The barren wilderness of the Kalahari is the home of the
Bushman, a race whose way of life has been virtually unchanged since the Stone
Age.
The Bushman lives in
small bands, each with a right of use over certain areas of land. The hallmark
of their social attitudes is their utter belief in co-operation, within the family,
the band, between bands and with nature itself. Their customs are geared to
exclude anything, which might cause personal antagonism. There is, therefore no
ownership of property. Even the spoils of a hunt are divided according to
customary allocation.
The Bushman believes that if they misuse their
environment they will incur the anger of the Supreme Being. Therefore, Bushman
never takes from the soil or from the herds of game around them any more than
they need to stay alive. In all their long history, there is no evidence that they
have ever needlessly exploited nature, and some have actually described the
Bushman as the world’s greatest conservationists.
The size of the Bushman bands varies from two or three
families to groups numbering 120 or more. In the rainy season, when food is plentiful,
much inter-band visiting goes on and frequently the bands are united by marriages.
The Bushman believes that man is naturally extroverted and at his happiest when
in company. Dry seasons are a time of sometimes-frantic searches for food and
water.
During periods of rain, Bushman stores all the water they
can carry in ostrich-egg shells and calabashes, burying them in the earth or
concealing them in the shade of a tree.
Desert Bushmen have names for every plant that grows in their
area. Plant life, not meat, is their staple diet - a few square kilometres of
desert might contain as many as 70 or 80 varieties of edible plants and roots. From
certain tasselled grasses, Bushmen can tell where there is underground water. This
is sucked up and stored in ostrich shells buried in the ground.
One of the favourite foods of the Kalahari Bushman is the
tsamma melon, a white-fleshed cross between a watermelon and a gem squash. These
moisture-laden plants frequently come to a Bushman’s rescue when there is no
surface water. Sometimes a band will hold special ceremonies to mark the eating
of tsamma melons.
Bushmen are rightly regarded as great hunters. There are
many tales of their prodigious stamina, outstanding eyesight, and uncanny
tracking abilities. The arrows of Bushmen are tipped with powerful poison -making
that made them deadly adversaries of their black and white foes in the past. The
poisons can be blended from leaves, berries, spiders, caterpillars, grubs,
crushed larvae, snake venom, poisonous ticks, and the pulp of a venomous worm.
The Bushman’s bow is small and light, and his arrows fragile
- he relies on the poison to kill his prey rather than on any wound, which is
inflicted. A mere scratch with such an arrowhead is usually sufficient to
enable the poison to penetrate an animal, but its effect is slow.
Water from grasses in the beast’s stomach is sometimes drained
off and drunk – perhaps the only real water the Bushman will have for weeks. Then
the band will feast until next to nothing is left, for it may be their last
meal for many days.
One characteristic, which Bushmen certainly share with the
ancient Egyptians, is their love and talent for art. There are many examples of
bushman rock paintings. Although the
painting is now a forgotten art, bushmen still delight in telling
ancient stories and legends in their staccato, clacking tongue.
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| Rock engravings |
They love to play music on handmade instruments, and most of
all, they love to dance. Dancing has deep religious significance for Bushman. Sometimes
a dancer will fall into a trance, and he then believes himself to be in a
supernatural sate capable of seeing vast distances and of performing cures.
South Africa’s last hunter-gatherers are alive and well in
the great wilderness area of the Kalahari.
