When you fly over Namibia, it seems like a huge beach on the ocean. And already on the ground, some coastal cities are surprisingly reminiscent of Germany. Still, this is the former German South-West Africa … But our way is inland, towards the amazing desert people, the most ancient of all living on Earth.
Bush people
No sooner had I been surprised by the very decent road leading from Windhoek to the east, towards adventure, when Willie, my dark-skinned chauffeur and guide, warned that after three hundred kilometers it would be possible to forget about the Autobahn and rare oases for travelers. The real Kalahari Desert will begin there. which means thirsty. I thought about our water supplies and sunscreens. But what about 50 degrees of heat in the shade?
“Listen, Willie,” I can't stand it.
- What is your real name? You probably have a different name?
- You still can't pronounce him. - the conductor laughs sincerely. - Call me Willie.
- But still…
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In response, the black guy says something incredible - some kind of smack and click of his tongue. I try to repeat. Willie laughs so hard that he almost lets go of the steering wheel. We have to admit that the people of the desert do speak a strange, clicking language, where clicks are the usual sounds of their speech. And in the language of the Bushmen - and it is to them that we are going - there are no numbers. Is that "one, one". All. what follows simply means "a lot."
Finally, we arrived at some village - a dozen houses built of thick cardboard. What? There is no rain here, and the cardboard dwelling even creates some kind of coolness. Further, to the Bushmen, we will go on foot - the road ends here. We will carry water and food on ourselves. Willie was reassuring, saying that there should be enough water before we reach the tribal camp. The word “must” pleased me … When asked about water there, in the desert, the guide cheerfully assured me that it was full there, you just need to know where to dig. You will go five meters deep into the sand. and here it is, water! This is how the Bushmen get their precious moisture.
Willie and I were sitting by the evening fire, and I remembered what I knew about the Kalahari people. There are no more than a hundred thousand Bushmen left. Scientists have determined that they have lived on their eternal land for at least 20 thousand years and are so unique - both in their anthropological type and in language - that they are classified as a special race.
These stunted people do not have permanent dwellings, they often hide in the bush, constructing huts from the branches. Hence the name "Bushmen" - "bush people" - given to them by the first Dutch settlers. Deposits of diamonds and gold were often found in barren semi-deserts. And the Europeans drove the Bushmen out of their territories. White aliens shot game to deprive the natives of food, poisoned wells …
Normal plus 50
I will not describe our passage through the desert - it turned out to be monotonous and difficult. Plus 50 in the shade is no joke. My experience of crossing the Sahara and the Gobi came in handy. It's good that, already living in the city. Willie did not break away from his roots, he was perfectly oriented in the sands, and we did not go astray.
We came to a small Bushman tribe just "in time". The witch doctor and sorcerer in one person was going to begin a ritual of cleansing the tribe and, so to speak, "a treatment session for all." The strange ritual, from the European point of view, is in fact an element of group psychotherapy, a unifying ceremony. By the way, the Bushmen are very simple, like children, and do not know how to lie, hypocrite. They keep such customs to help each other avoid animosity and envy. The most important rituals are the sharing of the mined meat and the exchange of gifts. The distribution of meat is fair, everyone is happy, the exchange of gifts between the Bushmen helps them to maintain friendly relations. For these people, the situation is unthinkable when one family has a lot of food, while the other has nothing. The Bushmen say: “We always give something to each other. We give everything that we have."
The sorcerer sang and danced mournfully, touching the head of each of the people of the tribe sitting in a circle. Interestingly, the Bushmen have no leaders, but usually the most experienced hunter or medicine man. the sorcerer is a kind of leader. They turn to him for advice, but such a person does not have any privileges or power.
After the ceremony, I was allowed to speak with the sorcerer. Willie translated. When I asked how old the old man was, he replied strikingly: "I am young, like the most beautiful desire of my soul, and old, like all the unfulfilled dreams of my life." The old man assured me that his people understand the language of baboons, they know the antidotes for snake and scorpion bites. I've heard about this before. Some bushmen even add various poisons to their food so that the body gains immunity.
- And we also know special herbs. If thrown into a fire, they will drive them away from the encampment of a tribe of ferocious lions.
At these words of the old sorcerer, I involuntarily looked around, and Willie, laughing, “reassured” me, saying that lions come only sometimes, and only at night. The shaman touched my head. Oddly enough, I suddenly felt peace and joy, my worries disappeared.
That's life…
The next day, early in the morning, the men of the tribe took Will and me to hunt. The guide and I walked behind, while the Bushmen were looking for ostriches … Finally, noticing the birds, the little people seemed to become even smaller. Several hunters instantly threw on themselves ostrich skins with feathers and, lifting the dried heads of the birds killed earlier on sticks, penetrated into the center of the flock. They even twitched their feathers like birds do. Moment - and several birds fall dead on the sand. Bushmen use poison-tipped arrows for hunting. If a hunter wounded an antelope, and for some reason the poison did not work on it, he can pursue it even for several days. After all, meat is a precious booty. Later, I carefully examined the equipment of the hunters: bows, arrows, clubs, leather bags for the killed game.
By the way, women also take part in the search for food: with a sharpened stick weighted with a stone with a hole in the middle, they dig up edible roots and "bushmen rice" - ant larvae.
In the evening, by the fire, Willie told me that his kind were very hardy and patient. Even if one of them is seriously injured on the hunt, no one gives it any importance. They are very tenacious.
When, during the transition of the Bushmen tribe through the desert, some woman comes to give birth, she simply lies down on the sand, and after a while she catches up with the relatives who have gone ahead with the child.
I noticed that some women are breastfeeding rather large babies. It turned out that the kids are already several years old. This is a kind of contraceptive: breastfeeding prevents a new pregnancy. According to the harsh laws of the desert, a mother can kill a premature newborn in order to allow the previous child to survive.
This nation has developed mutual assistance. Before my eyes, one teenager, having found some kind of large edible root in the desert. did not eat it myself, but brought it to the tribe. The elders immediately divided the "booty" equally. But Willie told me about something else: when a group of Bushmen leaves in search of prey, the old people who cannot go with the tribe remain. They are simply thrown away. After all, as they say here, there is no need to wait for many moons in a row until an old man or an old woman dies or recovers. It is difficult for us to accept, but only in this way the tribe in the desert can survive. Meanwhile, the Bushmen believe in life after death and are very afraid of the dead. Each tribe has its own complex burial rituals.
Out of time
Desert tribes do not look to the future. And why? It seems that the Bushmen see not the running of time, but its eternal cycle …
Only here, having lived among the amazing "bush people", I was surprised to learn that the tools of labor, weapons - everything that a person made with his own hands - are in his personal property. The things that belonged to the Bushman during his lifetime are put with him in the grave. But not because he will need them in the afterlife, but because they remain his property even after death. A husband cannot dispose of what belongs to his wife without her permission.
Saying goodbye to the Bushmen, I gave them gifts: metal knives, water flasks, and other necessary things. They don't really need clothes: men wear tight triangular leather aprons. And women - two hanging aprons: a smaller one in front and a larger one in the back. Bushmen make simple household utensils themselves: from leather, animal bones, wood, and ostrich egg shells.
Practical plastic flasks made my new acquaintances happy. After all, water is usually stored here in bags sewn from the stomachs of antelope, or empty ostrich eggs. Women, going to fetch water, put vessels of eggs in a net of rawhide straps. The Bushmen gave me excellent leather sandals and ostrich leather jewelry.
In a few days I managed to fall in love with this simple and hospitable people. I will definitely be back. After all, many of their secrets "people of shrubs" are in no hurry to reveal to foreigners … The secrets of their health, medicine, life in extreme conditions await researchers.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №4. Author: Werner Brunmann, Switzerland