Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The emergence of the San from the mists of legend into the modern world
has been dii cult and painful. They have had decidedly mixed relations with
the Bantu Tswana tribes that make up the majority of Botswana's popula-
tion. The majority government has attempted to remove them forcibly from
their ancestral home in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The government
has also been clumsy and capricious in its enforcement of anti-poaching
laws, targeting the San as they attempt to hunt in their ancestral lands.
Grim though this tale is, the San have survived much more in the course of
the group's separate history, a period of at least 100,000 years that makes the
history of Western civilization seem as trifl ing as a commercial break. They
provide an essential glimpse into the whole sweep of our history as a species.
Nowhere else in the world is there so vivid a demonstration of the genetic and
social ties that bind all humans together over tens of thousands of years of
time. To meet the San is to understand the essence of our shared humanity.
Figure 125 Stefan and Xhing Xhai sample the water-fi lled tuber she has found.
 
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