My Adventures.com

Where in the world have you been?

Access adventure news, tailored to your interests. Updated every 15 minutes.
[x] close

MyAdventures.com supports mobile uploads of photos and videos!

  1. Update your mobile phone number in your Account Settings.
  2. Snap a photo or video with your cell phone and send it via email or multimedia message (MMS) to : mobile@myadventures.com.

Your photo or video will automatically be posted on your profile!

[x] close
You need to upgrade your Flash Player

Profile of Bambi Brooke Chilvers Lubin

Hiking, Walking Tours, Camping, Scuba Diving, Snorkeling, Kayaking more
  • Birthday: July 16th, 1954

Hunting with the Last San/Bushman of Namibia

Trip duration: May, 2009 - May, 2009 Posted by Bambi Brooke Chilvers Lubin
Locale: 
In May 2009 we visited with Nhoma Safaris in Namibia's former Bushmanland - look west of Tsumkwe - to hunt with what may be the last of the traditional San/Bushman of Namibia. Unfortunately, these 10,000- to 40,000-year-old gathering and hunting traditions are quickly being eroded and are threatened with extinction within a decade. This is due to pressure from the land-seeking, cattle-herding Herero who are settling in the area despite a veterinary Red Line meant to keep their cattle out and limited numbers of San cattle in; the negative influence of rural slum towns like Tsumkwe with its sheebans, cell phones and Chinese wares; and the loss of a generation of traditional hunters in the 1980s when San males were employed as trackers by the South African Defence Forces in their ‘Bushman Battalion” in their fight against SWAPO’s struggle for independence; and well-intended efforts by NGOs and the (deceased) controversial John Marshall to turn the San into cattle farmers.
Hunting with the Last San/Bushman of Namibia Posted on: 11/9/2009
  • May, 2009 - May, 2009
Arno and Estelle Oosthuysen of Nhoma Safari Camp have worked closely with the San/Bushman of Tsumkwe District’s sandy Panveld for nearly 20 years. Their ‘unmass’ tourism offers a unique and authentic safari experience: gathering and hunting in the acacia woodland savannah in the company of what may be the San’s last traditional hunters.

Namibia’s former ‘Bushmanland’ in the sparsely populated and remote north-east lies in the Otjozondjupa Region; look east of Grootfontein on the map. Two communal conservancies, Nyae Nyae (established in 1998 in former Eastern Bushmanland) and N?a-Jaqna (established in 2003 in former Western Bushmanland) were created by the Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) to enable the some 3,000 Ju/’hoansi and 7,000 !Kung San living in the region to manage and directly benefit from the conservancies’ natural resources such as wildlife, forests, and both natural and man-made water sources.

The vast majority of Nyae Nyae’s income (approximately $US130,000 in 2008) and protein in the form of elephant meat is generated from Kai-Uwe Denker’s hunting in the 9,003 sq km conservancy, the sale of crafts at the centre in god-forsaken Tsumkwe, and fees from planned joint-venture lodges and campsites. Credit must be given to WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature) and USAID for their support in reintroducing in 1995 eland, oryx, kudu, wildebeest and springbok into Nyae Nyae – an area that bordered by Botswana to the east, Tsumkwe to the west, Kavango to the north, and Hereroland to the south.

In a region with few jobs, the San have also maintained their rights to gather veld food and to hunt, under quota, eland, kudu, gemsbok, blue wildebeest, red hartebeest, springbok, steenbok and duiker – as long as they are hunted traditionally with a bow and poisoned arrows; nevertheless, there are rumours of animals being taken from horseback with spears.

These 10,000- to 40,000-year-old gathering and hunting traditions are quickly being eroded and are threatened with extinction within a decade. This is due to pressure from the land-seeking, cattle-herding Herero who are settling in the area despite a veterinary Red Line meant to keep their cattle out and limited numbers of San cattle in; the negative influence of rural slum towns like Tsumkwe with its shebeens, cell phones and Chinese wares; and the loss of a generation of traditional hunters in the 1980s when San males were employed as trackers by the South African Defence Forces in their ‘Bushman Battalion” in their fight against SWAPO’s struggle for independence; and well-intended efforts by NGOs and the (deceased) controversial John Marshall to turn the San into cattle farmers.

***

Fortunately, the Oosthuysens, with their high-standard eco-operation Nhoma Safari Camp, are helping to maintain the time-honoured knowledge of these hunting and gathering traditions by celebrating them and turning back economic benefits to Nhoma (//nhoq’ma) village. Fees from visitors and monies earned from the sale of handmade beaded jewelry and bags go directly to the village, which in 2008 amounted to N$200,000.

For our safari, we accompanied four Ju/’hoansi (pronounced Zhu-wahnsi, meaning ‘real people’) traditionally dressed hunters – Agarob (or Sao), Jonas (or N?amce), Dawid (or N!ani) and Fanie (or Nqeissi) – into the sandy woodland savannah dominated by acacias, Zambezi and Transvaal teak, wild syringa, false mopane and purple pod terminalia. With Arno as our translator, the hunters showed us which trees, bushes, bulbs, fruits, seeds and pods were on hand, from the more than 100 plants they use which provide nature’s materials for survival in this tough environment.

Of especial interest to modern-day hunters like us are the materials that fill their steenbok skin bag.

For their quivers, they seek the roots of the false umbrella thorn, Acacia luederitzii. They take a 40 to 60 cm piece of root and leave it overnight in warm ashes. This makes the bark expand, which loosens the pith core, which they can then pop out, leaving the hollowed quiver, which is bound and capped in steenbok skin.
For bows, springhare sticks and knobkerries, they use wood from the edible berry-bearing Grewia species (or raisin bushes), specifically G. flava (Brandybush).

For making the strings and a good-as-store-bought rope for their traps, they gathered Sansevieria, (specifically S. pearsonii or gemsbok horn) which many of us know, for obvious reasons, as the potted plant ‘mother-in-law’s tongue.’ The pulp is scraped off with a digging stick, leaving the long, strong white fibers, which are wound together by rolling along the hunter’s thigh, and then plaited.

Their light unfleshed link-shaft arrows, which kill with poison and not impact, are comprised of the small arrowheads made from pounding wire into shape, while the collar and shaft made from locally common reeds like Phragmites australis or bluegrass, Andropogon gayanus. The collar and shaft are bound with sinew and glued with the sap from the roots of the common resin tree, Ozoroa paniculosa, that are incised, then heated by the fire to exude the sap. The idea is for the poisoned tip to stay embedded in the animal, while the reed shaft falls to the ground, which avoids the entire arrow from being dislodged by the fleeing quarry.

PH Rudy Lubin got into the act of building and baiting guineafowl and francolin sensitive snares around a waterhole with our hunters, who later demonstrated the construction of larger traps for steenbok and duiker and how they are ‘funneled’ and tricked into being trapped.

Depending on his physical condition, lucky guests might even follow springhare or porcupine tracks for a real hunt with the San, or even oryx, which is pursued the following day once the poison begins its work, possibly encountering a big-tusked bull elephant along the way, which the San leave in peace.

Our hunters also showed us how they started fires with colorfully decorated fire sticks from branches from the Mankato tree (Schinziophyton rautanenii), whose nuts we also helped gather from piles of elephant dung, delighting in their flavourful and nutritious kernels. Hot cinders are generated by the friction of drilling a vertical male stick into the notched hole of a female stick. They also re-cycled empty Bics by filling them with tinder made from burnt fungus that they carried in a small metal container.

That evening we went to Nhoma village, home to about 50 adults and 100 children, to watch the lively flirting game of graceful ladies playing catch with monkey orange fruits, then witnessed the mesmerizing medicinal ‘elephant dance,’ whose intense rhythmic wood-clapping puts dancers into a trance state called !áíá in order to seek advice from their ancestors, the go-betweens between their good and evil gods.

Nhoma Safari Camp is a very special and authentic operation – not a voyeuristic Disneyland for tourists. We had the freedom to snap photos of dozens of unforgettable moments with a fun-loving people, who are not offended by letting Westerners get close. It is as genuine a contact with the San/Bushman as still possible today.

For clients hunting anywhere within driving distance of Nhoma, it is well worth the detour and a few additional days in unforgettable Namibia.

Contact.
Website: www.tsumkwel.iway.na
E-Mail: tsumkwel@iway.na
Cell: 264-081-2734606

Accommodation.
Sitting on a hill overlooking one of Namibia’s last truly wild areas, Nhoma Safari Camp offers 10 tastefully-appointed double meru tents, laid out with privacy in mind and set on individual raised decks. Ensuite bathroom facilities (some even equipped with full-sized bathtubs) are attached or are in an adjoining thatched area, offering the chance to shower outdoors under the stars. Couples will be glad to find big, comfy queen-sized beds. Solar-powered lights work through the night.

Three full meals a day, taken together with your hosts and other guests, are served buffet style and offer both game and domestic meats. Although there are no ice cubes, the beer, soft drinks, cocktails, and waters are refrigerator-cold.

Getting there.
If you’re not already hunting in the neighbourhood, then hire a vehicle in Windhoek from Richard Hoff’s Be Local Tourism Services: www.be-local.com.
Take the tar road B8 north towards Rundu, and overnight at Roy’s Camp (www.royscamp.com) 55 km north of Grootfontein (where you should fill your tank). Turn east 185 km on the well-maintained C44 gravel road; turn left/north at the sign to Nhoma/Aasvoelnes for 40 km (40 km before Tsumkwe); then left up the hill to the camp.
Or charter to Nhoma’s graded airstrip: S19deg14min14sec and E020deg14min10sec. Elevation: 3790 ft. 1000 m 09/27

When.
Although the high-season is from May through September, the camp is open year-round. Count on staying at least two nights; three nights are better if you want to have a chance of following your hunters on a full-fledged hunt for springhare, porcupine, guineafowl, or even oryx.

These items will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. Are you sure?

These items will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. Are you sure?

© Copyright 2009 MyAdventures.com LLC. All Rights Reserved.