Kalahari - Kalagadi Bushmen or San - Kalahariboesmans khomani, gomani, !kabee, saasi, witdraai, kalaharigemsbokpark.

Bushmen or San - the "Aboriginal" or "First" people of the Kalahari and Southern Africa

The Bushmen or San as they are known to Science, are part of the so-called KhoiSan races. The San of the Southern Kalahari, are called the "Khomani San" by scientists, although the remaining speakers of the language, of which 25 have now been identified, say that this refers to a specific clan. Academics from the turn of the century have used this term, but the community says it is a clan name that does not apply to all of them. They refer to themselves in the aggregate as Saasi, and the language as !Kabee.

The Bushmen are a people without much in the line of personal belongings. Just the few skins, sticks, a minimum of iron utensils and tools that they now use, which they have picked up from their modern neighbours, is all that they have. When you have to carry everything you own on your own back, one learns to travel light. Food, clothing, weapons, everything he needs the bushman gets from nature.

The Bushmen of the Kalahari is known for their legendary ability to track or "sny spoor" of "spoorsny" (= cut track) as it is known in Afrikaans. They are equally well known for their endurance. If you had to catch your meat on the hoof after killing it from a short distance with an poisoned arrow, you would also develop marvelous endurance, or become mighty thin in a short time.

The Bushmen are equally well known for their dancing and music, the mimicing of birds and animals, theirt knowledge of plants as medicine, poison, and food.

Orthographic symbols.

Bushmen or San - the "Aboriginal" or "First" people of the Kalahari and Southern Africa

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