San's in South Africa

San's in SA

The earliest hunter-gatherers in southern Africa were the San people. The San were also known as 'Bushmen', a term used by the European Colonists that is now considered derogatory. The San populated South Africa long before the arrival of the Bantu-speaking nations, and thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans.

The San and the Khoekhoe peoples are aboriginal to southern Africa. This means the San and Khoekhoe are descendants of the first people who ever lived here, before black or white people migrated into the region.

Archaeologists tend to agree that the San are the descendants of the original Homo sapiens (modern day man) who occupied South Africa for at least 150 000 years. Geneticists say that the oldest gene pattern amongst modern humans is that of the Khoe-San. It dates back to about 80 000 years ago. All other peoples on the planet, Europeans, Black Africans, Asians, North and South Americans, Australians are all descendants from this original gene type. The only possible exception is that of the Hadzabe hunter-gatherers of Tanzania who split off very early from the Khoe-San.

From about 25 000 years ago, there is evidence of cultural practices that were still being followed until recently by southern African hunter-gatherers – such as the making of ostrich eggshell beads, shell ornaments, the bow and arrow and rock art. This jump in culture is possibly linked to rapid changes in the ability of the human brain and body structure to cope with complex language production.

The migration of homo sapiens out of Africa took place from about 40 000 years ago, coinciding with the possible acceleration of our language skills. Each group of people who left Africa took with them new language families. At that time all humans were hunters and gatherers.

There is a debate between palaeontologists and linguists about when humans developed to the point that our ancestors were able to pronounce more sounds and with rapid brain development we were able to move into more abstract thought, as represented in our tools and art forms. This is when we start to see the spread of rock art in Southern Africa.

Khoe-San peoples and their descendants were hunter-gatherers until the ancestors of the Khoekhoe acquired domesticated animal stock some where prior to 2 500 years ago. The Khoekhoe seem to have migrated into South Africa about 2000 years ago either from Namibia or Botswana, bringing with them sheep herding culture, and different social organisation than that common amongst hunter-gatherers. Typically, hunter-gatherer groups were small, without complex political leadership or any military capacity.

There have been three major waves of genetic, cultural and technological immigration into South Africa: Khoekhoe herders, Bantu speaking agro-pastoralists, and European colonial agro-pastoralists. Each group brought major changes to the lives of the San peoples.

As noted above, the Khoekhoe migrated into the country about 2 500 – 2000 years ago, occupying coastal areas, the southern Cape, and the major rivers, such as the Orange River (called !Garib). They may have made friends with the San hunters in some cases, but the San also appear to have withdrawn to the mountains and deserts of South Africa.

In the !Garib River area archaeologists believe that the San were friends with Einikhoe (possibly from the N|u word Kx’ain, river, drink. Kx’ainikhoen). Later, after European occupation of the Cape, there was conflict with neighbouring peoples. This included violence between San groups and others such as the Namakhoe, !Orakhoe, Oorlams and Griquas. The San at this time were driven further out of the river areas into remoter areas with less water.

try pull a Mona Lisa on this... no comparison

The first Bantu-speaking agriculturalists moved into South Africa about 1 800 years ago, with the major migration of agro-pastoralists happening about 800 years ago. The term Bantu developed negative connotations during apartheid. The term is used here to identify a sub branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Over the following centuries, there was extensive interaction between the San and the various Khoe and Bantu-speaking immigrants. South Africa’s dominant cultures and languages are all shaped by this contact. Genetically many South Africans have DNA that demonstrates intermarriage with aboriginal peoples. Culturally, some Coloured, Griqua, Zulu, Swati and Xhosa South Africans still identify with their aboriginal Khoe-San roots.

Europeans arrived at the Cape of Good Hope from 1652 onwards. Their impact was devastating: bringing colonisation, armed conflict, land seizures and new diseases. Khoe and San peoples did not have antibodies to the European diseases such as small pox, and many thousands died during epidemics in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 17th and 18th centuries European settlers were permitted to hunt San as if they were animals. Europeans Christians did not believe that Black people had souls until the 19th century, :-( (many blacks believed the Europeans believed Europeans were plan evil). Most South African San either perished during the protracted genocide or were forcibly assimilated into other cultures.