10 - Bushmen of the Okavango

Summary

Other linguistically ‘Central’ groups include the ‘River Bushmen’ of the Okavango Delta. Their existence tests the limits of the idea of ‘hunter-gatherers’, as they are fishermen as well as hunter-gatherers. Their fishing lifestyle has had profound effects on the their existence, as has the impact of tourism in their ancestral lands. A major ethnography on these groups was competed by ‘Doc’ Heinz in the 1970s. I borrowed this and took detailed notes on it in 1982. But very sadly, Heinz was murdered in the year 2000, and his manuscript was lost. However, my student Michael Taylor did his PhD on River Bushmen, also completed in 2000. He now works for the World Food Program, but his thesis sheds new light on the recent history of these groups. I aim to cover such issues in the present chapter.