Khoi-san culture - a brief glimpse

Khoisan is a broad term used when describing the Khoikhoi and San peoples collectively, as though they were one people who shared a common culture. In reality, they were two distinct cultural groups.

Nomadic herders, the Khoikhoi owned vast herds of cattle and sheep and lived in large groups based on an exogamous clan system. This simply means that they chose their marriage partners from different social groups of which they were not members. This way marriage brings certain benefits,  establishing alliances between the groups as well as strengthening the chances of the groups' survival.

Khoikhoi society was hierarchial. Those who owned stock were regarded as 'wealthy'while those without stock were servants while there were those who would work as herdsmen as a form of hired labour, perhaps receiving a lamb in payment for service rendered.

Local clans could move around and use pasture, water resources, game, wild fruit and vegetables within the tribal area. Unrelated clans from another tribe, however, had to obtain permission from the local chief to use local resources.

A good water supply was essential for the Khoikhoi herders, since adequate grazing is of little value without water. It was understood that outsiders could move into another tribal area, as long as they requested permission and paid some form of tribute to the chief. The chief "owned" neither land nor the resources on it, as land could not become the property of individuals. The rights granted to outsiders were temporary. (We can now see why there were so many misunderstandings when the first Europeans arrived).

Water and livestock, particularly cattle, played a central role in the culture of the Khoikhoi people. Their religious, political, economical and social life was intricate; strict rules and social control governed every individual. Birth, puberty, adulthood, marriage and death were accompanied by rituals and rites of passages as important to the Khoikhoi as to any other people. Yet, these facets of Khoikhoi existence were often misunderstood and even ignored by the early explorers, who saw only a savage people no better than animals.

Living in villages consisting primarily of members of the same patrilineal clan, each village recognised the authority of a headman, a heriditary position passed on from father to eldest son. A tribe consisted of several villages united into a much larger unit, which could range in size from a few hundred to several thousand individuals.

The Khoikhoi called themselves the Khoi-na, meaning 'the real people' to differentiate themselves from other groups such as the San (SoaQua or SonQua), named Bushmen by the colonists.

The 'Bushmen' were smaller groups of hunter/gatherers living off the veld and had no cattle. In their hunting and foraging society, all people are equal.