THE SAN PEOPLE

The San or saan people, also known as the Bushmen (also sakhoen sonqua and in Afrikaans: Boeemans, after Dutch Boschjesmens and saake in the N||ng language) are members of various khoisan- speaking indigenous hunter gatherer groups that are the first nations of southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa.

There is a significant linguistic difference between the northern people living between the okavango river in Botswana and Etosha National park in Northwestern Namibia, extending up into Southern Angola the central people of most of Namibia and Botswana, extending into Zambia and Zimbabwe and the southern people in the central Kalahari towards the molopo river, who are the last remnant of the previously extensive indigenous San of South Africa.

The hunter – gatherer San are among 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 Tsadilo Hills region. In this area, stone, tools and rock art paintings date back over 70,000 years and are by far the oldest known art. 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. As of 2010, the San population in Botswana number about 50,000 to 60,000.

Much Aboriginal people’s land in Botswana, including land occupied by the San people (or basarwa), was stolen during colonisation and the pattern of loss of land and access to natural resources continued after Botswana’s Independence.The San have been particularly affected by encroachment. Government policies from the 1970s transferred a significant area of traditionally San land to white settlers and majority agro pastoralists tribes. 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.

From the 1950’s through to the 1990s San communities switched to farming because of government mandated modernization programs. Despite the lifestyle changes, they have provided a wealth of information in anthropology and genetics. One broad study of Africans genetic diversity completed in 2009 found that San people were among the five populations with the highest measured levels of genetic diversity among the 121 distinct African populations sampled.

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 the properties of their language.

FADESERE DAVID

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