Offensive names, including bushmen and Hottentots, were used to classify and simplify this diverse, heterogeneous group, until eventually the blended name of Khoisan was adopted. It was with the arrival of Europeans in the mids that things started to go horribly wrong for the Khoisan.
Arriving settlers laid claim to land previously used by these groups. Some settlers placed boundaries and fences around their newly acquired properties in order to prevent the passage of people through their land. Many settlers persecuted the people directly. The disruption to grazing patterns, the exploitation of natural resources, the spread of imported diseases and various other conflicts had a direct impact on the population of the Khoi and the San. Over the subsequent years their populations went into a sharp decline.
Climate change also had a direct impact on the Khoisan. All of this started to dry out as the region became hotter and drier. Though many thought the advent of democracy in South Africa would result in better recognition of the Khoisan, many leaders from the group claim this has not been the case.
Khoisan people who were able to retain their land are now struggling to maintain it, and there are few resources and little government emphasis being put on securing and improving living conditions in these remote regions of South Africa.
Political leaders seldom meet with members of the groups, and the various languages spoken by Khoisan people are not recognised as part of the 11 official languages in the country. Widely regarded as some of the most complex languages in the world , they are now under threat of being lost in their entirety, owing to the ongoing decline of these traditional communities.
Today the Khoisan struggle to maintain their traditional way of existence, and we are currently witnessing the end of their hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Many have started to transition into more modern lifestyles, and have shifted to agriculture and herding. This means that many of their original skills and insights, particularly pertaining to hunting and gathering, are being lost.
Laws in countries where they once lived now prevent the Khoisan from hunting as they once did to survive. The vibrant languages, in which clicks are used like consonants, is disappearing fast.
Traditional music and singing are no longer as prevalent, and the art of making weapons, traditional jewellery and clothing are starting to be diluted by modern western cultures. Because of this ongoing neglect and alleged disinterest in their plight on behalf of present-day politicians, a group of representatives from the Khoisan Royal House has made its way from across the country to protest outside government buildings in Pretoria.
The group also claims that the soon-to-be-implemented Traditional Leaders and Khoisan Bill is racist and overlaps with previous Apartheid-era definitions and structures. We and our partners use cookies to better understand your needs, improve performance and provide you with personalised content and advertisements. To allow us to provide a better and more tailored experience please click "OK". They would also rub animal fat over their bodies to show their wealth.
In contrast to the San who spoke highly divergent languages, the Khoikhoi spoke closely related dialects of the same language. This leader detached himself from this group with his followers and became the first great chief of the Korana. Initially there were two main groups, the Great Korana and the Little Korana. Each of these broke into splinter groups that divided until there were many groups whose names have been slowly forgotten or were not recorded. Quarrels over water and grazing rights, or the ownership of women or livestock usually caused the divisions amongst groups.
When parties split up they usually assumed the name of their leader. But sometimes they took the name of a place where they had stayed for a long time. Korana family names tended to signify a special characteristic or occupation such as the Towenaars Sorcerers and the Regshande Right-handers.
Where the first Chief Kora lived is unknown, but in early times, most Korana lived near the Gariep, Vaal and Harts rivers and others moved into the Overberg and the Karoo. The last great Korana trek took place during the late 17th century, when they trekked from their chiefdoms in the south-western Cape to escape pressure from White settlers. However, many still referred to it as the Groot Rivier.
After the change of government, it was given back its original name, Gariep. For many centuries the early people lived along this river and its tributaries because game was able to graze in the vleie and the berry trees and bulbous plants grew in profusion.
There, the Korana settled among the Nama herders and groups of San hunter-gatherers. They knew how to ride horses, understood the value of keeping their mounts in prime condition, and frequently raided the farms south of the great river and the Baster communities.
They also settled in what is today the Free State, the district that became known as Koranaland Gordonia. Many small conflicts over hunting and plundering took place between these groups and the Bantu-speaking peoples and White trekkers in the area. It is important to note however, that livestock raids were carried out by a minority group of Korana. An important leader at the time was Karel Ruyter or Ruiters, an escaped slave, who became chief of the Hoengei group of Gona in the Zuurveld in the mid-eighteenth century.
Klaas Lukas, who had his headquarters at Olyvenhoutsdrift Upington , was the most powerful chief. The small conflicts over cattle and land raids came to a head in , when the colonial government created a special magisterial district. The San are a nomadic hunter-gatherer population that has been living in the vast Kalahari desert region for over 20, years; they are present in Botswana and Namibia in good number, but also in South Africa and Zambia in small part.
The San are also known by the name of Bushmen, but this definition is sometimes used with a derogatory value, though it literally means "bush men" and this definition is not displeasing to the San; while the term "San" was attributed to them by the Khoikhoi and means "stranger" or simply "different", different in the sense that unlike the Khoikhoi, the San did not possess cattle.
The San's language is characterized by "click" sounds that are made by snapping the tongue against the palate, the teeth or the lips; they count up to 20 different clicks, but the most used are of three types: the palate one, obtained by removing the tongue from the palate, the lateral ones, obtained by moving the tongue from the upper right teeth and the dental ones, when the tongue presses on the upper incisors.
The San are small in size and generally with light yellow skin, that usually ages prematurely, making them very wrinkled. The Bushmen are tendentially a nomadic population who build temporary shelters, built by women; these are simple repairs made with the wood that is harvested in the desert and covered with boughs and braided grass mats. The simple huts are used to guard a few personal belongings and to protect the meat that is being dried; to sleep the San curl up in a hole, dug in the open sand near the fire, and cover themselves with a cloak.
Inside the village there are tanks of ostrich eggs full of water set in the sand, the San get the water by sucking it out of the ground through a filtering rod, that is made with an ostrich feather and grass stems and they then transfer it to the eggshells; they get water even digging in the desert looking for big watery tubers.
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