San Bushmen of the Kalahari

The territory of the indigenous people of Southern Africa -- also known as the San people -- spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. The biggest population of bushmen is in Botswana. On our trip we also visited a small tribe of San Bushman in the Kalahari desert. These guys are traditionally hunter-gatherers, who live somewhere out in the bush, hunting wild animals and obtaining all necessary substances including  medicine from wild plants and roots. We had a short walk with them, during which they showed us how they survive in the bush ... by finding some edible plants; digging out roots which they are mostly use as medicine for different kinds of diseases; making fire with dry grass and wooden sticks and so on. The bushmen-walk was very interesting ... they were explaining all the things in their indigenous *click language* ... which is a dialect of the Khoisan language ... it is quite a difficult (but funny) language ... however, it's impossible for us to understand and even to speak! ... so we got a translation in english from an interpreter ;-)

In the evening they are usually sitting around a campfire and performing some native dances. They have also different spiritual dances and rituals for thanking the spirits (eg. if they have killed a predator).