Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Franschoek monument
The origin of the Khoi Khoi is unclear but they probably came from central Africa, south of
the Sahara and migrated south with their cattle as pastoralists in about 500 BC. When they
arrived at about northern Botswana and Zimbabwe, having crossed the Zambezi River, they
were squeezed into a Highveld corridor to escape disease. As they continued south, they then
came up against the Kalahari Desert on the western side of Southern Africa and the diseases on
the Lowveld of malaria and sleeping sickness, particularly the flood plains of what is now
Mozambique, where cattle could not survive because of Nagana, and the cattle version of
human sleeping sickness. Hence, even much later, the Shangaan of Mozambique and the eastern
Lebombo plain remained hunters, living off the land and wildlife, including stealing meat from
lions, since they could not be pastoralist. The Shangaan had been pastoralists in Zululand but
during the Mfecane the Zwide family and their chief Soshangane fled Shaka and overran the
Tsonga but could not sustain cattle pastoralism because of Nagana.
Having reached the desert barrier on their move southward the Khoi Khoi driven onwards
by disease killing them and their cattle in the Zambezi valley, as later happened to Mzilikazi
when he tried to escape the Boer settlers, the Khoi Khoi traveled along the nearby Kavango
River and Cunene rivers towards what is now Namibia. There is some debate whether some
headed east also along the Limpopo river and were involved in the early civilization
settlements, the argument being that traces of their language still remains in present local
tribes, including as far east as Maputo. Nevertheless, a number of them settled in Namibia as
the Herero tribes, living off their cattle, supplemented by hunting. This remnant was later
subjected, based on the experience of the Kaiser Wilhelm and German subjugation of the local
tribes in Tanzania, including the Ngoni, originally from South Africa, during the Maji Maji
uprising in German East Africa, to an attempted genocide and also grotesque human
experimentation by the then ruling German government and officials like Fischer, described
earlier.
Some Khoi Khoi moved further south to the southern tip of South Africa following the west
coast to the Cape Town area where they defended themselves against the Dutch East India
Company. When the Dutch eventually successfully settled the area, finding the area also had
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