San People

The San in Africa are among the most ancient continuing people and culture in the world. In Africa, the question of who is and who is not indigenous is controversial because of the complexities of the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial histories of the peoples and nation-states on the continent. It is commonly agreed that populations and cultures able to resist the influence of colonizing forces and maintain continuity and integrity in their traditional cultural practices could claim indigenous status. Up until the 2002 creation of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, indigenous peoples were marginalized and subjugated in most postcolonial and modernizing African nation-states.

Brief History

San (also Saan, or the preferred moniker Nama) reside primarily in Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Anthropological evidence dates the origin of some San practices to 44,000 BCE. As a hunter-gather culture, San communities organized in clan and family groups that followed seasonal game populations and migrations. The San, like many ancient peoples, were able to create a vast knowledge base of the plants and animals in their territory. They were able to categorize plants, with their nutritional, medicinal, and other uses. San hunting skills continue to be among the best in the world and nearly inimitable.

Over time, many San clans and communities were encroached upon by the organized communities and civilizations of the surrounding and migrating African ethnic populations in the region. Over centuries and millennia, this forced them into smaller and smaller geographical territories. Eventually, all San communities were limited to Southern Africa and remained impoverished as they were denied land rights by successive precolonial African and colonial and postcolonial European powers.

European colonization of Southern Africa (the Dutch colonization, for example) impacted the various ethnic groups, cultures, and populations differently. The San mounted a long and sustained resistance to colonial expansion and control. They were able to achieve relative freedom from domination and colonization, but were unable to escape poverty, social rejection, isolation, and discrimination in the postcolonial independent nation-states in the region. The San were known to resist and fight to the death, rather than risking capture and enslavement.

European colonization ended the migratory, nomadic way of San life. Their freedom to hunt and roam were abrogated. The consequence of the loss of nomadic freedom and the expansion of European farms and ranches was the loss of the traditional San food supply. As South African ranchers and agriculturalists developed domesticated crops and herds, traditional sources of food for the San were destroyed. The result was famine. As their communities deteriorated, they became vulnerable and many were enslaved by whites. Many San communities were completely wiped out and populations dispersed—some intermarrying into other ethnic groups, others dying out. Colonization resulted in the loss of social and historical identity. The few surviving communities were able to preserve some cultural continuity and the integrity of the people.

San People Today

As one of the world’s oldest cultures the San have had to overcome the negative stereotypes and perceptions that they are a primitive people. In many of the countries where they reside in southern Africa, they have no land rights and most are at the bottom of the socioeconomic hierarchy. Many individuals and communities have succumbed to destructive consequences of marginalization and poverty and suffer from high rates of alcoholism, violence, disease, and depression. The absence of avenues and opportunities for upward socioeconomic—education, employment, social inclusion—and governmental supports persistently threaten communal destruction.

The clash between the rights of the San to maintain their indigenous and historic way of life and the imperatives of national development and modernization have led to numerous conflicts and policy challenges for southern African governments. Governments in the region have articulated some political interest in preserving and protecting the San, while at the same time, implementing strategies to "modernize" them. Some socioeconomic development policies have simply been pretexts for the removal of San communities in order to gain access to mineral resources.

During the 1990s, the government of Botswana implemented the policy of systematic forced relocation of the San from their ancestral land onto completely new settlements in the country. The government denied that the relocation was forced, but not the fact that removal made way for the expansion of diamond mines and tourist attractions on the preserve. In 2006, the Botswana high court ruled the government’s actions unconstitutional. It was an unprecedented legal victory for the constitutional rights of the San. But despite the ruling, the government did not allow the return of the population to the region. In 2011, the San won another appeal against the government of Botswana for restricting access to drinking water on the reserve through the traditional method of boring holes. In 2013, another ruling went against the Botswana government for its removal policy.

In the 1990s, the international weightloss industry’s discovery of the Hoodia gordoni, a succulent traditionally used by the San to suppress hunger on long hunts, led to some long-term but limited economic benefit to the population. In 1998, Hoodia Gordoni was patented by the South African Council of Scientific and Industrial Research for distribution in the international market. The South African Council awarded royalties to the San people from the profits gained from the sale of the product in the international market.

Increased international awareness of the status of indigenous populations was in part responsible for international support for the protection of San rights. The momentum of change for the San as they achieve greater recognition and protections from governments in southern Africa was aided by the creation of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and designation of the years 1995–2004 as the International Decade of World’s Indigenous Peoples.

During the early 2020s, the San people began to notably suffer from the effects of global climate change. They continued to suffer from the impacts of globalization and governmental marginalization.

Bibliography

Chennells, Roger, ed. The San of Southern Africa: Heritage & Intellectual Property. Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa, 2003. Web. 2 June 2015.

Dan, Vicky et al. "Indigenous Medicinal Knowledge of the San People: The Case of Farm Six, Northern Namibia." Information Development. 26.2 (2010). Print.

Gall, Sandy. The Bushmen of Southern Africa: Slaughter of the Innocent. London: Chatto, 2001. Print.

Good, Kenneth. "The State and Extreme Poverty in Botswana: The San and Destitutes." The Journal of Modern African Studies. 37.2 (1999). Print.

Robins, Steven. "NGOs, Bushmen and Double Vision: The Khomani San Land Claim and the Cultural Politics of Community and Development in the Kalahari." Journal of Southern African Studies 27.4 (2001). Print.

Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues United Nations. State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. United Nations: New York, 2009. Print.

Taylor, Julie J. "Celebrating San Victory Too Soon?" Anthropology Today 23.5 (2007). Print.

Taylor, Michael. "The Shaping of San Livelihood Strategies: Government Policy and Popular Values." Development and Change.33.3 (2002). Print.

"The San People of Africa." Natucate, 10 July 2024, www.natucate.com/en/blog/nature/the-san-people-of-africa. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.