Ju/’hoansi
Blending European and Ju/’hoansi Music
A band from Amsterdam is heading for Namibia to collaborate with four Ju/’hoansi grandmothers as they perform music that will blend the traditions of the San with contemporary European styles. A news report in the New Era newspaper last week explained the origins and history of the project. The band, called The Namibian Tales, with […]
Water for the Ju/’hoansi
Since the Ju/’hoansi have become mostly settled farmers and herders, they need access to reliable water for their own uses and for their livestock. In the past, when they used to move about from place to place in the Kalahari Desert, their movements were often dictated by access to water, both for themselves and for […]
Traditional Jewelry Making Persists
Ju/’hoansi women have been making high-quality jewelry for ages, but over the past 30 years they have gradually developed their traditional craft into a viable, and profitable, export business. A news report last week from the New Era, a Namibian daily newspaper, displayed an understandable pride in the accomplishments of the women. According to the […]
Managing Fire in Namibia
The drought that has plagued Namibia for the past few years has made the Nyae Nyae Conservancy especially dry, which has promoted many more harmful bush fires than normal. The fires have even destroyed desert vegetation that has survived the drought. But the good news, reported in a newspaper last week, is that the Ju/’hoansi […]
Ju/’hoansi School Drop-outs
While many Ju/’hoansi children in the Nyae Nyae Conservancy attend primary schools in their villages, most drop out rather than continue with higher level schooling in Tsumkwe, the central town in the region. According to a news report on December 14 in The Namibian, about 122 out of 153 children from throughout the conservancy dropped […]
Foraging at the Town Dump
Some Ju/’hoansi families from Tsumkwe, in northeastern Namibia, have been migrating to Grootfontein hoping to find a better life, but all they have found for themselves is suffering. Grootfontein, a town of 27,000 people in northcentral Namibia, is 250 km (150 miles) west of Tsumkwe. The Namibian, in a story republished by AllAfrica.com, reported on […]
New Radios for the Ju/’hoansi
The press in Namibia reported last week that the Nyae Nyae Conservancy had just held its annual meeting, with representatives from all 37 Ju/’hoansi villages attending. The major order of business was distributing a new solar-powered Lifeline radio to each village. The website for the Lifeline radio indicates that it is designed for remote locations […]
Skyrocketing Value of Devil’s Claw Tubers
A desert plant that grows in southern Africa with the intriguing popular name “devil’s claw” is being increasingly harvested by the Ju/’hoansi for sale on the international market. A news story in a Namibian newspaper last week provided an update on the increasing economic importance of the harvesting business. A report in this website in […]
Hunting Weapons of the Ju/’hoan San: What Can We Learn from Them? [journal article review]
The Ju/’hoan San, one the last true hunter-gathering cultures, have often been looked to as a window into the past. While this is only partially true since cultures are far from static, the study of the San’s painstaking arrow making technology may shed light on the processes and products that might have been used by […]
San Poison Arrows [journal article review]
The bow and arrow have been crucial tools for hunting throughout the latter part of human history. After the advent of these instruments, early hunters would have quickly realized that adding poisons to their tool kit would vastly improve hunting success. For many people, the use of poisons in hunting quickly conjures images of poison […]
