Minorities of Southern Africa
HOME OF THE
SOUTHERN
AFRICAN
SAN
THE
SAN
are the aboriginal people of Southern Africa.
Their distinct hunter-gatherer culture stretches back over 20 000 years,
and their
genetic origins reach back over one million years. Recent research indicates
that the San are
the oldest genetic stock of contemporary humanity. TEN thousand years
ago their exclussive
domain stretched from the Zambezi to the Cape of Good Hope, from the
Atlantic tothe Indian Oceans.
THREE
hundred years ago European colonists called them "untameable".
Now southern Africa's 110,000
remaining San face cultural extinction, living lives of poverty on the
outer edges of society. Today they
struggle to win back a foothold, along with their pride, in the lands
they once roamed freely.
The Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa - WIMSA
was established in
1996 at the request of the San in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia
and Zimbabwe,
to
provide a platform for their communities to express their problems,needs
and concerns.
WIMSA is required to advocate and lobby for San rights, to establish
a network
for information exchange among San communities and other concerned parties,
and to provide training and advice to San communities on tourism,
integrated development projects and land tenure.