The Journey to Extinction

 

The Tragedy of the San.

 

Join us on a journey back in time.

To a time before the dynasties of the Pharaohs and the great culture of Egypt, before the golden treasure of the Aztecs and before the Empire of the Incas in the South American Andes.

 

To a time of the later Stone Age when man was discovering the value of fire and  stone tools.

 

There lived a people in Southern Africa, the first to wander so far South to the shores of the Atlantic and the Indian oceans.

 

These were the hunter-gatherers, living on the bounty of the shoreline and later to be known as the ‘Strandlopers’,

 

These were the hunter-gatherers who roamed the interior of this vast land, following the rains and flourishing in the harmony of nature.

 

27,000 Years ago one such person took shelter in a cave in Southern Namibia. The land was dry and he paid homage to the eland, safe in the knowledge that by doing so the rains would soon arrive. This ancient rock art can still be seen today.

The pyramids of Giza were still 20,000 years in the future.

7,000 Years ago someone was still painting on the walls of rock shelters and caves throughout the land.

 

Who were these people?

These people with a deep spiritual connection to the land. People with a profound understanding of this land that fed and clothed them. People with a love for, and pride in their culture and traditions.

 

Traditions that enabled them to survive for centuries.

 

These were the San.

These were the first people, the ancestors of us all.

 

The Tragedy began with the arrival in the land of a different people. People who needed land for their goats and sheep. People who competed for the same water resources. People who competed for the antelope and other game which had sustained the San for centuries.

 

 The Khoekhoe  moved onto the land approximately 2,000 years ago, ever expanding their search for grazing for their sheep and goats.

 

Conflict arose between the ‘First People’ and the Khoekhoe but the land was vast,  their numbers relatively small and an uneasy co-existence prevailed.

 

Worse was to follow.

 

In the 16^th century the first settlers landed at the Cape of Good Hope.

They brought with them the concept of land ownership and agriculture.

The San watched in horror as these strangers occupied the land they had hunted since time began.

 Serious conflict erupted.

 

The San were systematically dispossessed of their land and its resources and were considered a nuisance factor to be annihilated as the settlers increased their areas of occupation.

 

The decimation of a people began.

 

The men, woman and children who were not massacred during commando raids either died of new diseases introduced by the settlers or were captured and taken into forced labour. 

 

 

A further complication arose for the San with the arrival in the region of the black nations, moving south and west with their herds of cattle.

The pressures increased.

The massacres continued.

Read the history books and journals of the time.

 

1774 : 503 killed and 239 captured during the first of several operations that would lead to the extinction of the San in the south western Cape.

1786 – 1795 : 2,504 killed and 669 taken prisoner in the Graaff-Reneit area alone during the last decade of Dutch East India Company rule.

1821 – 1824 : 3,200 San killed or taken prisoner.

1825 – 1831 : 2,700 San ‘destroyed’

 

These are only some of the recorded atrocities.

Death on a scale so huge it would today be termed genocide.

 

Soon the San were living in the arid and remote regions where farming was difficult if not impossible.

They had no voice and many were captured and forced into slavery on local farms.

The languages were spoken less and less.

It was not possible to hunt, punishment followed if they did.

 

With the coming of Apartheid the ‘non people’ became truly forgotten.

With the policy of compartmentalization of people by the colour of their skin the San, these uncomplicated defenders of their land and traditions, were further marginalized by the policies and laws of the time.

 

Since colonial times to the present day, there have been millions of words written about these unique people.

Countless studies of their history and demise.

Anthropologists thrive on the wealth of information still available to them from the few who have survived.

 

 

Efforts have been made to restore some to the land they once occupied.

 

And the net result?

 

Exactly as it has been for the last 300 years.

 

Conflict with governments over land rights.

Court cases that drag on for years.

Persecution at the hands of those with the power.

Initiatives that result in conflict, greed and animosity.

Worthy projects dying through lack of funding and interest.

Exploitation in the name of tourism and good business.

 

Amazingly, and despite the odds, after 40,000 years, small pockets of San still exist today.

 

Are we, the people of Southern Africa, going to sit back and watch the oldest civilization known to modern humanity quietly disappear?

 

Are we going to sit idly by as this unique and ancient culture fades to extinction?

 

Already the ‘First People of the Cape’ are no more.

Their language and culture gone forever.

 

The /Xam language died out towards the end of the nineteenth century.

By 1910 the extinction of this indigenous San culture and most of the San languages in South Africa was complete.

 

The San are Southern Africa’s aboriginal people. Their distinct hunter-gatherer culture can be traced back over thousands of years and their genetic origins reach back over a million years, making their genetic stock the oldest of contemporary humanity.

 

If we do nothing, as we have done for the last 300 years, this culture will perish, and all we will have left will be the paintings and engravings found on the walls of caves and rock shelters throughout the land.

 

All we will have will be the history books and journals to remind us, and our children, of the role played by the San in the development of man.

 

   

Or we can do something to preserve this precious heritage.

 

The Khomani San are in serious decline with political intrigue, cohersion and alcohol taking its toll.

The !Xun and the Khwe are living in abject conditions on the outskirts of Kimberly.

Other pockets of San are in similar conditions throughout Southern Africa.

 

The Endangered Peoples Trust is funding the establishment of a sanctuary for a core of San desperate to save what remains of their battered culture.

 

We need to do something NOW before it’s too late.