The San of Namibia´s Kalahari Desert

Also known as the ¨bushmen of the Kalahari,¨the San are an ancient hunter-gatherer people who can also be found in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Angola, but are most often identified with Namibia - though the percentage is actually higher in Botswana, where they number more than 63,000 as opposed to Namibia´s 27,000 (and they actually don't have a collective term for themselves, just identifying with individual groupings such as the largest, the !Kung of the western Kalahari (that ! represents a click, by the way). Even though the San one of the oldest human cultures on earth, many still live a semi-nomadic subsistence lifestyle foraging for roots, berries, and nuts - though these days more have begun to work on farms, and those who are semi-nomads also get some income from a number of tour operators out of Windhoek which take visitors out to their camps to watch their dancing and storytelling (I did this a few years ago, and though of course I didn't understand a blessed word, I found the experience completely mesmerizing.




CharlesFred

 

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