If you come to the Kalahari Desert in South Africa, you may see a wisp of cooking smoke in a distant village.
You might be surprised, is there still someone living in such a desolate place? The answer is, yes.
This was the earliest inhabitant of Africa: the Khoisans. The green area in the figure below is where the Khoisan people live.
Koisan means "real person" in the local language.
If we look at their appearance alone, we may wonder, is this African? Light brown skin, inner eyes, and a little curled hair, it is simply the appearance of an Asian.
In fact, their skin color and appearance are mainly caused by the environment. The Kalahari Desert has a higher latitude and is not too lighty, so the Khoisans don't have to produce as much melanin in their skin to resist UV rays. And the wind and sand in the desert make the Mongolian fold this feature also appear on their eyelids.
The Khoisans are the earliest inhabitants of Africa, even before humans left Africa for the second time. More than 100,000 years ago, they lived on this land.
Their way of life has also remained unchanged, hunting and gathering.
The Khoisans were excellent hunters, hunting everything they could see, mainly antelopes, wildebeest, and sometimes elephants. They used bows and arrows and spears, which were coated with the venom of caterpillars.
Their strategy is simple: first stab the prey, and then follow them, waiting for them to die of poison or heat stroke.
Animals are fast, but no animal is faster than a human being than endurance.
The Khoisans are very good at tracking the tracks of their prey, and they will always achieve fruitful results by persevering.
When they can't catch their prey, it's time for the Khoisan women to show their skills, and the fruits, tubers, young leaves, bird eggs, and insects they collect from the plants are all delicious delicacies.
Water in the desert is rare, and after the ostrich eggs are eaten, the eggshells are natural kettles, and after the collected rainwater is put in, the Khoisans will bury the eggs near the roots. Dig it out when you need it, and the water inside is still sweet.
They also put a variety of wild fruits in the eggshell, so that when they dig it out, it is a shell of cider.
As contact with the outside world increased, many Khoisans began to settle, ending their primitive life of hunting and gathering. Slowly assimilated by others.
Genetic testing shows that nearly 70% of Africans have maternal genes from the Khoisan people. The most famous of these is former South African President Mandela.
However, it is not normal to have a single maternal gene. If it is a normal ethnic integration, there should be both paternal and maternal genes. Studies have shown that bantu ancestral genes are the majority in Africa, so it is likely that the Bantu exterminated the males of the Khoisans as they advanced from the Cameroonian plateau to southern Africa.
The Bantu are now the dominant ethnic group in Africa, representing more than a third of Africa's population. A determination of the carbon fourteen content of the remains and objects in the tombs reveals that the expansion of the Bantu people probably occurred around the first year of the Common Era, two thousand years ago.
In order to survive, the Khoisans hid in jungles and deserts.
But their tragedy did not end, and the arrival of European colonists brought more suffering to the Khoisans.
They first gave the Koisans insulting names: the Hottendo and the Bushmen, meaning clumsy tongues and woods.
Then they started doing what they had done to other Africans: taking the Khoisans as slaves.
The unique skin color and appearance of the Khoisan people made them rare animals in the eyes of European colonists.
The buttocks of the Koisan women were very prominent, and the inhuman Dutch colonists took a man named Sarah. Baltman's Coisan women were kept in cages with animals for exhibition and even forbidden to dress her.
After she was tortured at the age of 27 and died, the French also made specimens of her body and placed it in a museum for further viewing.
Until 2002, under the resolute demand and unremitting efforts of the vast number of South African people. The Khoisan, who had left his homeland for 200 years, was finally returned by France to the people of South Africa. Buried in her hometown.
What happened to this woman is arguably the epitome of what the Khoisans have endured over two millennia: being insulted and damaged.
At present, some Khoisan people are still adhering to their traditional way of life, and some have lived a relatively modern life of farming and grazing.
Some Khoisans perform shows for tourists in exchange for pay, and a Khoisan Lisu starred in the movies "God Is Crazy" and "African Monks". In the latter movie, Chow Sing Chi and Wu Mengda are voiced, and Lin Zhengying stars, and the lineup is still very strong.
brief summary
Finally, a poem written by an African poet for the Khoisan woman who was buried in her hometown is attached:
I'm here to pick you up and take you home
Hometown, have you ever remembered the prairie?
Lush grass grows under large trees
The sun is no longer scorching there
The bed I have laid out for you is placed at the foot of the mountain
Your bedding is sprinkled with herbs and coins
Monarch flowers bloom with red and white flowers
The river sang a song of joy
It was the splash of the clear stream as it climbed over the stones
Hopefully, the Khoisans will be able to live the life they want.
Thank you for watching