Visit to the Kalahari

A group of three families from the US and a friend from Sweden took a trip a few weeks ago to the Kalahari Desert in eastern Namibia, about 300 km straight east from Windhoek. The Kalahari isn’t actually a real desert, as it has many trees and plants and it does receive some rainfall. It technically is a semi-desert, and is the world’s largest sandy area – it is located in eastern Namibia, western Botswana, and northwestern South Africa. (it’s where the God’s Must be Crazy was filmed, and is home to “meerkat manor”. We camped in a very nice lodge (the others stayed in the lodge), which had four cheetahs and a leopard, as well as sprinkbok, oryx, and some meerkats. We camped just feet away from the game fence, but the cheetahs didn’t bother us while we were sleeping. The kids enjoyed the pool and a nature hike, and especially the trampoline & pool table. On the second night, we went out a few kilometers and spent the night with some of the San people, also called the Bushmen (there are debates about which is the appropriate word to call them. Apparently some dislike the term “San”, and prefer Bushmen. The ones we met referred to themselves as Bushmen, so I’ll use that too). It was quite an experience. We went on a nature walk with them, and saw how they used all of the plants for water, medicine, poison and other things. They showed us how they shot with bows, and we picked some berries with them. They would see so many things out in the bush that we just didn’t notice at all. It was quite amazing – they must have the best survival skills/outdoor skills on the planet! They were all wearing their traditional outfits that day, though they don’t usually wear them. One of the American women with us spoke Dutch, and she was able to communicate with them for all of us – as Dutch is close enough to Afrikaans, and they all spoke at least some Afrikaans from growing up under apartheid. Then they cooked us dinner (which was delicious) around a HUGE fire, and did some of their traditional dances for us. At the dances, usually the women sit by the fire and sing and clap, and the men dance around the fire. The dances tend to have stories, like the “Oryx dance” which is something about fighting with an Oryx. They had us get up with them and dance as well. They asked us to show them some traditional dances from the USA, and all we could think to do was the hokey-pokey. So there was quite a surreal moment there where we were standing around a big fire in the middle of the Kalahari Bush, singing and dancing the “hokey pokey” with about 25 Bushmen. They especially thought it was funny when we sang, “put your rear-end in, put your rear-end out…”. We also danced some waltzes around the fire, and Ruby got up and showed off her moves from her Namibian dance classes (which is Owambo dancing). Some of the Bushman kids got up and danced with her. All the Bushmen young and old seemed to relate best to Ruby! They then told us some stories around the fire, which were quite interesting. They told us stories afterwards, like about how a lion once came into their camp and they shot it dead with a bow. We didn’t stay in an actual village, but rather in some small huts that were built for visitors like ourselves, which had a small bed and a candle. As we were so far out away from anything, the stars that night were simply amazing. There were so many stars in the sky; we could barely pick out the normally easy constellations, like Orion. The Bushmen slept around the fire, and we slept in our little huts. The next morning we all were up at 6, and the Bushmen were back in their regular clothes. They went from looking like an exotic, rich tradition to looking like desperately poor people. They made breakfast and sang songs in the morning with beautiful harmonies, and then we had a very nice good-bye.


Our whole group, the Americans, the Bushmen and the woman from Sweden!


Alice, Maxine, Ross & Luke with the Bushmen


Alice walking with the folks


Maxine Tracking


Maxine shooting


Ruby & Marna with some ladies


Cooking over the fire


Oryx dance


More dancing

The whole thing was a bit uncomfortable, as we had an Afrikaner guide with us some of the time, who was incredibly patronizing to the Bushmen (she even called them “dumb” at one point, though we all hoped that she didn’t mean it and it was just a translation error, as they were certainly anything but dumb, and she did seem to genuinely care for them); and we felt a little bit like gawkers. However, the Bushmen themselves did not seem at all uncomfortable, and seemed to be having a good time. They were very social with us and definitely had pride in their culture. We were told that this is one of the few ways that they can maintain their traditions now that it is virtually impossible to be nomadic anymore. It’s inevitable I guess that cultures change, but I hope the Bushmen will be able to keep as much as their culture as possible in the 21st century.