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92-579: The term Namaland also covers a much broader region of southern Namibia which is the traditional home of the northern Nama or Namaqua people. Their language, Nama , is the only surviving dialect of the Khoekhoe language. The suffix -qua means “people” and can be added to the names of most Khoekhoe groups. The region of the Northern Cape south of the Orange River is called Namaqualand . In

184-405: A beehive shape. It is a dwelling house for all seasons– it is cool and well ventilated in summer, it is naturally insulated by reed carpets in winter, and protected from the rain by the porous stems which swell with water. All materials are organic and not over-harvested; this is a home that truly respects the environment. Women and men take part in the making of it, in the collection of materials, in

276-438: A church and mission station, and also helped found an RMG school in the settlement. In June 1884 Hendrik Witbooi had taken over leadership from his father, and in that year he began the first of his several treks with his people north into central Damaraland in search of new settlement. He had just resigned from his position in church as an elder a year before (1883), he styled himself as a biblical prophet and gained support of

368-514: A communialist society centered on cattle, trade and Christianity. After his death in 1875 Moses Witbooi (Hendrik Witbooi's father) assumed chieftaincy and remained in that position until 1883. Like his father Moses followed Christian practices and worked closely with Johannes Olpp, a Protestant missionary affiliated with Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft ( Rhenish Mission Society , RMG) who arrived in Gibeon in 1868. Moses supported Olpp's efforts to build

460-714: A cultural or ethnic one. The compound term Khoisan / Khoesān is a modern anthropological convention in use since the early-to-mid 20th century. Khoisan is a coinage by Leonhard Schulze in the 1920s and popularised by Isaac Schapera . It entered wider usage from the 1960s based on the proposal of a " Khoisan " language family by Joseph Greenberg . During the Colonial/Apartheid era, Afrikaans-speaking persons with partial Khoesān ancestry were historically also grouped as Cape Blacks ( Afrikaans : Kaap Swartes ) or Western Cape Blacks ( Afrikaans : Wes-Kaap Swartes ) to rather inaccurately distinguish them from

552-532: A deputy officer to Göering wrote to Witbooi inviting him to participate in a conciliatory meeting between the various warring communities in Walvis Bay. With this meeting German authorities had hoped to facilitate a peace treaty, however the Namaqua chief did not comply with the request but instead he wrote a letter in response telling Nels that he will not listen to him. He made it known to Nels that he (Witbooi)

644-421: A linguistic phylum by Joseph Greenberg in 1955. Their genetic relationship was questioned later in the 20th century, and the term now serves mostly as a convenience term without implying genetic unity, much like " Papuan " and " Australian " are. Their most notable uniting feature is their click consonants . They are categorized in two families, and a number of possible language isolates. The Kxʼa family

736-546: A mere "tribesman" whom he could defeat easily. He had a notion that his predecessors acted weakly in dealing with the Nama chief and they made too many concessions. François strongly believed that nothing but relentless severity would end Witbooi's resistance decisively. Initially the German official tried to entice with an annual payment of five thousand marks if he would submit, however the Nama chief maintained his stand. François

828-571: A mostly Xhosa population. Andries Stockenström facilitated the creation of the "Kat River" Khoi settlement near the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony. The settlements thrived and expanded, and Kat River quickly became a large and successful region of the Cape that subsisted more or less autonomously. The people were predominantly Afrikaans-speaking Gonaqua Khoi, but the settlement also began to attract other Khoi, Xhosa and mixed-race groups of

920-490: A multi-regional hypothesis that suggests the Khoi-San may be a source population for anatomically modern humans.) Their languages show a vague typological similarity, largely confined to the prevalence of click consonants . They are not verifiably derived from a common proto-language, but are today split into at least three separate and unrelated language families ( Khoe-Kwadi , Tuu and Kxʼa ). It has been suggested that

1012-650: A racist based system of governance because on average only white people owned property adequate to meet the test. In the Herero and Namaqua genocide in German South-West Africa , over 10,000 Nama are estimated to have been killed during 1904–1907. The San of the Kalahari were described in Specimens of Bushman Folklore by Wilhelm H. I. Bleek and Lucy C. Lloyd (1911). They were brought to

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1104-592: A stop at the Cape on the way to the Indonesian archipelago, they were concerned with getting fresh produce and water for their people. Indonesia was rich in crops and spices which could not be produced in Europe, which is why the Dutch had major interest there. The Dutch had enslaved a large number of Indonesians to work on their plantations. In the Cape, Van Riebeek initially attempted to get cattle, land, and labour from

1196-483: A trans-frontier park from the west coast of southern Africa to the desert interior, absorbing the Richtersveld National Park. Today, the Richtersveld National Park is one of the few places where the original Nama traditions survive. There, the Nama move with the seasons and speak their language. The traditional Nama dwelling – the |haru oms, or portable rush-mat covered domed hut – protects against

1288-617: Is a catch-all term for the indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who traditionally speak non- Bantu languages , combining the Khoekhoen and the Sān peoples. Khoi-San populations traditionally speak click languages and are considered to be the only indigenous historical communities throughout Southern Africa, remaining predominant until the Bantu and European colonisation in areas climatically unfavorable to Bantu (sorghum-based) agriculture, such as

1380-668: Is a chief of his tribe who is free and an autonomous man who answers only to God. The German officials did not respond to Witbooi's diplomatic reproach. With the limits of German on full display, imperial officials were at a loss about how to end the violence in GSWA. In June 1888, Göring wrote Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck and described the overall situation as "not very encouraging". April 1889 Göring went so far as to threaten open war against Witbooi and his tribe if he did not halt his attacks against groups allied with Germany. Witbooi's resistance prompted policy makers to seek immediate solutions to

1472-400: Is also celebrated in reverse at the man's family home. White flags are mounted on both families' houses which may not be taken off but wither or are blown off by the wind one day. The wedding preparations can take up to a year. The family of the groom makes a gift to the bride's mother, traditionally a cow and a calf, for she has raised the bride at her breast. A bargaining process accompanies

1564-543: Is later seen in the click consonants and loan words from ancient Khoe-san languages into the evolution of blended agro-pastoralist & hunter-gatherer communities that would eventually evolve into the now extant, amalgamated modern native linguistic communities found in South Africa, Botswana & Namibia (e.g. in South African Xhosa , Sotho , Tswana , Zulu people.) Today these groups represent

1656-608: Is used to determine when different subgroups separated from one another, and hence their last common ancestry. The authors of these studies suggested that the San may have been one of the first populations to differentiate from the most recent common paternal ancestor of all extant humans. Various Y-chromosome studies since confirmed that the Khoisan carry some of the most divergent (oldest) Y-chromosome haplogroups . These haplogroups are specific sub-groups of haplogroups A and B ,

1748-551: The Bantu-speaking peoples , the other indigenous African population of South Africa who also had significant Khoe-San ancestry. The term Khoisan (also spelled KhoiSan , Khoi-San , Khoe-San ) has also been introduced in South African usage as a self-designation after the end of apartheid in the late 1990s. Since the 2010s, there has been a "Khoisan activist" movement, demanding recognition and land rights from

1840-585: The Cape region , through to Namibia , where Khoekhoe populations of Nama and Damara people are prevalent groups, and Botswana . Considerable genocide and forced assimilations from invading Bantu-speaking groups is evidenced by prevalence of click phonemes in many especially Zulu and Xhosa Southern African Bantu languages. Many Khoe-Sān peoples are the descendants of a very early dispersal of anatomically modern humans to Southern Africa before 150,000 years ago. (However, see below for recent work supporting

1932-649: The German Colonial Empire between 1904 and 1908. In South Africa the Khoi-San suffered genocide at the hands of the Bantu Nguni tribes in the provinces of KwaZulu Natal and the Eastern Cape. The Khoi-San of both provinces were subjected to violent campaigns of territorial dominance by the invading Bantu settlers of the Zulu and Xhosa tribes. The Bantu genocide killed or drove off the men, while

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2024-588: The Griqua ), to the language name. In April 1652, Jan van Riebeeck , an official of the Dutch East India Company , arrived at the Cape of Good Hope with 90 people to start initial Dutch settlement at the request of the company. They found the indigenous settlers called the Khoikhoi there, who had settled in the Cape region at least a thousand years before the Dutch arrived. The Khoikhoi at

2116-756: The Krantzplatz reserve near Gibeon and the Soromas reserve near Bethanie , plus 165 white-owned farms. Generous offers from the administration to buy these farms from the White settlers lead to many voluntary sales but also raised farm prices in the Police Zone. The townlands of Gibeon were added, and formed the administrative capital of the bantustan. This territory excluded the former Bondels Nama reserve, comprising c. 175,000 hectares (430,000 acres) around Warmbad . Its Nama inhabitants were to relocate to

2208-583: The San people as hunter-gatherers. The Nama are a Khoikhoi group. The Nama originally lived around the Orange River in southern Namibia and northern South Africa. The early colonialists referred to them as Hottentots . Their alternative historical name, "Namaqua", stems from the addition of the Khoekhoe language suffix "-qua/kwa" , meaning "place of" (found in the names of other Southern African nations like

2300-499: The Sandawe language of Tanzania ("Khoe–Sandawe"). The Hadza language of Tanzania has been associated with the Khoisan group due to the presence of click consonants. The Khoisan are one of the only populations with epicanthic folds outside of East Asia. They typically have hair texture of the tightest possible curl, a form of kinky hair sometimes referred to as "peppercorn" because of how it can roll into separate rounds on

2392-692: The University of the Free State discovered 8,000-year-old carvings made by the Khoisan people. The carvings depicted a hippopotamus, horse, and antelope in the 'Rain Snake' Dyke of the Vredefort impact structure , which may have spiritual significance regarding the rain-making mythology of the Khoisan. In the Herero and Namaqua genocide , about 10,000 Nama , a Khoekhoe group, and an unknown number of San people were killed in an extermination campaign by

2484-406: The 1800s, and this traditional clothing is today an integral part of the Nama nation's culture. The Nama people's hut, also called matjieshuis, is a round hut traditionally made of beautifully designed reed mats on a skeleton of sticks. It corresponds to their nomadic life of the past; matjieshuis is still part of the life of the inhabitants of Richtersveld– a region made up of mountainous deserts in

2576-520: The 18th and 19th centuries, as conflicts intensified and Dutch settlement was expanding and taking up much space in the colony, the expansion of the colony frontier pushed the Khoikhoi Eastwards into the easternmost Cape & the eventual "closed frontier" native reserves (Transkei &Ciskei) and Northwards across the so-called "open frontier" (Northern Cape & South West Africa/Namibia). Some descendants of Khoikhoi communities, including

2668-466: The 1960s South Africa , which was administering South West Africa under a League of Nations mandate, came under increased international pressure regarding its minority White rule over the majority of Blacks. The solution envisaged by South Africa—the Odendaal Plan —was to separate the white and the non-white population, grant self-government to the isolated black territories, and thus make Whites

2760-466: The Cape practiced pastoral farming; they were the first pastoralists in Southern Africa. They lived beside the San people , who were hunter-gathers. The Khoikhoi had a lot of Nguni cattle and small livestock which they grazed around the Cape. The region was well suited to their lives as pastoralists because it provided enough water for them and their livestock. Initially, when the Dutch made

2852-468: The Cape. The so-called "Bushman wars" were to a large extent the response of the San after their dispossession. At the start of the 18th century, the Khoikhoi in the Western Cape lived in a state dominated by the Dutch. By the end of the century the majority of the Khoisan operated as 'wage labourers', not that dissimilar to slaves. Geographically, the further away the labourer was from Cape Town,

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2944-482: The German protection. These rivalries between the Nama people and other tribes posed a significant problem for the imperial government because the Germans' mandate for the colony was gradually being weakened. German leaders therefore sought to bring immediate end to the conflicts between Herero people and Witbooi Namaqua. In June 1886, Reichskomissar Göring wrote Witbooi, encouraging him to end his hostile actions in

3036-417: The Khoekhoe may represent Late Stone Age arrivals to Southern Africa, displaced by Bantu expansion reaching the area roughly around 1,500AD . Sān are popularly thought of as foragers in the entire southern Africa and regions of Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Northern South Africa. The word sān is from the Khoekhoe language and refers to foragers ("those who pick things up from

3128-543: The Khoi-San, and bearers of haplogroup L1-6 in central/eastern Africa ancestral to everyone else. This group gave rise to the San population of hunter gatherers . A much later wave of migration, around or before the beginning of the Common Era , gave rise to the Khoe people, who were pastoralists . This group carried DNA from Eurasian as well as some Neanderthal groups. Due to their early expansion and separation,

3220-475: The Khoikhoi people through negotiation, but when these negotiations failed, conflicts began to occur. The Dutch settlers waged wars against the Khoikoi, and seized their lands to construct farms for wheat and other produce, and forced many Khoikoi people to work as labourers. Their livestock was also taken and they were denied access to grazing and water resources unless they worked for the Dutch settlers. During

3312-432: The Khoisan in both matrilineal and patrilineal groupings is a further indicator that they represent a population historically distinct from other Africans. Some genomic studies have further revealed that Khoisan groups have been influenced by 9 to 30% genetic admixture in the last few thousand years from an East African population who carried a Eurasian admixture component. Furthermore, they place an East African origin for

3404-407: The Nama and the Herero (a group of Bantu pastoralists), leading to the Herero and Namaqua genocide and a large loss of life for both the Nama and Herero populations. This was motivated by the German desire to establish a prosperous colony which required displacing the indigenous people from their agricultural land. Large herds of cattle were confiscated and Nama and Herero people were driven into

3496-499: The Nama culture, many Oorlams today regard Khoikhoigowab (Damara/Nama) as their mother tongue, though others speak Afrikaans . The distinction between Namas and Oorlams has gradually disappeared over time to an extent where they are today regarded as one ethnic group, despite their different ancestries. In general, the Nama practice a policy of communal land ownership. Music, poetry and story telling are very important in Nama culture and many stories have been passed down orally through

3588-494: The Nama people from summer rain. These Huts are very mobile, but also stable, being able to break them down in less than an hour. The huts are also reusable. They have largely abandoned their traditional religion through the sustained efforts of Christian (and now Muslim) missionaries. The majority of the Nama people in Namibia today are therefore Christian while Nama Muslims make up a large percentage of Namibia's Muslims. In

3680-477: The Nama people in South Namibia have lost their lands during German colonialism. New Namibian minister of land reform, Uutoni Nujoma has been accused of preferring other Namibians from other regions over native Namas. The traditional dress of Nama women consists of long, formal dresses that resemble Victorian traditional fashion. The long, flowing dresses were developed from the style of the missionaries in

3772-513: The Nama, fled north of the colony and crossed the Orange River into German South West Africa (present day Namibia ). In 1991, a part of Namaqualand (home of the Nama and one of the last true wilderness areas of South Africa) was named the Richtersveld National Park . In December 2002, ancestral lands, including the park, were returned to community ownership and the governments of South Africa and Namibia began creating

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3864-526: The Namas had executive and legislative competencies, being made up of elected Legislative Assemblies which would appoint Executive Committees led by chairmen. As second-tier authorities, forming an intermediate tier between central and local government, the representative authorities had responsibility for land tenure, agriculture, education up to primary level, teachers' training, health services, and social welfare and pensions and their Legislative Assemblies had

3956-488: The Tanzanian Luxmanda . Geneticists in 2024 sampled ancient 10,000 year old remains from South Africa, Oakhurst Rockshelter. The examined population had a strong genetic continuity with the San and Khoe. The later advent of pastoralism and farming groups in the last 2,000 years would transform the genepool of most parts of Southern Africa, but many Khoisan preserve, and are identical to the genetic signature of

4048-722: The ability to pass legislation known as Ordinances. Namaland, like other homelands in South West Africa, was abolished in May 1989 at the start of the transition to independence. Nama people Nama (in older sources also called Namaqua ) are an African ethnic group of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana . They traditionally speak the Nama language of the Khoe-Kwadi language family, although many Nama also speak Afrikaans . The Nama People (or Nama-Khoe people) are

4140-436: The actual burial. During the first two nights of the mourning, there is singing of hymns, preaching, and praying. On the last day of the mourning and the day of the burial, there are speeches presented and messages of condolences. The grave site itself is lined with brick, and once the body is inside, a wooden board is laid upon the top before it is covered with dirt. This style of the burial site makes it easy for preservation of

4232-597: The ancient Sangoan skeletal remains. Against the traditional interpretation that finds a common origin for the Khoi and San, other evidence has suggested that the ancestors of the Khoi peoples are relatively recent pre-Bantu agricultural immigrants to southern Africa who abandoned agriculture as the climate dried and either joined the San as hunter-gatherers or retained pastoralism. With the hypothesized arrival of pastoralists & bantoid agro-pastoralists in southern Africa starting around 2,300 years ago, linguistic development

4324-510: The appropriation of traditional lands that had begun early in the colonial period. Under apartheid , remaining pastoralists were encouraged to abandon their traditional lifestyle in favour of village life. At the dawn of the 19th century, Oorlam people encroached into Namaqualand and Damaraland . They likewise descended from indigenous Khoikhoi but were a group with mixed ancestry including Europeans and slaves from Madagascar , India, and Indonesia . After two centuries of assimilation into

4416-551: The bantustans. The combined territory of all bantustans was roughly equal in size to the Police Zone. However, all bantustans were predominantly rural and excluded major towns. All harbours, most of the railway network and the tarred road infrastructure, all larger airports, the profitable diamond areas and the national parks were situated in the Police Zone. For Southern Namibia the Odendaal Plan designated Namaland from four already existing native reserves, Berseba , Tses ,

4508-463: The blistering sun, and is easy to move when grazing becomes scarce. Some Khoikhoi groups including the Nama under the leadership of David Witbooi ( Hendrik Witbooi 's grandfather) had crossed the Orange River into South West Africa. David Witbooi was the first Khoikhoi leader to establish a permanent Namaqua settlement north Orange River beginning in the mid-1840s. In 1863, he eventually led his people to Gibeon (south-central Namibia) where he developed

4600-460: The body. Namas have a complicated wedding ritual. First, the man has to discuss his intentions with his family. If they agree they will advise him of the customs to ask the bride's family and then accompany him to the place she lives. The yard at the bride's living place is prepared prior to the future husband's family's arrival; animal hides are laid out in the corners for the different groups to sit down and discuss. The groom's family will ask for

4692-555: The colony. He pleaded with the Nama Chief to return home to Gibeon to be with his father and tribe and live in peace there; he warned that the German government could not allow chieftains who have placed themselves under German protection to support his ambition of driving a protected chiefdom into war. Witbooi and his people ignored this warning and continued his campaign for dominance against the Herero. Later that same year Louis Nels,

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4784-412: The conflict began, Maharero had finalized a protection agreement with officials from the newly arrived German colonial administration. Although he knew about Maharero's treaty with Germany, Witbooi never waivered in his decision to confront the Herero people. Witbooi was campaigning for his tribe's supremacy in the colony and he continued to clash with other tribal communities that were under the auspices of

4876-426: The desert and in some cases interned in concentration camps on the coast, for example at Shark Island . Additionally, the Nama and Herero were forced into slave labor to build railways and to dig for diamonds during the diamond rush . In the 1920s diamonds were discovered at the mouth of the Orange River , and prospectors began moving there, establishing towns at Alexander Bay and Port Nolloth . This accelerated

4968-452: The distribution of the L0d haplogroup. Rosti et al. suggest a connection of this recent expansion with the spread of click consonants to eastern African languages ( Hadza language ). The Late Stone Age Sangoan industry occupied southern Africa in areas where annual rainfall is less than a metre (1000 mm; 39.4 in). The contemporary San and Khoi peoples resemble those represented by

5060-833: The end of Apartheid in 1994, the term "Khoisan" has gradually come to be used as a self-designation by South African Khoikhoi as representing the "first nations" of South Africa vis-a-vis the ruling Bantu majority. A conference on "Khoisan Identities and Cultural Heritage" was organised by the University of the Western Cape in 1997. and "Khoisan activism" has been reported in the South African media beginning in 2015. The South African government allowed Khoisan families (up until 1998) to pursue land claims which existed prior to 1913. The South African Deputy Chief Land Claims Commissioner, Thami Mdontswa, has said that constitutional reform would be required to enable Khoisan people to pursue further claims to land from which their direct ancestors were removed prior to 9 June 1913. In 2019, scientists from

5152-414: The far right, while younger brothers and their families on the left. There are no enclosures for adult livestock. They are expected to sleep in front of their owners huts. Calves and lambs are placed in an enclosed area in the middle of camp. The huts were lined with reed mats made by women, and the mats are placed on wooden frames. The reeds are able to soak and absorb water well, thus being able to protect

5244-435: The gate to be opened. If this is granted, the groom is interrogated about details of the bride, including the circumstances of their first meeting and how to identify her body marks to make sure both know each other well. If the bride is pregnant or already has children from her future husband or someone else, the bride is subjected to the "door cleansing" ceremony (slaughtering and consuming a snow-white goat). After several days

5336-441: The generations. The Nama have a culture that is rich in the musical and literary abilities of its people. Traditional music, folk tales, proverbs, and praise poetry have been handed down for generations and form the base for much of their culture. They are known for crafts which include leatherwork, skin karosses and mats, musical instruments (such as reed flutes), jewellery, clay pots, and tortoiseshell powder containers. Many of

5428-479: The gift that can take weeks in itself. On wedding day, both families provide animals and other food and bring it to the bride's home. The wedding itself takes place in a church. Festivities afterward go on for several days. The first night after the wedding the couple spends separately. On the next morning, they set off for their own home. Khoisan Khoi-San ( / ˈ k ɔɪ s ɑː n / KOY -sahn ) or Khoe-Sān ( pronounced [kxʰoesaːn] )

5520-567: The globalised world's attention in the 1950s by South African author Laurens van der Post in a six-part television documentary. The Ancestral land conflict in Botswana concerns the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), established in 1961 for wildlife, while the San were permitted to continue their hunter-gatherer lifestyle. In the 1990s, the government of Botswana began a policy of "relocating" CKGR residents outside

5612-582: The government and white minority which owns large parts of the country's private land. It is suggested that the ancestors of the modern Khoisan expanded to southern Africa (from East or Central Africa ) before 150,000 years ago, possibly as early as before 260,000 years ago, so that by the beginning of the MIS 5 " megadrought " 130,000 years ago, there were two ancestral population clusters in Africa, bearers of mt-DNA haplogroup L0 in southern Africa ancestral to

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5704-433: The ground") who do not own livestock. As such, it was used in reference to all hunter-gatherer populations who came into contact with Khoekhoe-speaking communities, and was largely referring to the lifestyle, distinct from a pastoralist or agriculturalist one, and not to any particular ethnicity. While there are attendant cosmologies and languages associated with this way of life, the term is an economic designator rather than

5796-418: The instability in GSWA. The Namaqua resistance provoked the German authorities to act decisively, after 1889 Germany's military presence in the colony began to grow exponentially. In March 1893 Chancellor Von Caprivi proclaimed GSWA a German settlement colony. November same year Kaiser Wilhelm II appointed Curt von François as Landeshauptmann . A fanatic, François looked at Witbooi with disdain and called him

5888-495: The journal Nature suggests that current genetic data may be best understood as reflecting internal admixtures of multiple population sources across Africa, including ancestral populations of the Khoisan. The San populations ancestral to the Khoisan were spread throughout much of southern and eastern Africa throughout the Late Stone Age after about 75 ka. A further expansion dated to about 20 ka has been proposed based on

5980-706: The largest group of the Khoikhoi people, most of whom have disappeared as a group, except for the Namas. Many of the Nama clans live in Central Namibia and the other smaller groups live in Namaqualand , which today straddles the Namibian border with South Africa. For thousands of years, the Khoisan peoples of South Africa and southern Namibia maintained a nomadic life, the Khoikhoi as pastoralists and

6072-563: The majority population in the vast remainder of the country. Moreover it was envisaged that by separating each ethnic group and confining people by law to their restricted areas, discrimination by race would automatically disappear. The demarcated territories were called the bantustans , and the remainder of the land was called the Police Zone . Forthwith, all non-white people employed in the Police Zone became migrant workers , and pass laws were established to police movement in and out of

6164-654: The more difficult it became to transport agricultural produce to the markets. The issuing of grazing licences north of the Berg River in what was then the Tulbagh Basin propelled colonial expansion in the area. This system of land relocation led to the Khoijhou losing their land and livestock as well as dramatic change in the social, economic and political development. After the defeat of the Xhosa rebellion in 1853,

6256-474: The most prominent families in Gibeon. Witbooi established a settlement in Hoornkrans the very same year he moved from Gibeon. Hoornkrans was an important stronghold territory controlled by the Herero, powerful Bantu pastoralists community led by Chief Maharero . Witbooi's decision to expand his influence into Hoornkrans sparked a protracted military conflict between the two tribes. However, a few months before

6348-557: The new Cape Government endeavoured to grant the Khoi political rights to avert future racial discontent. The government enacted the Cape franchise in 1853, which decreed that all male citizens meeting a low property test, regardless of colour, had the right to vote and to seek election in Parliament. The property test was an indirect way by the British Cape Government (who took over from the Dutch in 1812) to retain

6440-596: The new reserve. Altogether, Namaland had a size of 2,156 km (832 sq mi). 34,806 Nama were estimated to live in the south of South West Africa in the 1960s; all of them were supposed to relocate to the new territory. Following the Turnhalle Constitutional Conference the system of Bantustans was replaced in 1980 by Representative Authorities which functioned on the basis of ethnicity only and were no longer based on geographically defined areas. The Representative Authority of

6532-460: The northwest of South Africa. In fact, this is the last place where we can still find them in significant numbers. In the villages currently in the Richtersveld, the matjieshuis are used as a depot to store, as a kitchen, as an additional place to sleep, or even to provide to tourists, like accommodation. These huts, called haru oms in the Nama language, are made of reed mats woven neatly into

6624-428: The older hunter-gatherers. On 21 September 2020, the University of Cape Town launched its new Khoi and San Centre, with an undergraduate degree programme planned to be rolled out in the following years. The centre will support and consolidate this collaborative work on research commissions on language (including Khoekhoegowab ), sacred human remains, land and gender. Many descendants of Khoisan people still live on

6716-472: The past funerals were not a big social gathering. The Nama people simply buried the body and never spoke about the person again due to fear of spirits. Today funerals are social solidarity. The position of the person in the community being buried matters– that determines the burial site. Members of close relatives of the deceased person spend a week preparing the grave site, digging, and using flattened oil drums as sheets. The mourning takes place three days before

6808-475: The paternal haplogroup E1b1b found in these Southern African populations, as well as the introduction of pastoralism into the region. The paper also noted that the Bantu expansion had a notable genetic impact in a number of Khoisan groups. On the basis of PCA projections, the East African ancestry identified in the genomes of Khoe-Kwadi speakers and other southern Africans is related to an individual from

6900-545: The populations ancestral to the Khoisan have been estimated as having represented the "largest human population" during the majority of the anatomically modern human timeline, from their early separation before 150 kya until the recent peopling of Eurasia some 70 kya. They were much more widespread than today, their modern distribution being due to their decimation in the course of the Bantu expansion . They were dispersed throughout much of southern and southeastern Africa. There

6992-421: The preparation of the rugs, and in the assembly of the hut, in a very meticulous process which has remained a true Nama art. Traditionally, Nama camps had 5-30 huts. These huts were circular domes and their doors faced the center of camp. They were also arranged hierarchically; the chief's was placed west and faced east. Other families were placed based on their seniority. Elder brothers and their families were on

7084-492: The quantitative majority of extant admixed ancient Khoe-San descendants by the millions. The Khoikhoi enter the historical record with their first contact with Portuguese explorers, about 1,000 years after their displacement by the Bantu. Local population dropped after the Khoi were exposed to smallpox from Europeans. The Khoi waged more frequent attacks against Europeans when the Dutch East India Company enclosed traditional grazing land for farms. Khoikhoi social organisation

7176-466: The raid believing François was still committed to neutrality. Previously Hendrik had scrupulously avoided harming Germans, but now was compelled to join the colonizers in war. In a series of running skirmishes that lasted for more than a year the Namaqua had great success, stealing horses and livestock from the German headquarters in Windhoek. At the end of 1893 Theodor Leutwein replaced Von François, he

7268-529: The reserve. In 2002, the government cut off all services to CKGR residents. A legal battle began, and in 2006 the High Court of Botswana ruled that the residents had been forcibly and unconstitutionally removed. The policy of relocation continued, however, and in 2012 the San people (Basarwa) appealed to the United Nations to force the government to recognise their land and resource rights. Following

7360-521: The scalp. Charles Darwin wrote about the Khoisan and sexual selection in The Descent of Man in 1882, commenting that their steatopygia , seen primarily in females, evolved through sexual selection in human evolution , and that "the posterior part of the body projects in a most wonderful manner". Historically, some females were observed by anthropologists to exhibit elongated labia minora , which sometimes projected as much as 10 cm below

7452-455: The two earliest branches on the human Y-chromosome tree. Similar to findings from Y-chromosome studies, mitochondrial DNA studies also showed evidence that the Khoisan people carry high frequencies of the earliest haplogroup branches in the human mitochondrial DNA tree. The most divergent (oldest) mitochondrial haplogroup, L0d , has been identified at its highest frequencies in the southern African Khoi and San groups. The distinctiveness of

7544-449: The vulva when standing. Though well documented, the motivations behind this practice and the voices of the women who perform it are rarely explored in the research. In the 1990s, genomic studies of the world's peoples found that the Y chromosome of San men share certain patterns of polymorphisms that are distinct from those of all other populations. Because the Y chromosome is highly conserved between generations, this type of DNA test

7636-469: The wars in the colony. He employed a policy of extermination of the whole African tribes in the colony. The Nama people were fighters in pre-colonial times, the Namas and the Herero people fought for control of pastures in central Namibia. The battle continued for a long part of the 19th century. From 1904 to 1908, the German Empire , which had colonized present-day Namibia , waged a war against

7728-513: The wedding ritual continues in reverse; the bride's family visits the clan of the groom. If all is to the satisfaction of the two clans, an engagement day is announced. At the engagement, the groom's family brings live animals to the woman's family home. The animals are slaughtered, hung on three sticks, and each part is offered to the bride's family. Other items like bags of sugar or flour are only offered in quantities of two or four to indicate that there will always be abundance of food. This process

7820-644: The women and children were absorbed into the Bantu tribes. These forced assimilations led to language adaptations of clicks etc and the Khoi-San DNA also produced lighter skin tones among the Bantu. The Bantu colonisation process totally extinguished the Khoi-San independent identity,to the extent that the remnants now call themselves either Zulu or Xhosa. In Botswana , many of the indigenous San people have been forcibly relocated from their land to reservations. To make them relocate, they were denied access to water on their land and faced arrest if they hunted, which

7912-420: Was also a significant back-migration of bearers of L0 towards eastern Africa between 120 and 75 kya. Rito et al. (2013) speculate that pressure from such back-migration may even have contributed to the dispersal of East African populations out of Africa at about 70 kya. Recent work has suggested that the multi-regional hypothesis may be supported by current human population genetic data. A 2023 study published in

8004-642: Was appointed to the colony to investigate the reasons for continuing failure to subdue the Nama people. In July 1894 Leutwein asked for 250 troops, with the enlarged army he was able to defeat the Nama people who at the time had run out of ammunition; the English at the Cape and Walvis Bay had refused them assistance. Leiutwein successfully subdued the Nama and forced Hendrik to sign a protection treaty. June 1904 Kaiser Wilhelm replaced Leutwein with Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha ; like his predecessor, von Trotha believed that violence would ultimately put an end to

8096-580: Was pressured by the Colonial Society to take action against Witbooi, subsequently on April 12, 1893, he launched a surprise attack on Witbooi and his tribe at Hoornkrans. 214 soldiers had been sent with an ultimate objective to "destroy the Witbooi Nama tribe". Though Witbooi and majority of his male soldiers escaped the encirclement, German troops killed nearly one hundred Namaqua women and children in their sleep. The Namaqua were unprepared for

8188-496: Was profoundly damaged and, in the end, destroyed by colonial expansion and land seizure from the late 17th century onwards. As social structures broke down, some Khoikhoi people settled on farms and became bondsmen (bondservants) or farm workers; many were incorporated into existing Khoi clan and family groups of the Xhosa people . Georg Schmidt, a Moravian Brother from Herrnhut , Saxony, now Germany, founded Genadendal in 1738, which

8280-596: Was proposed in 2010, combining the ǂʼAmkoe (ǂHoan) language with the ǃKung (Juu) dialect cluster. ǃKung includes about a dozen dialects, with no clear-cut delineation between them. Sands et al. (2010) propose a division into four clusters: The Khoi (Khoe) family is divided into a Khoikhoi ( Khoekhoe and Khoemana dialects) and a Kalahari (Tshu–Khwe) branch. The Kalahari branch of Khoe includes Shua and Tsoa (with dialects), and Kxoe , Naro , Gǁana and ǂHaba (with dialects). Khoe also has been tentatively aligned with Kwadi ("Kwadi–Khoe"), and more speculatively with

8372-564: Was the first mission station in southern Africa, among the Khoi people in Baviaanskloof in the Riviersonderend Mountains . Early European settlers sometimes intermarried with Khoikhoi women, resulting in a sizeable mixed-race population now known as the Griqua . The Griqua people too would migrate to what was by that time the frontierlands of the Xhosa native reserves and establish Griqualand East, which contained

8464-445: Was their primary source of food. Their lands lie in the middle of the world's richest diamond field. Officially, the government denies that there is any link to mining and claims the relocation is to preserve the wildlife and ecosystem, even though the San people have lived sustainably on the land for millennia. On the reservations they struggle to find employment, and alcoholism is rampant. The "Khoisan languages" were proposed as

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