The English "Bushman" means "people of the steppe", but Bushmen haven't got a name common to all tribes, and the most widespread in Africa is the alternative title "San" — "an outsider", "an alien".
Representatives of this nationality are of a very low height, up to 150 centimeters. Their skin has a reddish tint and a tendency to premature formation of wrinkles. The face has Mongoloid features. The peculiarity of the national cuisine is eating "Bushmen rice" — larvae of ants. Fried locusts are considered a delicacy.
Since the 15th century A. D. Bushmen were gradually displaced deep into the Kalahari desert by cattle breeders who came from the North. These people suffered greatly from European colonizers during the period from the middle of the 17th till the beginning of the 20th century when about 200 000 people were destroyed. The survivors either went deep into the desert or became farm slaves.
Bushmen live in groups consisting of several families. They have no chiefs but each group has a healer who is supposed to possess the ability to communicate with spirits, call rain and treat diseases.
There are usually no formal leaders in society and the basis of the community is a union of couples. Marriage is often monogamous but polygamy is also found. Earlier working in order to pay back for the bride was widespread.
Bushmen speak koisan languages and dialects. These languages differ from all other languages of the world by the fact that clicking consonants are widespread there.
Bushmen tales and legends stand out among all other fairy tales in their form and content: they are not actually fairy tales but fables and myths. The main characters of them are animals, especially the grasshopper who is believed to have created the Sun, the Moon and many different animals. Bushmen also give names of animals to celestial bodies. Thus, they call Orion's Belt — the three female tortoises hanging on a stick, the Southern Cross — lionesses, Magellanic Cloud — a stone goat.
Bushman men are very skilled hunters, they hunt with bows and poisoned arrows with heads covered with poison. The poison, Diamphotoxin, that paralyzes the nervous system of the victim is extracted from dried and ground larvae of Diamphidia beetles. Also men set up traps, skillfully made from animal sinews, at watering places.
Women are engaged in gathering and can collect up to 60 species of edible berries, seeds, bulbs, tubers. Bushmen cook cereals from seeds which are accumulated in anthills. A real delicacy is fried locusts. Also, they bake roots, tubers and bulbs of plants in hot ashes.
In a dry season the water is drawn in a special way: Bushmen dig a hole at the bottom of a dried spring, then stick a tube with a filter at the end and begin to pull the water out with their mouths; they collect water in the mouth and then spit it out into a shell of an ostrich egg.
Bushmen clothing consists of loincloths and capes made of animal skins. Young girls decorate themselves with necklaces made of ostrich egg shells, bracelets made of grass, coloured nuts and seeds.
Most people follow the original traditional form of Bushmen shamanism. Its initial form is unknown as it has been heavily modified due to its interaction with Christianity. When a shaman enters a trance state, they say that he "dies" — the trance itself is often called “a small death” or “a half of death”.
From Wikipedia
P. S. We stayed with Bushmen for almost two full days. They are quite hospitable and hearty, as hospitable as people who are ready to feed you with fried locusts can be. But we also did not come empty-handed and brought some presents: rice, sugar, sweets for children and, of course, coffee. Bushmen can't afford traditional coffee and normally use roasted and ground seeds of local "acacia" which in form resemble our peas.
Campfire songs, roasted locusts and getting fire by friction. We didn't only watch all these unsophisticated but freezing and paralyzing for any civilized person actions, but also photographed them. But believe me, if you want to feel this energy and to resonate, to be in touch with almost a different civilization, carefully, you have to be close. Very close.
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