Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
History
Of the six sub-Saharan countries where the San reside, Namibia is home to the second-
largest population, numbering nearly 33,000 individuals. Although they once controlled
expansive n!oresi (lands where one's heart is), these homelands were commandeered by
the South African Defence Force (SADF) as military bases during the Namibian War of
Independence. After being reduced to refugees, many San migrated to towns like Tsumk-
we in search of work.
Some San succeeded in finding work as unskilled farm labourers, while others worked
as army trackers for the SADF, who were waging a war against Swapo in northern Nami-
bia and Angola. Still, the majority met with grinding unemployment, a demographic shift
that resulted in disease, prostitution, alcoholism, domestic violence, malnutrition and oth-
er social ills.
SAN INTERACTIONS
About 25km out of Tsumkwe, heading towards Khaudum National Park, is the
Living Hunter's Museum of the
Ju/'hoansi
(D3315; sunrise-sunset)
, which has been established for about 2½ years and is run and managed
independently by the San. A lot of effort has gone into representing the old San hunter-gather culture as authentic-
ally as possible. Cultural interactions on offer include hunting trips (N$200 per person) with San hunters using
traditional methods and equipment. There are also bushwalks (N$100) and singing/dancing shows.
Following Namibian independence, the San territory shrank from 70,000 sq km to less
than 10,000 sq km, and a large portion of their boreholes were expropriated by other in-
terests, possibly in retaliation for their partnership with SADF. As a result, the San were
left without sufficient land to maintain their traditional lifestyle, which further aggravated
pre-existing poverty and dispossession.
Fortunately, a number of influential Westerners, ranging from academics and journalists
to development workers and cultural survivalists, have long been interested in the advo-
cacy of indigenous rights throughout Southern Africa. In northern Namibia, US filmmaker
John Marshall and his British colleague Claire Marshall established the Nyae Nyae Con-
servancy in the late 1980s to encourage the Ju/'hoansi San to return to their traditional
lands. Unfortunately, the foundation has suffered from a number of ideological conflicts,
including to what extent tourism should be fostered in the region.
