Of the first people in Southern Africa, the Bushmen, only about 100 000 remain and most of these are still under threat.
In South Africa where fewest remain — due to centuries of decimation at the hands of all other latecomers to the area — land was restored in January 2000 to the Khomani people, led by Dawid Kruiper. In Botswana, however, the situation of the Bushmen is still desperate.
Two very different accounts of what has been happening in Bushman communities have been published this year. The Healing Land is a very personal narrative by a young man of South African extraction, who has returned to South Africa partly out of curiosity, partly to seek healing for himself and the Bushmen. He makes several journeys among them, the last in search of a shaman who he feels will be instrumental in the struggle to preserve some of the old way of life.
Too much of the author’s personal odyssey was hooked on to the far more interesting and serious Bushman issues, and numerous small inaccuracies made it seem unreliable. For example, he has not bothered to get Afrikaans translated by someone who knows the language, so “Boesman Verkoop” becomes “Bushman for sale” instead of “Bushman sold”.
The Bushmen of Southern Africa gives a wide, deep and very informative overview of Bushman history from early times, through horrific colonial extermination, up to the present crisis in Botswana where Bushmen are battling to retain their rights in the Central Kalahari Game reserve.
Extraordinarily well-written, it balances succinct summaries of historic land claims with, for example, the lyrical account of the musicologist, Cait Andrew’s discovery of a rock gong and her subsequent involvement in the affairs of the Khomani.
Many photographs, some unbearable, some to treasure, accompany this important contribution to the records on the fate of the Bushmen people.