First ever San Community Chief installed

Chief Goledema of the Tjwao popularly known as the San Community was installed yesterday at Mtshina Secondary School.

The Chief, who is first ever for the community is set to choose headmen & village heads under his jurisdiction.

The San in Tsholotsho are found in Gulalikabili, Mtshina, Sikente, Gariya.

The San community in Zimbabwe is one of the indigenous tribes that have had a rather belated encounter with modernisation and globalisation.

Their transition from a hunting and gathering economy to an agro-capitalist economy is widely considered as failed.

The San, also known as the Bushmen, are thought to be the oldest residents of Africa who have resided in Southern Africa for more than 20 000 years (Mitchell, 2013, cited in Hitchcock et al., 2016).

In Zimbabwe, for instance, the San self-identify as the true indigenous people of the country ahead of other groups (IWGIA, 2014).

In Southern Africa, the San people are found in seven countries; namely, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Angola, South Africa and Zimbabwe, with an estimated population of 113 000 (Hitchcock et al., 2016).

The San’s way of life has always been thought of as based on hunting game and gathering wild edible fruits (Kangira et al., 2019).

This traditional, nomadic way of life has dramatically changed in all the seven countries because of displacements and land tenure laws that favour permanent settlements and criminalises or prohibits game hunting.

Zwnews