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The African tribes that penetrated into Southern Africa a thousand years ago found that others had already preceded them. But they were like no man they had seen before – a race of unusually small people with an average height of just four feet, ten inches. They also had a yellowish tinge which differed markedly from the dark hue that the incoming tribes were accustomed to.
The tribes came to appreciate and respect the native inhabitants for their uncanny ability to live off the land. They referred to them as the bushmen. The bushmen were in fact the teachers of the land and it’s ways to the newcomers. For a while the black tribes and the bushmen coexisted together peacefully.
The arrival of the white man to the South African plains began in the 17th Century. From that point onwards the balance of life was interrupted. White settlers began shooting and driving away the wild game that the bushman depended upon. In retaliation the bushmen began plundering the white man’s livestock. Soon the bushman and the white man were at war. It was a battle that the bushmen could never win.
In 1802 the South African tribes were decimated by a famine that set the tribes to warring amongst themselves. Inevitably the clashes spread to involve the bushmen. They were driven from their traditional grounds and confined to the Drakensberg and Lesotho mountains. But warfare with the ever encroaching whites continued. The bushmen were steadily being wiped out. In 1869 the last band was attacked and decimated. By the beginning of the 20th Century only a few of the bushmen remained.
Those who had survived made their home in the most remote of areas – a place avoided by both blacks and whites. This was a vast thirstland known as the Kalahari. The Kalahari has absolutely no surface water. The sparse rainfall is quickly dried up. It is in this inhospitable land that the bushmen have made their livelihood. Water is obtained by sucking it up from under the desert sands through hollow reeds. The Bushmen have also learned to become expert botanists. They can readily identify over three hundred different types of plants. They are intimately acquainted with the smell, feeling, texture and taste of the plants that have become their subsistence.
As well as being expert botanists, the Kalahari Bushmen are skilled hunters. A hunter will crawl on his hands and knees up to a grazing herd. When he is as close as possible he will single out his target and then silently shoot a poisoned arrow into it’s heart. The herd will dash off, with the poisoned animal in it’s midst. But slowly the poison will take effect. The animal will lag behind and the hunter will soon overtake it.
The Bushmen are keen conservationists. They never kill unless the animal is to be used for food. Neither will they damage the ecosystem unnecessarily. They have also become experts at mixing certain berries and plants to make paints, poisons and medicinal remedies. They have even learnt how to inoculate themselves against snake bite and devised a substance which can be burnt in their camp fires to ward of lions.
Today there are about 55,000 Bushmen of the Kalahari. But the place in which they live is turning into a desert. The supply of animals and plants have become severely depleted. But the Bushmen of the Kalahari have survived by adapting to their ever changing, ever diminishing environment. This adaptability is what will allow them to continue on as the master bushmen of the 21st Century.
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