Historical Geography among the San in the British Colonial Era

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My report presents an account of the historical change in the various socioeconomic relationship between the nomadic San and the rural Kgalagadi in the colonial time. My survey results show that the relationship are not limited to goat-raising but also include the sharing of wild and cultivated watermelons and the trading of wild animal skins.The following points were clarified :1. Various complex relationships between the San and the KgalagadiThe loan-goat system like the loan-cattle called "mafisa" was continuously maintained between the San and the Kgalagadi. Wild watermelons were shared between the San and Kgalagadi in times of abundance, and the San received cultivated watermelons from Kgalagadi when ther was a good harvest. The San also continued to trade wild animal skins for products from Kgalagadi.Thus, the relationship between San and Kgalagadi can not be defined simply as patron-client-type or master-serf-type relationships. Rather, they changed according to the types of activities pursued by the San and Kgalagadi, which depended on the amount of rainfall.2. Historical changes in the relationship between San and KgalagadiThat fact that most of the place names in the Reserve are derived from San indicated that San were the first settlers in the Reserve and that relationship between tha San and Kgalagadi were later formed when Kgalagadi migrated to the Reserve.From the late nineteenth century until 1930, a Kgalagadi headman ruled over a large area of the Reserve around Xade. When he died, his children and those who worked for him moved to various parts of the Reserve. These movements correspond to the six bands of distribution of the San in the Reserve reported by Silberbauer. Tanaka's survey in 1971 revealed that there were also some II Gana living in Xade., who were thought to have moved to Xade from Kumuchuru.