A GROUP of ill clad and barefooted children frolic in the Kalahari sands, near them a seemingly bored emaciated limping dog, perhaps a victim of an attack by a wild animal after a failed hunting trip guards the playing children, its barks are subdued by the noises the children are making.
They seem very happy, but a few metres away, a lone figure of an elderly woman crouched on a wooden stool wrapped in an old blanket tells a different story.
Her wrinkled face tells of so much suffering endured over the years, she is left to watch over the children while their mothers do menial jobs in the Tsholotsho villages in exchange for food and clothing.
Men do what they know best, get the best of their dogs and go out to hunt for wild pigs and kudu as well as dig up nutritious tubers and twigs for survival.
The above setting is the life of the San people who live in the Makhulambela village in Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North Province on the peripheries of the Hwange National park.
They subsist on food handouts from local villagers in exchange for menial jobs, while the Parks Authority also gives them occasional meat rations to discourage subsistence poaching in the park.
The San people just like the BaTonga are thought to be Southern Africa’s original indigenous people and are the most studied people.
Apart from some remnant populations living in the Kalahari and other remote parts of the region, most have disappeared so everyone had thought.
Before the Mfecane of the 1800s, the area was occupied by the San with the name ‘Tsholotsho’ (alternate spelling ‘Tjolotjo’) being derived from the San word ‘Holohou’ meaning the head of an elephant.
The area was a favourite of the elephant herds and had attracted early ivory hunters.
When the Matabele arrived in 1838, the area held mostly Maswara bushmen, who were not true bushmen, but a mixture of the San and others, and elephants were still to be found in abundance.
The name ‘Tsholotsho’ was adopted by King Mzilikazi and his people as they entered what then became Matabeleland from the north in search of new pastures and lands and fleeing the tsetse fly of the lowlands.
The Tsholostho San people who moved in two clans and now numbering about 600 have over the years endured successive droughts and often bore the brunt of hostile attitudes directed at them by their neighbours.
Unfortunately, though, many of the San in Tsholotsho have a vague sense of their history and because many of them were displaced and forced to move away from their desert shelters, few are able to shed much light about their culture.
The San in this area are believed to be from the ‘Kwe’ and ‘Xun’ clans whose ancestors still wonder in the Kalahari and Namib deserts.
They are now living happily knowing social support system is guaranteed from the Government courtesy of the new constitution which recognises their language, although only a few non-governmental organisations (NGOs) provide food handouts to the Tsholotsho San.
According to records at different health clinics and the Tsholotsho district hospital, the prevalence of communicable diseases was less among the San people who still prefer their traditional herbs against modern medicines.
The community has also been a subject of research by scholars, historians and others seeking to find their original roots.
Among the organisations is the South African San Institute a NGO which acts as a San support organisation.
The organisation is involved in various initiatives to help and support San groups in Southern Africa and in places like Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe
In interviews with The Patriot, the San people said they are now recognised by the Zimbabwe Government as they suffered for a long time.
When competition for resources became intense and circumstances became dangerous for them, some groups moved away further into the Kalahari while the rest were amalgamated into the Tsholotsho community.
This practice has become common whenever they faced severe pressure, however even in circumstances where the San were absorbed into these communities, they were often treated with suspicion and hostility.
Many denied their heritage in order to protect themselves.
Today most of them are classified as Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele or even coloured.
Amazingly the Tsholostho San people still meet to continue their traditions of rainmaking and healing.
Because of the San people’s ritual status in this community as rainmakers or traditional healers and their perceived connections to the spirit world, they are often blamed the minute anything goes wrong and are constantly persecuted for witchcraft.
There are numerous incidents where villagers have been speared by the San after passing subversive comments or ridiculed them.
However, in Tsholotsho as perceptions are beginning to change, the San people are coming forward to claim their identity and even taking their children to health facilities and schools as well as participating in community projects.
Schools in the community are enrolling children from the San community, not to be outdone; prospective suitors are also allowed to marry the San girls who are believed to be pure virgins.
The Tsholotsho Rural District Council has over the years declared the village a disaster area due to perennial food shortages experienced by the San people.
In most cases the local authority is forced to source for food and medicines for the San people.
The San elders said they should not be treated differently from other members of the community if they are to prosper.
Now they have ammunition to defend their rights as their language Khoisan is one of the 16 officially recognised languages under the new Zimbabwe Constitution.
Other languages, namely Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, Sign Language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda and Xhosa, are officially recognised in Zimbabwe.