabwe , Lesotho , and South Africa . The San speak, or their ancestors spoke, languages of the Khoe , Tuu , and Kxʼa language families, and can be defined as a people only in contrast to neighboring pastoralists such as
7548-468: The most prominent families in Gibeon. Witbooi established a settlement in Hoornkrans the very same year he moved from Gibeon. Hoornkrans was an important stronghold territory controlled by the Herero, powerful Bantu pastoralists community led by Chief Maharero . Witbooi's decision to expand his influence into Hoornkrans sparked a protracted military conflict between the two tribes. However, a few months before
7650-515: The music and culture of the San. In a story told to the Radio City audience (an edited version of which appears on the DVD version of Live at Radio City ), Matthews recalls hearing the music of the San and, upon asking his guide what the words to their songs were, being told that "there are no words to these songs, because these songs, we've been singing since before people had words." He goes on to describe
7752-454: The northwest of South Africa. In fact, this is the last place where we can still find them in significant numbers. In the villages currently in the Richtersveld, the matjieshuis are used as a depot to store, as a kitchen, as an additional place to sleep, or even to provide to tourists, like accommodation. These huts, called haru oms in the Nama language, are made of reed mats woven neatly into
7854-460: The oldest cultures on Earth, and are thought to be descended from the first inhabitants of what is now Botswana and South Africa. The historical presence of the San in Botswana is particularly evident in northern Botswana's Tsodilo Hills region. San were traditionally semi-nomadic , moving seasonally within certain defined areas based on the availability of resources such as water, game animals , and edible plants. Peoples related to or similar to
7956-426: The ostrich egg. Traditionally, the San were an egalitarian society. Although they had hereditary chiefs , their authority was limited. The San made decisions among themselves by consensus , with women treated as relative equals in decision making. San economy was a gift economy , based on giving each other gifts regularly rather than on trading or purchasing goods and services. Most San are monogamous , but if
8058-521: The other Afrikaans -speaking group at the time, the Trekboers , Oorlam originally populated the frontiers of the infant Cape Colony, later living as semi-nomadic commandos of mounted gunmen. Also, like the Boers , they migrated inland from the Cape, and established several states in what are now South Africa and Namibia. The Oorlam migration in South Africa also produced the related Griqua people . Beginning in
8160-472: The past funerals were not a big social gathering. The Nama people simply buried the body and never spoke about the person again due to fear of spirits. Today funerals are social solidarity. The position of the person in the community being buried matters– that determines the burial site. Members of close relatives of the deceased person spend a week preparing the grave site, digging, and using flattened oil drums as sheets. The mourning takes place three days before
8262-421: The preparation of the rugs, and in the assembly of the hut, in a very meticulous process which has remained a true Nama art. Traditionally, Nama camps had 5-30 huts. These huts were circular domes and their doors faced the center of camp. They were also arranged hierarchically; the chief's was placed west and faced east. Other families were placed based on their seniority. Elder brothers and their families were on
8364-510: The properties of their languages". Despite some positive aspects of government development programs reported by members of San and Bakgalagadi communities in Botswana, many have spoken of a consistent sense of exclusion from government decision-making processes, and many San and Bakgalagadi have alleged experiencing ethnic discrimination on the part of the government. The United States Department of State described ongoing discrimination against San, or Basarwa , people in Botswana in 2013 as
8466-461: The raid believing François was still committed to neutrality. Previously Hendrik had scrupulously avoided harming Germans, but now was compelled to join the colonizers in war. In a series of running skirmishes that lasted for more than a year the Namaqua had great success, stealing horses and livestock from the German headquarters in Windhoek. At the end of 1893 Theodor Leutwein replaced Von François, he
8568-554: The relocation was forced. A legal battle followed. The relocation policy may have been intended to facilitate diamond mining by Gem Diamonds within the reserve. Hoodia gordonii , used by the San, was patented by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in 1998, for its presumed appetite suppressing quality, although, according to a 2006 review, no published scientific evidence supported hoodia as an appetite suppressant in humans. A licence
8670-613: The rest of the human gene pool. A DNA study of fully sequenced genomes, published in September 2016, showed that the ancestors of today's San hunter-gatherers began to diverge from other human populations in Africa about 200,000 years ago and were fully isolated by 100,000 years ago. According to professors Robert K. Hitchcock, Wayne A. Babchuk, " In 1652, when Europeans established a full-time presence in Southern Africa, there were some 300,000 San and 600,000 Khoekhoe in Southern Africa. During
8772-467: The song as his "homage to meeting... the most advanced people on the planet." In Peter Godwin 's biography When A Crocodile Eats the Sun , he mentions his time spent with the San for an assignment. His title comes from the San's belief that a solar eclipse occurs when a crocodile eats the sun. Laurens van der Post 's two novels, A Story Like The Wind (1972) and its sequel, A Far Off Place (1974), made into
8874-459: The southern people in the central Kalahari towards the Molopo River , who are the last remnant of the previously extensive indigenous peoples of southern Africa. The designations "Bushmen" and "San" are both exonyms . The San have no collective word for themselves in their own languages. "San" comes from a derogatory Khoekhoe word used to refer to foragers without cattle or other wealth, from
8976-457: The subjective view of a European in the 1950s and 1960s, stating that he branded the San as simple "children of Nature" or even "mystical ecologists." In 1992 by John Perrot and team published the book "Bush for the Bushman" – a "desperate plea" on behalf of the aboriginal San addressing the international community and calling on the governments throughout Southern Africa to respect and reconstitute
9078-569: The term "San" has a long vowel and is spelled Sān . It is an exonym meaning "foragers" and is used in a derogatory manner to describe people too poor to have cattle. Based on observation of lifestyle, this term has been applied to speakers of three distinct language families living between the Okavango River in Botswana and Etosha National Park in northwestern Namibia , extending up into southern Angola ; central peoples of most of Namibia and Botswana, extending into Zambia and Zimbabwe ; and
9180-560: The term was preceded by a number of meetings held in the 1990s where delegates debated on the adoption of a collective term. These meetings included the Common Access to Development Conference organized by the Government of Botswana held in Gaborone in 1993, the 1996 inaugural Annual General Meeting of the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA) held in Namibia, and
9282-436: The two earliest branches on the human Y-chromosome tree . Mitochondrial DNA studies also provide evidence that the San carry high frequencies of the earliest haplogroup branches in the human mitochondrial DNA tree. This DNA is inherited only from one's mother. The most divergent (earliest branching) mitochondrial haplogroup, L0d , has been identified at its highest frequencies in the southern African San groups. In
9384-564: The use of such individual group names, where possible, over the use of the collective term San . Adoption of the Khoekhoe term San in Western anthropology dates to the 1970s, and this remains the standard term in English-language ethnographic literature, although some authors later switched back to using the name Bushmen . The compound Khoisan is used to refer to the pastoralist Khoi and
9486-407: The wars in the colony. He employed a policy of extermination of the whole African tribes in the colony. The Nama people were fighters in pre-colonial times, the Namas and the Herero people fought for control of pastures in central Namibia. The battle continued for a long part of the 19th century. From 1904 to 1908, the German Empire , which had colonized present-day Namibia , waged a war against
9588-513: The wedding ritual continues in reverse; the bride's family visits the clan of the groom. If all is to the satisfaction of the two clans, an engagement day is announced. At the engagement, the groom's family brings live animals to the woman's family home. The animals are slaughtered, hung on three sticks, and each part is offered to the bride's family. Other items like bags of sugar or flour are only offered in quantities of two or four to indicate that there will always be abundance of food. This process
9690-562: The world, demonstrating that all of humankind can be traced back to the African continent (see Recent African origin of modern humans , the so-called "out of Africa" hypothesis). The BBC's The Life of Mammals (2003) series includes video footage of an indigenous San of the Kalahari desert undertaking a persistence hunt of a kudu through harsh desert conditions. It provides an illustration of how early man may have pursued and captured prey with minimal weaponry. The BBC series How Art Made
9792-526: The world, linking in shamanic ritual and trance states. A 1969 film, Lost in the Desert , features a small boy, stranded in the desert, who encounters a group of wandering San. They help him and then abandon him as a result of a misunderstanding created by the lack of a common language and culture. The film was directed by Jamie Uys , who returned to the San a decade later with The Gods Must Be Crazy , which proved to be an international hit. This comedy portrays
9894-539: The younger. Relatively few names circulate (approximately 35 names per sex), and each child is named after a grandparent or another relative, but never their parents. Children have no social duties besides playing, and leisure is very important to San of all ages. Large amounts of time are spent in conversation, joking, music, and sacred dances. Women may be leaders of their own family groups. They may also make important family and group decisions and claim ownership of water holes and foraging areas. Women are mainly involved in
9996-478: Was a vocal proponent of the San cause throughout his life. His sister Elizabeth Marshall Thomas wrote several books and numerous articles about the San, based in part on her experiences living with these people when their culture was still intact. The Harmless People, published in 1959, and The Old Way: A Story of the First People, published in 2006, are two of them. John Marshall and Adrienne Miesmer documented
10098-637: Was appointed to the colony to investigate the reasons for continuing failure to subdue the Nama people. In July 1894 Leutwein asked for 250 troops, with the enlarged army he was able to defeat the Nama people who at the time had run out of ammunition; the English at the Cape and Walvis Bay had refused them assistance. Leiutwein successfully subdued the Nama and forced Hendrik to sign a protection treaty. June 1904 Kaiser Wilhelm replaced Leutwein with Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha ; like his predecessor, von Trotha believed that violence would ultimately put an end to
10200-474: Was commissioned by the BBC to go to the Kalahari desert with a film crew in search of the San. The filmed material was turned into a very popular six-part television documentary a year later. Driven by a lifelong fascination with this "vanished tribe," Van der Post published a 1958 book about this expedition, entitled The Lost World of the Kalahari. It was to be his most famous book. In 1961, he published The Heart of
10302-538: Was granted to Phytopharm , for development of the active ingredient in the Hoodia plant, p57 (glycoside), to be used as a pharmaceutical drug for dieting. Once this patent was brought to the attention of the San, a benefit-sharing agreement was reached between them and the CSIR in 2003. This would award royalties to the San for the benefits of their indigenous knowledge. During the case, the San people were represented and assisted by
10404-566: Was pressured by the Colonial Society to take action against Witbooi, subsequently on April 12, 1893, he launched a surprise attack on Witbooi and his tribe at Hoornkrans. 214 soldiers had been sent with an ultimate objective to "destroy the Witbooi Nama tribe". Though Witbooi and majority of his male soldiers escaped the encirclement, German troops killed nearly one hundred Namaqua women and children in their sleep. The Namaqua were unprepared for
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