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Bushmen Cultural Experience |
Get a close look at the rapidly disappearing culture of the last hunter/gatherers. Stay in either a renovated farmhouse or real grass huts. Go on a walk through the veld with a small clan of San as they show you how they gather food, start fire with sticks, and get water from underground roots. You can also be mesmorized by the healing trance dance and the San's eerie bird-like songs |
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Bushmen Culture |
The Bushmen, also known as the San or Basarwa, have nomadically roamed the Kalahari for thousands of years, feeding off the land and managing to stay uniquely separated from society and technology. Although they are now coming under increasing pressure to conform with society, Kanana Wilderness is one of the few places in the world where Bushmen can be seen practicing the same lifestyle they have maintained for centuries. |
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It has been over thirty years since any of the San Bushmen clans have truly lived a hunter/gatherer lifestyle as their primary means of survival. This last generation of true hunters is rapidly aging and, if no action is taken, this wealth of knowledge of natural history, animal behavior, and technical skills in the making and using of the various hunting tools, i.e. bow and poison arrows, snares, and spears, will die with them.
This type of knowledge is not easily preserved by recording it in film or text, or transferred through "book learning". Adding to the difficulty of preserving this knowledge is that the traditional way Bushmen pass on their knowledge is through the watching of their elders and shared first hand experiences. |
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Bushmen Dance |
These dances are not commercial demonstrations performed by rote. Rather they are carried out by some of the few Bushmen still living their traditional lifestyle deep in the Kalahari, close to Kanana. Visitors will be able to enjoy an evening in the bush, sitting round a fire as the Bushmen dance, clap and chant in rhythmical harmony. The evening ends with drinks and supper, as you absorb the ancient culture of the Kalahari’s eldest statesmen.
The Melon dance This takes place in the early evening around the fire, and exhorts the gods for the rains to come and give a good yield of Tsama melons. These melons are a vital source of water when traveling through the big thirst which is the Kalahari desert.
The Trance Dance This is the most famous dance, as well as being the hardest to witness, as it needs a ‘doctor’ to lead it and is not normally done with spectators. The duration can be anything from three hours to all night, depending on the gods. |
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