Khoisan Culture and South Africa's Government Policy Today

Introduction

Many groups of people lived around the South African shores and beyond long before settlers set foot there. The people known as the Khoisan were expert gatherers and hunters, while other nomadic tribes had also made their homes along the coastal strip and the hinterland (Schapera, 1965). "Khoisan" is a name coined by combining the terms for the Khoikhoi and the San communities, which shared elements of culture and language. However, this should not be taken to mean that the two groups were in any way homogenous. They lived separately from each other and had different means of survival on the land.

The Khoikhoi people were renowned pastoralists who kept large cattle herds across the territory they occupied. It has been documented that the Khoikhoi migrated to South Africa from Botswana, with some moving to the Cape via the Kalahari and another group heading towards the uplands of South Africa (McGranaghan, 2015; Russell, 2017). The San, for their part, had large territories said to have spanned Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Lesotho, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. They are hunter-gatherers regarded as the first community to have settled in Botswana and South Africa. The San were semi-nomadic, appearing to move only when they could not find water or animals (McGranaghan, 2015).

The mid-1600s saw the arrival of Europeans, and with them came an unwanted turn of events for the Khoisan. Settlers laid claim to the land the Khoisan used, and some even built fences around parcels of land they claimed as their own. Many settlers directly persecuted the people they encountered. Factors such as the constriction of grazing lands, limited resources, imported diseases, exploitation, and numerous conflicts impacted the Khoi and the San enormously. The population of local communities declined drastically. The situation was further aggravated by the arrival of apartheid several years later, and the Khoisan subsequently became endangered in South Africa. Climate change at the time was an additional contributing factor (Sadr, 1997; McGranaghan, 2015). This essay examines Khoisan culture and analyzes how modern government policy in South Africa affects the community in relation to mainstream society.

The San are also known as the Bushmen. The term "Khoisan" is used to refer to both the Khoikhoi and the San combined, as though they were homogenous and shared a single culture. In truth, the two groups were culturally distinct. Historical accounts state that the Khoikhoi referred to themselves as the "real people" (Khoi-na) in order to distinguish themselves from groups such as the San. The term "Bushmen" was first used by the colonialists. The San were much smaller in group size and lived off the veld, not keeping cattle but instead hunting and gathering fruits, honey, roots, and tubers for survival (Brand, 2000). The Khoikhoi, by contrast, were expert herders who kept large cattle herds and sheep. They lived in large subgroups organized along clan lines and practiced exogamy — choosing a marriage partner from outside one's own group — so that marriage served widely as a uniting social activity between different groups.

Khoisan Culture

Among the San, people were regarded as equals. Among the Khoikhoi, however, there were social hierarchies. Stock owners were viewed as wealthy, while those without stock were largely servants. Some members provided hired labour caring for the cattle of wealthy stockowners, and a lamb was a common form of payment for herding services. The Khoikhoi social structure was organized around the patrilineal clan. A headman's authority was recognized by every village, and the position was passed from father to firstborn son. A tribe was constituted of several villages and could range in size from a few hundred to thousands of people (Brand, 2000).

Clans could access resources within their tribal area without restriction. If another tribe wished to access resources such as fruit, vegetables, or game, they had to be granted permission by the local chief. Water was especially important in the lives of the Khoikhoi, and outsiders who sought to use water were required to seek permission from the chief. In Khoikhoi culture, the chief never owned land or property, because community law held that land could not be owned by individuals (Brand, 2000). Rights to use resources on the land were granted only temporarily.

The Khoikhoi relied heavily on cattle herding for their survival and culture. They had an intricate social system with stringent rules governing the life of each community member, including birth, puberty, and adult life. Rituals were an important part of birth, death, and marriage. These tenets of Khoikhoi existence were commonly misunderstood — particularly by early explorers and colonial rulers, who construed the complex Khoikhoi culture as a sign of savagery and likened it to the life of animals.

The Khoisan lived in small villages that together formed larger settlements, typically in groups of over a hundred people. Their homes were round huts called matjioeshuis, constructed from tree branches planted into the ground, tied together, and bent over (Schapera, 1965). The roof was reinforced with additional materials to reduce infiltration by wind and the elements. These structures could be uprooted and relocated depending on the availability of grazing pasture. Reed mats, the main roofing material, could be removed and folded when a group intended to return to a site. The huts were cool in warm weather, with gaps in the mats allowing air circulation; in winter, the interior was insulated using animal skins.

Each village camp consisted of a patrilineal clan — descendants of a common ancestor, together with their children and wives. Villages also hosted members from other clans, such as servants, dependants, impoverished Khoisan, Bergdama, or San (Sadr, 1997). A headman led each village, inheriting the position from his father as the eldest son. Headmen decided where and when the community would move, and they also served as mediators and judges in civil and criminal cases. The tribe was a combination of several villages united by kinship and linked genealogy, with one clan recognized as the most senior. The senior clan produced the tribe's chief (Schapera, 1965). Key water wells defined the territory a tribe claimed, with precise geographical boundaries drawn around water resources. Chiefs alone could grant strangers access to these resources, and any rights extended were understood to be temporary, resting on a norm of reciprocal sharing between tribes.

When a man wished to marry, he sought a wife from another clan, most commonly from within the tribe because related clans were geographically close. The man was initially required to live with his in-laws until the birth of the couple's first child, after which the bride moved to the groom's home (Schapera, 1965; Sadr, 1997). The headmen of all clans constituted a council that served as a uniting entity among clans. Older members of the tribe lived permanently at the tribal headquarters of the senior clan as a further expression of intertribal cohesion.

The Khoisan had an intricate belief system in which the drama of the world gave rise to good, evil, and ambiguous happenings. Their supreme God was called Tsui or Goab — an omnipresent, beneficent, and all-powerful deity (Chidester et al., 1997). While this God could unleash wrath upon humanity, He is conceived as engaged in a constant struggle with Guanab, the god of evil and other negative forces. The Khoikhoi accessed their God through the ancestors. Other, lesser gods included Haitsi-aibib, believed to be a trickster god and folk hero capable of changing form at will.

Khoisan Religious Beliefs and Rituals

Like many other peoples in the dry-climate regions of Africa, the Khoisan associated rainfall with God and heavenly power (Barnard, 1988). The full and new moon marked occasions for major rituals, including rainmaking rites and ceremonial dances. The moon was regarded with great reverence and considered a supreme power.

The concept of transformation was a central theme in Khoisan rituals, which signified important moments of individual change: birth, marriage, death, puberty, and the passage into adulthood. Before a woman gave birth, she was taken into isolation, remaining secluded until seven days after delivery. It was believed that a newborn and its mother were vulnerable and required protection. Men were not permitted to visit, and the new mother was barred from receiving anyone during the isolation period. The child's main nourishment for the first three months was goat's milk or cow's milk rather than breast milk (Hobson, 2018). A special fire was kept burning in the hut during this time. After the seclusion period, mother and child were formally reintroduced into the community with great ceremony. Their bodies were smeared with cow dung, a fragrant plant called buchu, and animal fat. A feast was held in which members of the immediate kraal played the leading role, with relatives from other kraals also participating.

All Khoisan ceremonies involved a period of seclusion, during which the person in question was considered vulnerable. Certain things, such as water, were avoided, while buchu and fire were associated with protection. A meticulous process then reincorporated the individual back into mainstream community life with a distinct social role (Smith, 2000). Domestic livestock was traditionally linked to protection. During initiation, cattle were slaughtered and the animal intestines were cut and hung around the necks of the initiates to symbolize their passage through a period of change.

The rituals always symbolized an element of social relationships. Wealthy stock owners used these occasions to display their prosperity through the number of cattle slaughtered and the scale of the feasts they hosted. Dowry payment was a feature of marriage ceremonies (McGranaghan, 2015). Because transition rituals were considered highly important, age was regarded as a key determinant of social relationships. Kinship titles and names used among the Khoisan reflected this status, with specific terms for various age groups and special terms for aunts who were older than one's mother.

Understanding the importance of cattle among the Khoisan also illuminates their socio-political worldview. They never regarded cattle as commodities to be exchanged in trade; cattle were considered invaluable (Russell, 2017). When the Khoisan began trading their livestock, conflict with Dutch trading partners followed. Vices such as coercion, theft, and unequal exchange — for goods including copper, alcohol, and beads — became commonplace. The socioeconomic and cultural fabric of the Khoisan weakened considerably. With this decline came rising dependency on the Dutch to mediate disputes, alongside an increase in raiding among the Khoisan people.

Conclusion

The Khoisan people are distinguished indigenous peoples who survived apartheid and colonialism and resisted the wholesale assimilation of their culture and identity. The conditions of their historical experience are visible in the challenges they face today. Their land rights are not recognized, their languages are ignored and headed toward extinction, and their communities contend with drug abuse, violence, and alcoholism. Despite being widely acknowledged as South Africa's first peoples, the Khoisan remain among the most marginalized communities in the country, and sustained governmental attention to their rights and wellbeing is urgently needed.