Khoisan facts for kids
The Khoisan is a name for two groups of people from Southern Africa: the San and the Khoikhoi. The San are hunter-gatherers, meaning they find their food in nature. The Khoikhoi are a pastoral people, meaning they raise animals like cattle. They were once known as the Hottentots, but this name is now considered old-fashioned.
The San usually look different from other people in Southern Africa. They are often smaller in size. As of 2018, there are about 90,000 to 100,000 San people left. Most of them live in Botswana and Namibia. Smaller groups of San also live in South Africa, Angola, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
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History of the Khoisan People
The San were among the first people to live in Southern Africa. They are considered indigenous, meaning they are the original inhabitants of the land. About 700 years ago, groups of Bantu started moving south from other parts of Africa. These new groups eventually became the main people living in Southern Africa. They moved the Khoi and San from their original lands.
Khoisan Languages
The Khoisan languages are very old and unique. Even if two Khoisan language groups live close to each other, their languages can be very different. This shows that these languages have been spoken and developed in the same region for a very long time. It also suggests that the Khoisan people have lived in Southern Africa for many thousands of years.
Early Human History
Scientists have studied the DNA of people around the world. They found that the Y chromosome of San men has special patterns. These patterns are different from those found in all other groups of people. The Y chromosome changes very little over time. Because of this, DNA tests can show when different human groups separated from each other.
These studies suggest that the San people might be one of the oldest groups of humans. They may have been among the first to separate from the common ancestor of all living humans. This separation is thought to have happened between 60,000 and 90,000 years ago. This makes the Khoisan people very important for understanding early human history.
Images for kids
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San man collecting devil's claw
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Approximate area of the origin of L0d and L0k haplogroups in southern Africa, dated to before 90,000 years ago by Behar et al. (2008).
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Schematic representation of the "out of South Africa" migration of the post-Eemian Middle to Late Stone Age (after 100 kya) inferred from mtDNA haplogroup L0 in modern African populations (Rito et al. 2013).
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San woman in Namibia (1984 photograph)
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Bushman camp 2005
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See also
In Spanish: Joisán para niños
