The San Bushmen
Deep in the Kalahari desert we will learn directly from the descendants of the First People, the Ju/Hoansi San bushmen, the oldest sustained and continuous culture on earth, these nomadic hunter-gatherers have lived here for over 100,000 years.
Though the modern world has inevitably weaved its influence to this remote corner of the world, and few, if any San peoples are still truly nomadic, some still maintain many of their cultural practices and skills. Bow hunting with arrows using poisoned tips from beetle larvae still forms an important part of their sustenance, along with foraging plant materials from the bush.
Most Ju/Hoansi now live in settled villages but in the old times bands would move around following the food and water sources, setting up their camps in just a few days, staying for a while and then moving on. Typical hunter-gatherer band sizes ranged from twenty to fifty people.
With both Westerners and Bushmen our camp will number about fifty including children and elders: two bands brought together independently through a shared interest in tracking. This temporary hunter-gatherer camp is perhaps closer to an authentic nomadic hunting camp than anything else Westerners are likely ever to experience.
The Spirit Of This Experience
It’s important to stress that this invitation to visit and learn from the San came from the Ju/Hoansi Bushmen themselves. We are fully aware of the trap which many Western organisations fall into of thinking they know what’s best for other communities.
Our primary guide is the renowned anthropologist, scientist and founder of CyberTracker, Louis Liebenberg, who has been working with the Bushmen in the Kalahari since 1985, and, being a true master tracker himself is highly respected and trusted. He was asked by the elders in 1990 to help them to pass on their cultural practices to the younger generation of San before they are lost forever.
Teaming up with Louis, puts us in a very privileged position to have a unique opportunity to help preserve one of the oldest and most significant cultural expressions of our human lineage, through this kind of immersive experience.
The San Master Tracker Project - created by Louis - is the heartbeat of our expeditions and forms the intention behind it all. This project creates employment opportunities for indigenous San Master Trackers in the Kalahari to ensure that tracking skills will not die out. It is our long term solution to the loss of ancestral skills, poverty, hunger and unemployment in the area which is decimating the San Bushmen communities.
The money raised by your participation in Tracking The Kalahari goes towards directly supporting these communities which is a lifeline of employment for them whilst also encouraging these ancient and important cultural practices. Any surplus raised will be spent on the other community projects we support, resources or capital expenses the village may need after consultation with the elders.
Louis talks about why wildlife tracking is an impactful skill, practice, and a never-ending process of discovery...
The Ju/Hoansi
The Ju/Hoansi people we will be meeting come together from all corners of the Nyae Nyae Conservancy, an area of Namibia designated to Bushmen peoples. They travel to this wild spot because they are passionate about the arts of tracking and bowhunting and have been brought together by Louis' Cybertracker project, created to conserve master tracking skills and support the San Bushmen community.
/Ui Kunta, Old/Ui, Di//Xao and several others - our tracking guides - can read the tracks and signs of the sand like we can read a newspaper. These Bushmen are the latest in their long ancestral line to practice this truly ancient art and they are masters of their craft. It’s hard to put into words what an incredible opportunity it is to experience the Kalahari with these trackers and storytellers, surrounded by the rich ecosystems of southern Africa.
Dam is our main interpreter and the village hub He is also an excellent tracker in his own right, having grown up walking the local bush. We also learn and form beautiful connections with the families of these trackers, and for some the real magic happens in the camp
Kalahari San Tracker Project
Louis has been surveying Southern Africa to find out just how many master trackers and bowhunters are still alive; he considers that human consciousness is where it is precisely because of our reliance on tracking for survival. Now that survival is possible without tracking not many people bother to learn the old ways and they are dying out with the few elders who remember. It would be a sad state of affairs if human beings no longer knew about the very things that have made them human.
Though his project Cybertracker, Louis hopes to re-incentivise people to hone these arts and to pass them on to the younger generation. Cybertracker incorporates an evaluation system that can gauge trackers’ skill level and identify people as master trackers. It's an incredible privilege to be in the presence of people who can read the landscape with such ease.
Our expeditions to learn from the San Bushmen has several purposes: to recognise the master trackers and allow them to utilise their skills to earn a living; to cross- pollinate different ideas from around the Nyae Nyae and build a support network; to inspire the children and mentor them in hunting and gathering; as well as to show us as Westerners an alternative way of life that has worked for millennia.
