Who are Bushmen?

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The Bushmen are an indigenous people of Africa’s Kalahari Desert, with a range covering parts of South Africa, Namibia, Angola and Botswana. Historically, they are a hunter-gatherer society, but with Western colonization many have been alienated from their traditions.
These people are commonly believed to have inhabited the African continent for more than 22,000 years, and some archaeologists believe they are the oldest group on earth. The Bushmen are descended from the Khoisan ethnic group, related to the Khoikhoi. They are well known for their unique language including clicking sounds, characterized by the ! o / symbols in written language.

The Bushmen, which denotes them as a general group and includes many sub-groups, are also referred to as Basarwa, San, !Kung and Khwe, which, excluding the !Kung, were given to them by outsiders. This has been problematic, because many of these names are slurs or derogatory. The term Bushmen itself has negative connotations in some countries, even though some members of the group refer to themselves as a group by that name.

There is archaeological evidence that the Bushmen were a particularly advanced culture early in their history. Cave paintings in the Lapala Wilderness region record their society and animals in the region in great detail. Before Europeans arrived in Africa, society has changed very little since their hunting and gathering and most of their traditions are still practiced today.

In Botswana, their name means “people who have nothing,” which to outsiders might be true. In reality, the Bushmen have only what they need to survive. Traditionally, small bands moved camp where food could be gathered in the rainy season and built villages around the waterholes during the dry season. All the women needed to gather food was a sling made of animal hide, a blanket, and a kaross, a cloak-like multipurpose tool used to carry wood, food, or children. Their main diet includes nuts, fruits and roots as well as game meat.

The men hunted on long hunts using poisoned spears or arrows. The poison for arrows varies from tribe to tribe, but the main ingredients used can be snake venom, cactus juice, scorpion or spider venom, or ground beetle larvae. This is a very effective method of killing large game, usually antelope.

In a Bushman tribe there is no chief or chieftain: the group is governed by consensus. In general, there is gender equality and children are valued and treated well. Pregnancy typically begins after age 18, and women only have as many children as they are able to carry and feed at one time.
Like many other indigenous people, the Bushmen have suffered at the hands of outsiders. When the British arrived in Africa, they wanted to bring “civilization” to the natives and encouraged them to lead a more agricultural life. In many areas, their “savagery” has led to extermination, often at the request of the government. The Cape (Good Hope) Bushmen were killed to extinction in the 1870s, and a 2001 count in Botswana put their numbers at less than 2,000. Continentally, fewer than 100,000 Bushmen are left. As late as 1936, the Namibian government was still issuing licenses to hunt and kill them.

One of the most controversial injustices the Bushmen have faced began in Botswana in 1997, when the government began relocating them from their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The government believed that their hunting and gathering on the reserve was detrimental to the reserve and tourist trade and sought to relocate them. They have also applied for special hunting permits to hunt in the reserve. On 13 December 2006, the Bushmen won a case against the government, allowing them to return to the reserve that has been their home for millennia.

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