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The Evaporation of a Culture

by Karin Mallory

Botswana

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I did not need to become fluent in Khoisan, the complex 'click' based language of Botswana's San bushmen, in order to understand their story. There is strength in the San's eyes, and in each wrinkle: history. An etching of a life lived.
I did not need to become fluent in Khoisan, the complex 'click' based language of Botswana's San bushmen, in order to understand their story. There is strength in the San's eyes, and in each wrinkle: history. An etching of a life lived.
The San culture is thought to be the oldest on the planet. In 1961 The British Government created The Central Kalahari Game Reserve. It's goal was to preserve the Bushmen and their hunter/gatherer traditional culture. Forever. The San had lived, in balance with nature, in this barren, harsh climate for tens of thousands of years.
The San culture is thought to be the oldest on the planet. In 1961 The British Government created The Central Kalahari Game Reserve. It's goal was to preserve the Bushmen and their hunter/gatherer traditional culture. Forever. The San had lived, in balance with nature, in this barren, harsh climate for tens of thousands of years.
Diamond mining, cattle ranching, and tourism changed that. The government has forced the San to move off of their ancestral land and into re-settlement camps. Cut off from their traditional ways, the San are falling prey to despair, alcoholism and prostitution in staggering numbers.
Diamond mining, cattle ranching, and tourism changed that. The government has forced the San to move off of their ancestral land and into re-settlement camps. Cut off from their traditional ways, the San are falling prey to despair, alcoholism and prostitution in staggering numbers.
Rather than an authentic way of life, I worry that the San culture is increasingly becoming merely a tourist attraction. In an effort to earn money, the San, wearing traditional clothes, take spectators for walkabouts in the desert where they are shown how to identify bushes whose roots contain valuable water-laden tubulars and then treated to customary music and dance.
Rather than an authentic way of life, I worry that the San culture is increasingly becoming merely a tourist attraction. In an effort to earn money, the San, wearing traditional clothes, take spectators for walkabouts in the desert where they are shown how to identify bushes whose roots contain valuable water-laden tubulars and then treated to customary music and dance.
There are only about 1,000 traditional San bushmen left. Without intervention, soon they too will be gone. The disappearing world of the Kalahari is evident in the eyes of its people.
There are only about 1,000 traditional San bushmen left. Without intervention, soon they too will be gone. The disappearing world of the Kalahari is evident in the eyes of its people.

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