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San people

File:Namibian_Bushmen_Girls.JPG · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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San people

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Also known as Bushmen, Basarwa, Sarwa, Saan, Bosjesmans

members of various indigenous hunter-gatherer people of Southern Africa

AI overview

The San people are indigenous hunter-gatherer communities native to Southern Africa with a long history in the region. They matter because they represent an important part of Southern Africa's cultural heritage and history, though they have faced significant marginalization.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Instance of
ethnic group
Subclass of
indigenous peoples of Africa
Part of
Khoisan
Religion
shamanism
Country
Zambia
Population
100000
Image
Buschmänner (Namibia).jpg
Show 7 more facts
language used
Khoisan
Commons category
San people
topic's main category
Category:San people
on focus list of Wikimedia project
Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
self-identified name
San
non-self-identified name
Bushmen
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~37 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Map of modern distribution of "Khoisan" languages. The territories shaded blue and green, and those to their east, are those of San peoples. 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. Some interpretations of the genetic analysis suggest divergence from other humans as early as 100,000 to 200,000 years ago. Their recent ancestral territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, 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.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “San people” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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