Kernel

by Tuuliki Jantunen

170 p. • 20 b/w photos, 3 maps • 1999 • ISBN 99916-40-20-7 • 148 x 210 mm • Namibia Scientific Society/Kuiseb Publishers

This book tells the story of the San (Bushmen) of the western Okavango region in the late 1950s and early 1960s. We are introduced to a small San community living according to its own rules of behaviour in the settlement of Mpungu. These people, formerly hunter-gatherers, now face a new cultural phase. They have become sedentary farmers, but on the other hand, do not want to abandon their nomadic way of life entirely. They have to get back to the forest now and then. They also want to go to school and the mission station offers them the opportunity to do so.