The Bushmen, early inhabitants of Africa, believe that they will be punished by God if they misuse the environment. In their long history there is no evidence that the Khoisan have ever needlessly exploited nature – and some experts have actually described them as the world’s greatest conservationists.
The Khoisan were dispersed over an area stretching from Walvis Bay in Namibia to the Zambezi Valley and then southward into South Africa, as far as the coastal town of today's Port Elizabeth. Having run foul of other black tribes and white colonialists over the decades, the Khoisan are now mostly concentrated in the Kalahari in Namibia and Botswana, and number between 30 000 and 55 000 people.
Physical Characteristics and Language
The San are small people with yellow-brown skin and small hands and feet. Culturally they are divided into the hunter gatherer San (or Bushmen) and the pastoral Khoi (formerly known as Hottentots). The Khoisan languages are famous for their click consonants.
Bushman Way of Life
Bushman or Khoisan way of life was very simple, they would live in small family groups with no leader or chief. The older members of the tribe gave advice and taught the children anything they needed to know. They had a nomadic lifestyle and depended on nature to survive.
The bushman groups, however did not wander aimlessly or relentlessly to pursue herds of antelope. Instead, they followed a carefully planned annual route that took them to different areas of plant food, as season by season, these foods ripened.
The Khoisan bushmen are known for their legendary ability to track game and for their endurance and stamina on the hunt. The men would hunt by tracking an animal footprint in the ground and darting the animal with a poisoned arrow. Arrows were made or stone or bone and poison would be either snake, scorpion or spider venom or be made from poisonous roots, bark or berries.
The Khoisan bushmen also dug holes near the larger rivers where the game came to drink, in the center of which was planted a sharp-pointed stake. The traps were covered with branches which resulted in the animals walking over the pit and falling onto the stake.
For catching small animals such as hares, guinea fowls or small antelope, snares made of twisted gut or fiber from plants were used. Whatever was caught would be taken back to the camp and shared with everyone, the rest of the meat was dried. No part of the animal was wasted. The skin would be used for loin cloths and karosses (cloaks made of hide), the fat would be rubbed on their bodies and the bones used for decoration or to construct new weapons.
The San women and children would scour the desert for plants, berries, bulbs, insects, wild melons or roots which would be dug out of the earth with a digging stick. The women were to gather sticks for fires and make a rough shelter if there were no caves.
The hallmark of the Khoisan bushman social attitudes is their utter belief in co-operation – within the family, between clans and within nature itself. Their customs are geared to exclude anything that causes personal antagonism. There was and still is, therefore, no ownership of property.
Bushman Art, Crafts, Paintings
The Bushmen are well known for their dancing and music and their ability to mimic birds and animals. Their rock art paintings have stood the test of time. These beautiful paintings and etchings can be seen in rock shelters and caves all over southern Africa.
The techniques they employed by these San artists are largely unknown. The few painters actually encountered by Europeans used about ten differently colored paints which they kept in small gourds hanging from their waists.
The ingredients varied with the locality but in general, charcoal provided the black, white came from kaolin or bird droppings, and red came from iron-oxide or weathered hematite. The mixing medium was a speciality of each artist. Some chose to use animal fat, others resins, milk or rock salts. The brushes were soft bones, teased-out twigs, feathers or other natural fibers.
The Khoisan traditional way of life is gradually going extinct although many attempts have been made to preserve their unique lifestyle and ways. Tourists can see the way they lived at the Etosha Game Reserve in Namibia, to a small extent they still live a traditional lifestyle in Botswana.
Sources:
The Bushman People, Art of Africa website by Gezz Robison
Fleur Hupston - Fleur Hupston is a professional freelance writer based in Botswana, Southern Africa. From this unique perspective, she writes travel ...
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