For thousands of years, the San people, one of the oldest known human groups on earth, lived across southern Africa as hunters and gatherers. They thrived in the arid plains, mountains, and deserts of what is now South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana. Their lives were deeply connected to the land: they followed seasonal rains, tracked animals, and passed down knowledge through cave paintings and oral traditions that stretched back millennia.
But their way of life began to collapse in the 17th century with the arrival of European colonizers. When Dutch settlers (known as Boers) reached the Cape in the mid-1600s, they viewed the San not as fellow humans but as obstacles to expansion. The settlers wanted land for cattle farming, and the San, who relied on those same territories for hunting, were soon branded as “pests” to be eliminated.
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