San Bushman Safari
Western Kalahari
7 nights/8 days
Guided by Ralph Bousfield
It is rare to find a genuine, non-patronizing Bushmen experience. One of our preferred providers has worked in conjunction with the Bushman people to offer this incredible opportunity where you can experience the age-old rituals and traditions associated with an eland hunt.
The rite of passage from boyhood to man is sanctified by the successful hunt of a large antelope. Guests will accompany an authentic Bushmen hunt and respectfully observe the related rituals and tradition related to its successful conclusion. Your experienced zoologist/biologist guide will work in conjunction with community leaders to ensure a unique experience that combines both culture and wildlife in an educational, yet non-intrusive fashion. The result is sustainable cultural tourism which preserves the Bushmen culture for future generations.
Your private tented camp will be replete with all the accoutrements of a proper safari. You will sleep in comfy beds and have private bucket showers and bush toilets adjacent to each tent. Depending on the hunt, there may be several nights spent fly camping under the stars in mosquito net tents.
Ralph Bousfield is the last in a long line of family safari operators commencing with his great grandfather who took Princess Eugenie on safari to view her son's grave after the Zulu war. Five generations of safari experience have both inspired and informed a unique understanding and sensitivity for Africa and its people.
Brief Itinerary
Day 1 Arrive Western Kalahari ancestral gathering lands of the Zu/’hoasi Bushmen.
Day 2 Hunt preparations, bush walking and gathering
Days 3-7 Tracking, hunting, gathering and ritual ceremonies
Day 8 Departure
The Initiation Hunt - Price
Contact Duffle & Compass for current price on this itinerary.
Included in price: All accommodation on a shared basis, all meals, drinks, activities fees, guide fees, and transfers to and from Maun Airport.
The Initiation Hunt - Departure Dates:
Contact Duffle & Compass for current departure dates.
Initiation Hunt Safari - Detailed Itinerary
Day 1
Arrive by plane at midday and transfer down a dusty red road to a remote campsite deep in the ancestral gathering lands of the Zu/’hoasi Bushmen. After a delicious lunch, head off to your hut for a rest.
After tea, walk through the bush to the nearby Bushmen village where you will be met in a traditional manner by the elders of the community. Around the fire before dinner, listen to the history of the Bushmen people whose origins can be traced back 30,000 years, and learn about the complex political challenges that are confronting them today.
Enjoy a delicious dinner under the stars.
Day 2
After a restful night’s sleep, meet the men after breakfast to prepare for a traditional hunt. Walk into the bush and search out the poison grub beetle, gathering suitable roots, sanseveria leaves and branches for the manufacture of rope, bows and arrows. Return to camp for a lunch and siesta.
After tea, return to the Bushmen village. Watch the men prepare bows, arrows and quivers while young boys demonstrate various traditional games that provide training for the hand-to-eye coordination skills that will be so necessary when on the hunt. Retire to bed after a satisfying dinner in excited anticipation of the next day’s hunt.
Days 3 - 7
Depart early after a hearty cooked breakfast for a day of traditional hunting with the men.
These days will be spent with the men tracking, hunting and gathering - observing and sharing in their astounding knowledge of their environment. We will search the area for eland tracks, stalking and, hopefully, hunting down some wild quarry using traditional bows and arrows. This is a real expedition and, at times, may be physically demanding. A picnic lunch will be taken along to enable one to be flexible and react fast to the day’s events.
The successful hunt will be celebrated with a series of ritual ceremonies. You will also spend time with the women on a gathering expedition for plants and herbs. Your safari guide will point out the distinct ecological characteristics of this area and its animal and bird species while spontaneous gathering and discussions about the uses of plants and wildlife by your Bushmen guides provide the link between culture and wild environment. At the Bushmen village you will learn from the women how to prepare their bush foods using only the most basic of tools and an open fire. They will also demonstrate their crafts.
As the sun sets and the evening draws close, the women may spontaneously perform the melon dance, around the evening fire. This unselfconscious and free-spirited traditional dance represents the joyful celebration of a successful harvest. Return to camp for a rather more conventional, but still delicious, meal and retire to bed.
Background Information
The eland is the most important animal to the Bushmen, both as a practical resource (food, skin etc) and as a spiritual symbol. It is the largest antelope in the world and the only animal in the Kalahari that stores large quantities of fat (both in its dewlap and its hump). Fat is one of the only foods in the desert that is storable for the Bushmen as they have no system of refrigeration or means of food preservation. One can therefore appreciate the great importance and value of this life-giving substance and majestic animal to the Bushmen people.
The Bushmen share the meat among all the men, women and children. This task is performed by the hunter whose arrow killed the antelope. It is a time of great excitement and rejoicing as the eland is prized above all other antelope.
The successful hunter will undergo the ritual ceremony of the hunt led by the elders, receiving tattoos to indicate his passage into manhood as a hunter. A huge feast and incredible trance dance will follow, through which all the community bond and are healed by their Healers. This is a deeply spiritual experience for the Bushmen people.
It is a great privilege for guests to have the opportunity to observe the mysterious passage of the Healer into a state of altered consciousness, entirely induced by breathing technique, where he can make contact with his ancestors.
The eland has taken on an almost God-like significance in all San Bushman culture and lore. The hair from between the eyes of the eland is removed, burnt and inserted into the incisions that are made between the eyes of the hunter, on his temples and on his arms. The hunter is thus tattooed to imbue him with the power of the eland.
When a young girl reaches puberty and menstruates for the first time, the week long ritual she undergoes culminates in a symbolic eland dance. The most important trance, a healing dance of the San Bushman is another eland dance and is the embodiment of Bushman spirituality. It is therefore no wonder that eland have been elevated to deity status, and why the eland is often featured in ancient San rock art.
An adolescent Bushman girl knows more than 115 species of usable plants and an extraordinary variety of plants and herbs with both culinary and medicinal value will be found. You may be able to sample a variety of foods from wild spinach and roast beetles to ostrich egg omelettes cooked on the coals. The women may also show you how they make beads from ostrich eggs and the simple, but striking jewelry that they make from porcupine quills, seeds and ostrich eggs. Leather is also decorated with both glass and ostrich beads to complex and beautiful effect.
Contact Duffle & Compass to check availability for this exclusive Africa adventure.
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