San of the Kalahari - Hardcover

The San has a most unusual history, which is told in the book through unique pictures, some shamanic in the movement they capture. In July 1959 Jurgen Schadeberg joined an expedition led by Professor Phillip Tobias, then chairman of the Kalahari Research Committee of the University of the Witwatersrand, to study the San. The result is this collection of stunning black and white photographs, provided with detailed captions, as well as insightful introductory and concluding chapters. The San inhabited the whole of southern Africa before the spear and the gun drove them further into the desert region of the Kalahari. They are among the last of the hunting and gathering societies in an agricultural and industrialized world.

The San inhabited the whole of southern Africa before the spear and the gun drove them further into the desert region of the Kalahari. They are among the last of the hunting and gathering societies in an agricultural and industrialised world. Small by Western standards, the polite greeting to a San man is one of deference to his unmistakable stature "I saw your shadow looming afar". Although their lifestyle may appear haphazard to the casual eye, on closer inspection, a defined pattern appears.