The Bushmen of Africa

The clicking sounds of the Bushmen language are as gently charming as these forgotten peoples of southern Africa. If you sat beside their camp now, you would hear much talking, laughter, singing and dancing.

Bushmen are the oldest inhabitants of southern Africa, having lived here for at least twenty thousand years. From that early time there is evidence of timeless cultural practices such as the making of ostrich eggshell beads, shell ornaments, the bow and arrow and rock art. 

Bushmen are believed to be genetically the closest surviving people to the original Homo sapiens core from which the other African peoples evolved. 

Their hunting and gathering existence and social structure had remained virtually unchanged for all these thousands of years. Bushmen do not farm or keep livestock and have no concept of the ownership of land or animal. Anything material is for the benefit of all.

Socially they are tribal with no paramount leader and a loosely knit family structure. All look after the young and the children roam and play between families. Decisions are made by universal discussion and agreement is by consensus. Every opinion is considered, in view of that person’s experience on a particular matter.

Leisure is important. Large amounts of time are spent in conversation, joking, music, and sacred dances. Women have a high status, are greatly respected, and are often leaders of their own family groups.

A Bushman describes:  “A long, long time ago, we, the Bushmen, roamed these mountains, masters of the unpredictable ways of nature. We were nomads then, moving with the great herds of game and the changing of seasons. When the animals migrated we followed, leaving no houses or roads to mark our presence here. All we left behind was our story painted in the rock, in the shelters, the story of sacred animals and our journeys to the spirit world”.

Bushmen art is found in many places across the African region. They were the only artists in the ancient world to have used a poly-chromatic technique; fading one color into the next.

When not moving to better lands the territory of a clan typically stretches to a twenty five mile radius. Within this area the men go hunting, often trailing an animal for days before the final kill. Hunting grounds are respected between clans and families, with the result that wars and feuds are non-existent.

Bushmen folklore is magical in its simplicity. On the sun, the moon and the stars, three short stories:

 - The sun is a man from whose armpits shine the rays of light. He did not want to share his light with all the people so he stayed in his hut. The first Bushmen ordered his children to throw him into the sky. They threw him up and this is where he still shines from today. In the night he is cold so he draws his animal skin blanket over him. This blanket is old and has lots of little holes in it. This is the stars we see at night.

 - A young woman waits for the hunters to return every night. When it grows dark she throws up a handful of white ash. This becomes the stars of the Milky-way that guide the hunters home.

 - The moon is the old shoe of (one of their gods) Mantis. He placed it in the air to guide him at night. The sun is very jealous of the moon when it is at its full brightness. The sun uses its sharp rays to cut of pieces of the moon bit by bit until there is almost nothing left of the moon. The moon begs the sun to stop and then he always goes away. Soon after the moon starts growing again until it is full and the whole process repeats itself.

Dancing is the hub of Bushmen life. Dances are held anytime but mostly at night. It is an expression of joy and relieves tension in the community. If visitors arrive, a dance is performed and they are invited to participate. A type of dance known as a healing dance is used to cure people of illness or bad luck and through its performance, everyone present would be healed, even those merely watching.

Sadly, Bushmen ways and societies have frayed and exist today only in a few vanishing and isolated pockets. Displaced by civilization and driven from their ancestral areas.  

"No more do we Bushmen hunt in these hills. The fire is cold. Our songs are quiet. But listen carefully. You will hear us in the water. Look carefully. You will see us in the rock."