Kalahari Desert

The Kalahari is a broad dryland region whose human history depends on detailed knowledge of resources rather than an absence of life. San communities developed hunting and gathering practices adapted to scattered water, edible plants and seasonal animal movements. Roots, melons and other foods could supply moisture as well as nourishment, while social ties allowed information and assistance to circulate between groups. Movement was purposeful and informed by a landscape of named places.

Pastoral and farming communities also occupied parts of the wider Kalahari, and relations with San communities included exchange as well as unequal labour arrangements. Trade routes carried goods such as iron, copper and beads into the region. By the late eighteenth century the Ngwaketse chiefdom east of the Kalahari had expanded its control over hunting and cattle raiding. These are regional developments, not a documented history of every part of the desert.