San people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| ca. 160,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Namibia | 71,201 (2023 census)[1] |
| Botswana | 63,500 |
| South Africa | ca. 7,000 |
| Angola | ca. 16,000 |
| Zimbabwe | 1,200 |
| Languages | |
| Native Languages of the Khoe, Kxʼa, and Tuu families; Tswana, Kgalagadi Also Afrikaans • English • Portuguese | |
| Religion | |
| San religion, Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Khoekhoe, Griqua, Basters, Coloureds | |
The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are the members of any of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the oldest surviving cultures of the region.[2] Some interpretations of the genetic analysis suggest divergence from other humans as early as 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.[a][4] Their recent ancestral territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho,[5] and South Africa.
The San speak, or their ancestors spoke, languages of the Khoe, Tuu, and Kxʼa language families, and can be defined as a people only in contrast to neighboring pastoralists such as the Khoekhoe and descendants of more recent waves of immigration such as the Bantu, Europeans, and South Asians.
In 2017, Botswana was home to approximately 63,500 San, making it the country with the highest proportion of San people at 2.8%.[6] 71,201 San people were enumerated in Namibia in 2023, making it the country with the second highest proportion of San people at 2.4%.[1]
- ^ a b "Namibia 2023 Population and Housing Census Main Report" (PDF). Namibia Statistics Agency. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 November 2024. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
- ^ "Foragers to First Peoples: The Kalahari San Today | Cultural Survival". www.culturalsurvival.org. 28 April 2010. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
- ^ Pargeter, Justin; Mackay, Alex; Mitchell, Peter; Shea, John; Stewart, Brian (2016). "Primordialism and the 'Pleistocene San' of southern Africa". Antiquity. 90 (352).
- ^ Al-Hindi, Dana R.; Reynolds, Austin W.; Henn, Brenna M. (2022), Grine, Frederick E. (ed.), "Genetic Divergence Within Southern Africa During the Later Stone Age", Hofmeyr: A Late Pleistocene Human Skull from South Africa, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 19–28, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-07426-4_3, ISBN 978-3-031-07426-4, retrieved 2 January 2025
- ^ Walsham How, Marion (1962). The Mountain Bushmen of Basutoland. Pretoria: J. L. Van Schaik Ltd.
- ^ Hitchcock, Robert K.; Sapignoli, Maria (8 May 2019). "The economic wellbeing of the San of the western, central and eastern Kalahari regions of Botswana". In Fleming, Christopher; Manning, Matthew (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Wellbeing (1st ed.). Routledge. pp. 170–183. ISBN 9781138909175 – via ResearchGate.
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