Home History San & Khoi
Khoi & San people

The KhoiSan peoples are the aboriginal people of South Africa who have lived here for millennia.

The Khoi




The name Khoekhoe most accurately translates to 'People People'. They were traditionally—and are still occasionally in colloquial language—known to white colonists as the Hottentots, a name that is currently generally considered offensive (e.g. by the Oxford Dictionary of South African English). The word "hottentot" meant "stutterer" or "stammerer" in the colonists' northern dialect of Dutch, although some Dutch use the verb stotteren to describe the clicking sounds (klik being the normal onomatopoeia, parallel to English) typically used in the Khoisan languages. The word lives on, however, in the names of several African animal and plant species, such as the Hottentot Fig or Ice Plant (Carpobrotus edulis). Another would be the infamous invertebrate, a scorpion species called the Hottentotta, one of the most venomous in Africa.



"Old Cape Khoikhoi male"






Source: Wikipedia


The Bushmen, San, Sho, Basarwa, Kung, or Khwe are an indigenous people of southern Africa that spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. They were traditionally hunter-gatherers, part of the Khoisan group and are related to the traditionally pastoral Khoikhoi. Starting in the 1950s, through the 1990s, they switched to farming as a result of government-mandated modernization programs as well as the increased risks of a hunting and gathering lifestyle in the face of technological development.

The Bushmen have provided a wealth of information for the fields of anthropology and genetics, even as their lifestyles change. Genetic evidence suggests the Bushmen's ancestors predate the genetic changes of the rest of the human population — making them a "genetic Adam" according to Spencer Wells, from which all humans can ultimately trace their genetic heritage.


The terms San, Khwe, Sho, Bushmen, and Basarwa have all been used to refer to hunter-gatherer peoples of southern Africa. Each of these terms has a problematic history, as they have been used by outsiders to refer to them, often with pejorative connotations. The individual groups identify by names such as Ju/'hoansi and !Kung (the punctuation characters representing different click consonants), and most call themselves by the pejorative "Bushmen" when referring to themselves collectively.


Early history

Bushmen had an advanced early culture evidenced by archaeological data. For example, Bushmen from the Botswana region migrated south to the Waterberg Massif in the era 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. They left rock paintings at the Lapala Wilderness area and Goudriver recording their life and times, including characterizations of rhinoceros, elephant and a variety of antelope species (resembling impala, kudu and eland, all present day inhabitants).

Around AD 1,000 Bantu tribes began to expand into bushman occupied areas and pushed the bushmen into more inhospitable areas such as the Kalahari desert.

Source: Wikipedia

Prehistoric Livestock Herders in the Upper Seacow River Valley

C.Garth Sampson

Inspired by the Bushmen people who have the world’s oldest DNA, Professor Garth Sampson began the Zeekoei Valley Archaeological Project in the 1970’s. The ZVAP is a long-term, large-scale project comprising the largest surveyed archaeological site in Africa. It is the Karoo’s most well-known research project, spanning hundreds of thousands of years of hominid history. He hasn’t found the oldest human remains...yet.
This first paper takes us ‘recently’ back in time to when livestock farming was taking place in the Karoo long before the arrival of settlers from Europe.

Click here to download the full paper (pdf 670kb).


Don't forget


Common misspellings of Nieu Bethesda


Need accommodation?

Contact us.

Martin Street, Nieu Bethesda
Calls us on 049 841 1642

Click to view availability and book online.

Afrikaans (South Africa)English (United Kingdom)

Facebook Nieu Bethesda

Nieu Bethesda weather

Sunrise : 28.08.2015 06:43   Sunset : 28.08.2015 18:0206:43
Full Moon
Friday 28.08.2015
23°C Clear sky from northwest
6.1 m/s
0 mm
Clear sky, 6.1 m/s, Northwest, Moderate breeze. 0 mm. 1013.7 hPa
Clear sky23°C
from northwest
Clear sky21°C
from northwest
Weather from yr.no


BnB Sure