Grootfontein, Namibia.
February 12, 2016
For thousands of generations, the San people hunted and gathered, and lived as the sole occupants of southern Africa. At the Klassies River mouth, east of Cape Town, the oldest unequivocal remains of Homo sapiens sapiens was found and dates back to 125,000 BCE.
Both the San and the Khoi retained the unique click languages, for which they are famous.They were living in the Cape when the Dutch East India Company arrived in 1652, to establish the first European settlement, which is now South Africa.
Many of the San found themselves displaced during this period of colonisation and by the end of the 19th century, the San were believed to be virtually extinct. In the isolation of the Kalahari Desert, the San people have survived and even thrived under harsh desert conditions
Since 1997, more than 1,000 San have been removed from a game park in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and resettled in dysfunctional townsites, far from their traditional lands. Very few San people can live by hunting and gathering these days. Most work at farm labourers, several groups run nature conservancies.
In 1995, a human rights lawyer explained the new land laws that gave them the right to restitution, for the loss they have experienced since 1913. A land claim was launched, with the help of the South African San Institute, it was a success and 40,000 hectares of land outside the National Park has donated to the San.
With a renewed interest in their heritage, current projects which include tracker-training programmes for young people has come about. Others are working on heritage tours, developing cultural products for visiting tourist and their community.
No longer need to hunt for food, they have discovered and adapted to a more modern lifestyle. Unfortunately alcoholism, TB and AIDS has also caught up with the San.
