In preparing for my trip to Namibia, I came across a really interesting book, The Old Way: A Story of the First People by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. It tells the story of the San or Bushmen, the oldest native inhabitants of present-day Namibia and, according to her, the oldest and most successful civilisation on earth.
Indeed, meeting the San is like travelling back in time, to our beginnings as a species. Their history is hard to trace as they don‘t leave any buildings or writings. But researchers agree they have lived in the area for tens of thousands of years.
They have kept their hunter-gatherer way of life until the 1970s, when they were starting to be affected by modernity (as well as apartheid, as Namibia was part of South Africa back then). Contact with modernity has not been easy as they had to learn in decades what humanity learned over millennia, from agriculture to the use of more modern technology. Unfortunately, contact with alcohol was devastating, Today, the San constitute the smallest and poorest ethnic group in Namibia.
The book describes their way of life with great detail and empathy – techniques of hunting and gathering, social relations etc. The author travelled to the Kalahari savannah in the 1950s as part of an expedition organised by her father, who wanted to explore one of the last unexplored areas in the world. Apparently, he did a very good job of organising an expedition that would go through the savannah for many weeks. Also, they met the San with open minds in order to study rather than change them. Indeed, they formed friendships which lasted for generations, and the author‘s brother stayed and married a San woman.
The most remarkable thing about the San, aside from their ancient tradition, is the way they organise social relationships. In the harsh life in the Kalahari, a group‘s cohesion is essential, so conflicts are avoided at all costs. There is no private property and they don‘t feel the need to amass as many possessions as possible. When an animal is hunted, it is distributed in the group following clear rules. There is also an elaborate system of mutual gift-giving, which also serves to strengthen ties with relatives and acquaintances living further away.
There is also no hierarchy in their society, and men and women have largely the same status (men hunt, women gather).
There are probably no San living this way of life any more today. But the Old Way has lasted, and changed very little, since the beginning of humanity, around 150.000 years ago in Africa. Nowadays, it survives in remnants like the living museums, where San (who live in more modern villages and aspire to live like other Namibians) demonstrate the skills of their ancestors.
This hints at a key challenge: Even though modern San may wish to leave the Old Way behind, their people have collected an incredible amount of knowledge about every aspect of life and nature in the Kalahari, from plants with medical properties to animals etc. As they have no system of writing, it was all handed down orally. I hope some of it will survive.
support The Living Culture Foundation Namibia (LCFN), which works with San and other native peoples.