The Bushmen are a nomadic people who have lived in southern Africa for thousands of years.
Today, they reside only in the bleak Kalahari Desert. They eke out a harsh existence by hunting, just as their ancestors have done for ages. But the Bushmen once roamed the much more fertile areas that surround the Kalahari.
In 3000 B.C., the Bushmen ruled all of southern Africa and much of east Africa, too. Then around 500, Bantu peoples from West Africa pushed into the Bushmen’s homeland, driving the Bushmen and the Hottentots, a related people, from their land.
The Bushmen’s last refuge was the Kalahari Desert. There were once perhaps 350,000 Bushmen in this part of Africa. Today, Only about 30,000 live in Botswana, and another 20,000 live in Namibia.
