Khoisan
Khoisan refers to the indigenous peoples of Southern Africa, consisting primarily of the San and Khoikhoi groups. They are distinguished from neighboring Bantu-speaking populations by their unique click languages, lighter skin color, and shorter stature. Historically, the Khoisan were the predominant inhabitants of Southern Africa for over 15,000 years, maintaining a Stone Age lifestyle until the arrival of Bantu populations during the Iron Age. The San, known for their nomadic hunter-gatherer way of life, and the Khoikhoi, who practiced pastoralism, exhibit significant linguistic and cultural differences.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the San are among the oldest indigenous groups in Southern Africa, with their remains dating back approximately 20,000 years. They skillfully utilized the region's diverse resources, moving between coastal and inland sites seasonally. The Khoisan were among the first South Africans encountered by European settlers, and historical misunderstandings have clouded perceptions of their cultures. Today, following the end of apartheid, Khoisan communities are actively working to revive and strengthen their cultural heritage, reclaiming their identity and traditions.
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Khoisan
Related civilization: South Africa.
Date: 8000 b.c.e.-700 c.e.
Locale: South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana
Khoisan
“Khoisan” is the collective name for the indigenous hunter-gatherers and pastoralists of Southern Africa. Khoisan differ from their Bantu-speaking neighbors not only in their language families (they speak a series of tongues known collectively as the “click” languages), but also through their relatively light skin color and their shorter stature. Khoisan dominated the southern part of the continent from at least 15,000 years ago up to the arrival of the Bantu population during the African Iron Age. They maintained a Stone Age technology up into historic times and were the first population contacted by Europeans at the time of their arrival in the fifteenth century.
Khoisan are divided into two major groups: the San (formerly known as Bushmen), who lived in small nomadic groups, were rather short and gracile, and developed a hunter-gatherer lifestyle; and the Khoikhoi (formerly known as Hottentots), who lived in larger groups, were slightly taller and more robust, and developed a herding culture based on native cattle. The two groups show extensive linguistic as well as serological and morphological differences, although there has been extensive intermarriage between the two in historic times.
Subfossil evidence suggests that the San were among the oldest indigenous peoples of southern Africa. Remains showing San characteristics have been dated to the late Stone Age, from about 20,000 years ago. Excavations at prominent San sites, such as rock shelters, show that these groups lived in the same places for thousands of years. They moved back and forth between inland sites in summer and coastal sites in winter, living off the abundance of the environment. Coastal sites such as Kasteelberg in the western Cape show that San groups (and possibly Khoikhoi as well) preyed extensively on seal populations and on local shellfish, while the inland sites probably relied on local vegetation and small animals.
The San were among the first groups of South Africans encountered by Dutch settlers, and anthropologists suggest that some of the supposed differences between them and the Khoikhoi may have actually been European misunderstandings about their culture. Dutch writers, for instance, differentiated between the groups near the seacoast (whom they called strandlopers) and groups in the interior, even though these may have been elements of the same culture. Scholars also believe that mixing between the San and Khoikhoi through marriage may have existed in ancient times, but it has become much more commonplace in the modern era. San clientage, a relationship defined by interdependence between individual San and other groups—Europeans as well as Khoikhoi—has an equally ancient history.
Khoisan were classified as colored under the apartheid system of government in South Africa and have begun to reassert elements of their aboriginal cultures since the free elections of the 1990’s.
Bibliography
Boonzaier, Emile, Penny Berens, Candy Malherbe, and Andy Smith. The Cape Herders: A History of the Khoikhoi of Southern Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1996.
Clark, J. Desmond, and Steven A. Brandt, eds. From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
Inskeep, R. R. The Peopling of Southern Africa. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.