The Bushmen of the
Kalahari
Overview
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Where are the Bushmen?
What do the Bushmen make their living by?
What are the Bushmen good at?
What problem do the Bushmen face today ?
Where are the Bushmen?
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A tribe have lived in the Kalahari Desert for
thousands of years (millennia).
The oldest tribe on the earth
The ancestors of all other people
What do the Bushmen make their
living by?
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Move form place to place
hunter-gathers for millennia.
Hunt animals (gazelle) and gather plants (roots
and bulbs)
They respect Mother Nature
1. Live with nature
2. Apologize to the animal that they killed and
explain why they did so
What are the Bushmen good at?
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Live off the land in a hot and inhospitable
environment.
Track animals
Run for days on end with very little water
What problem do the Bushmen face ?
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Botswana’s relocation policy(1950’s ~ 1990’s):
1. Move out of their homeland
2. Become small-scale farmers.
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Attract the lucrative tourist trade and create
diamond mine
The Bushmen’s Fighting Back
Long-running court case against the government
 The Bushmen won a historic ruling (2006)
 However….
A small number of them return to their homeland
Only 250 Bushmen live today as their ancestors.
They are still harassed by the authorities.
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Conclusion
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The Bushmen living in Kalahari are said to be the
oldest tribe in the world.
They are able to survive in the harsh desert by
hunting and gathering.
They attempt to preserve nature by the traditional
lifestyle.
However, Botswana’s government compelled them to
leave their homeland and give up their primitive
living.
Although they finally got back their ownership,
the government still intended to trouble them.