The Bukakhwe San, a Bushman clan who have inhabited southern Africa for more than 30,000 years, have over time been slowly abandoning their nomadic existence. Gudigwa, is a remote village in north-west Botswana and due north of the Okavango. One of the oldest and most vulnerable of peoples, they are now involved in an eco-tourism project which they hope will help preserve their culture - and provide a livelihood for the villagers.
Several Bushmen were waiting at the entrance of the Gudigwa Camp to welcome the tourists who had flown from Botswana's premiere wildlife destination, the Okavango Swamps, specially to experience San culture.
"Toyaate Tsekaraga," one of the hosts said. ("We hope your journey went well.")
A woman offered the visitors a pleasant berry drink, while a Bushman who could speak English prompted them to try the local delicacies: Mopani worms, biltong and dried fruits.
I was one of the guests invited to enjoy Bushman hospitality. Now we nibbled politely at these unusual snacks, anxious not to appear rude. We had first to eat, then we would be shown to our overnight accommodation.
And what accommodation. The grass huts were fashioned along the lines of traditional Bushman dwellings - with certain major concessions. A door was added to appease Western demands for privacy and the hut furnished with conventional beds. A wash-basin, bucket shower and septic tank toilet had been enclosed with reeds round each hut.
The Bukakhwe are new to tourism. The Bushmen in this part of Botswana have always been nomadic, moving with the seasons from one part of the country to another. They survived for centuries on wild fruits and vegetables such as tsamma melons and wild potatoes, berries and edible insects. These have traditionally been harvested by women, while it was the men's job to bring home the meat: hares and guinea fowl, impala and kudu hunted with bows and arrows.
With the nomadic life over as proclaimed by Botswana/DeBeers Diamond Cartel mandate and hunting forbidden, they faced an uncertain future. The Botswana government insisted they adapt to "modern life," send their children to school and find jobs. The 800-strong community were "resettled" in a village but, as is the case in 85% of Botswana, the soil was mainly sand and unsuitable for agriculture.
How would these ancient people survive in a world that demanded money in exchange for food, where they were expected to wear conventional clothes instead of skins and the children had to learn to read and write?
Wilderness Safaris, in partnership with the Bukakhwe Cultural Conservation Trust (a board elected by the clan) came to the rescue and a venture known as Gudigwa Camp was initiated. The project is fully owned by the Bukakhwe - one of five San clans in Botswana - with all proceeds funnelled into community development projects.
Our Bushman host, Dicks Tsima, 26, was "rueful." about the passing of the old ways.
"We are the people of the dry bush lands," he said. "We were resettled here in the early 90s and got special licences to hunt. But the government realized poachers were taking advantage of the Bushmen and now we must stay here ....."
Their camp, staffed by Bushmen under the sole guidance of Liza Humphries, opened in April this year. Wilderness Safaris, who manage some of the best camps in the Okavango Swamps, is overseeing the project.
A visit to Gudigwa Camp is a special - if somewhat artificial - experience. The village where the Bushmen live is tucked away among the bushes. Seen from the vantage point of an aeroplane seat, it comprises a collection of small grass huts, with just one conventional building - probably government-owned - near the entrance.
The tourists' camp, on the other hand, has been built among ancient trees and provided with all mod cons. However, despite the luxurious home comforts, the atmosphere at Gudigwa Camp is genuine enough. It is one place foreign visitors can go to gain some understanding of the ancient Bushman culture, now seriously in danger of extinction.
They are a people who have been persecuted for generations. As far back as the early 1800s, the explorer William Burchell noted in his diary that the Bushmen were "feared by the Hottentots for their lethal poisoned arrows, were hunted like wild animals by the Boers to avenge their cattle depredations and were slaughtered by the Bantus who invaded their hunting grounds."
Author Bartle Bull writes in his book "Safari. A Chronicle of Adventure" (Penguin 1992) that 200 years ago Burchell recorded his impressions of a visit to the home of Kaali, a Bushman who had accompanied his party from South Africa's Orange River. He provided what is probably the first ever descriptions of Bushman life in southern Africa. He wrote:
"They brought us to the summit of the ridge where, situated between hillocks and heaps of large stones and unsheltered by either tree of bush, we found half a dozen wretched weather-worn huts, only one-third of the circumference enclosed and utterly incapable of protecting the inhabitants from wind or rain. Within these huts there was no property of any kind, except in one or two a dirty furless skin or the shell of an ostrich egg. Never before had I beheld so complete a picture of poverty."
More recently, Sandy Gall in his work "The Bushmen of Southern Africa" - sub titled "Slaughter of the Innocent" (published in 2002) - provides an even more depressing picture.
He describes the ongoing persecution of the Bushmen, the beatings and brutality, the torture, the imprisonment, the disease and suffering inflicted on what has been described as "a harmless people".
He asks: "After centuries of genocide, dispossession and exploitation, what is the future of the 100,000 or so Bushmen who have survived into the 21st century" Is there real hope that they, the aboriginal inhabitants of the continent, who have been on the earth for so many millennia, may find the next millennium less terrible than the last"
There are, indeed, some hopeful signs. Perhaps the most hopeful is what happened in South Africa in March 1999. Thabo Mbeki (then deputy president and now President of South Africa) flew to a dusty squatter village on the edge of the Kalahari Gemsbok Park and ceremonially handed over to two Bushmen leaders the rights to their ancestral lands from which they had been evicted half a century before.
Gall is less optimistic, however, about Botswana's stance on the Bushman question, quoting disturbing accounts of torture allegations, beatings and arrests in that country. The problem is ongoing.
At Gudigwa, however, the Bushmen have faced the inevitability of their new life and are learning new skills to keep their culture alive. They are warm and welcoming hosts who have prepared a fascinating programme to keep their visitors entertained.
On our visit to the camp, the pots are bubbling on an open fire by 4pm, a cluster of San women in attendance. The dancers who were to entertain the guests arrived in their "skins" soon after. So did the drummers and musicians, the fire makers and the craftsmen who brought with them the bows and arrows they crafted to sell to the tourists.
"�sk me what you want to know about my people," Tsima urged. "We want to share our culture with you."
He talked about the time his father taught him, at the age of five or six, to hunt with a bow and arrow ("we never had guns"), about the role of men and women in Bushmen society, about the education of children, about life in a nomadic society, about sex, marriage and religion.
"Our clan has never had a chief," he said. "Decisions have always been taken by the elders. Now, however, we have elected a young man as our spokesman. He represents us because he can read and write and speak English."
Boys, he explained, could get married at the age of ten if they were able to provide a woman with food. A wife who complained that her husband was lazy, could be taken from him and given to another man. It was not unusual for a man to be given a girl child or baby - but the onus was on him to provide her with food and meat.
A girl was initiated after puberty and would then stay inside for four months before her "coming out". She would then be free to select the man she wanted as her husband. Tsima talked freely and openly about every aspect of his culture.
How did his people feel about being called Bushmen?
Tsima insisted that "we are men and we come from the bush, so we are Bushmen. We have no problem with that."
Night was falling when a Bushman, his face creased, arrived at the gathering carrying a "thumb" piano.
"His name is Zimbabwe and he will sing for you," Tsima said.
The sun had set by the time Zimbabwe started his melancholy tune. Tsima translated, explaining that the song was about a man whose in-laws had ill-treated him. There was total silence as the group listened to the achingly sad words.
Then his mood changed and Zimbabwe sang a welcome song, prompting dancers to leap to their feet and join the celebrations. The party was on. The local beer, "khadi", a mixture of millet, honey and brandy bush seed, flowed.
Tsima, his shirt tossed aside, joined his colleagues round the fire, the smoke adding a mysterious haziness to the proceedings.
Two hours later, the dancers stopped, their bodies glistening in the light of the fire. It was time for dinner: an ostrich curry, tomato bredie and chicken pieces cooked on the coals - a feast for the visitors who tucked-in along with their hosts.
The next morning the guests were roused before sun-up. It was time to gather berries and bulbs in the bush and learn about the uses of plants, medicinal and otherwise. Another day had begun.
The Bushmen of Gudigwa can host up to 16 guests at a time. They are waiting for you to arrive.
Gudigwa Camp offers guests on safari the opportunity to experience the cultural richness of Botswana. Gudigwa village is a settlement of 800 "Bukakhwe" San Bushman or "people of the dry country".
The Bukakhwe people are indigenous to the Okavango Delta, and though their physical attributes vary from the Bushman tribes of the Kalahari, their traditional ways of living off the land are very much the same. The Gudigwa experience highlights the intimate connection between the Bukakhwe people's cultural heritage and the natural environment.
By sharing this linkage with their guests, they are reviving a dying culture and passing on intricate knowledge to the future generations within the village. Activities focus around various aspects of both traditional and modern life in Botswana.
Walks will reveal the secrets of the bush and guests will learn about the medicinal uses of plants, discover where to find underground water, and will be given basic tips of how to survive off of nature's abundant resources. Villagers will perform traditional dances and songs, tell animated stories in their mother tongue - a language of "clicks" and guttural tones - and will cook local dishes for guests to sample.
Guests stay in large, cosy grass huts made from local materials and modelled after traditional bushman shelters. Each of the 8 units has comfortable beds and linen, solar lighting and its own open air toilet and hot shower. This camp and its activities take place 5 km away from the Gudigwa community so as not to disturb the daily life of the people.
Guests are welcome to take a quick tour of the village. As the largest remaining Bushman village in Botswana, the Gudigwa people are proud to be reviving their culture that is rapidly changing due to modernization, and to be promoting cross-cultural exchange with the rest of the world.
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