The Historical Dynamics of the Socioeconomic Relationships between the Nomadic San and the Rural Kgalagadi

Past studies present two different images of the San living in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana, one of the San existing in isolation from the outside world, another of the San coexisting with the Kgalagadi. Based on fieldwork, including interviews with elders in various settlements in the Reserve, the present author describes historical changes in the various socioeconomic relationships between the nomadic San and the rural Kgalagadi, and clarifies the factors that gave rise to the two different images of the San. He indicates that the relationships formed between San and Kgalagadi are not limited to goat raising but also include the sharing of wild and cultivated watermelons and the trading of wild animal skins. Relationships between San and Kgalagadi in the Reserve can be classified into three types: those dominated by San, those in which San and Kgalagadi take equal part in a combination of activities, including hunting, gathering, crop farming and livestock raising, and those characterized by symbiosis. A symbiotic relationship was first formed between the San and the Kgalagadi when the Kgalagadi migrated to the Reserve. This relationship developed into a combined type of relationship in places where Kgalagadi outnumbered San and into a relationship dominated by San in places where San outnumbered Kgalagadi. Whatever the relationship, however, there are almost no San living in the Reserve who have had no contact with Kgalagadi at some time since the late nineteenth century. Bibliogr., sum.