Episode 276 — Okavango Khwebe Wind and a Dorsland Trekker Angolan Odyssey

About this episode

This episode explores the historical significance of the Kalahari region and the migration patterns of pastoralists, particularly focusing on the Dorsland Trekkers and the Khoekhoe.

Die Dorsland — the Thirstland — is part of the Kalahari that has an interesting history when it comes to pastoralists. The San didn’t call it the Thirstland, for them it wasn’t a barrier but part of a network of seasonal resource nodes. They would navigate the dry spans using sip-wells, inserting long, hollow reeds deep into the damp sand, use grass filters, and literally suck water up to store in hollowed-out ostrich eggshells buried along transit routes for future journeys. Around 2,000 to 2,500 years ago, a massive economic shift occurred when groups in northern Botswana acquired livestock, sheep and later cattle, transitioning from hunter-gatherers to pastoralists—becoming the Khoekhoe. Archaeological evidence indicates the Khoekhoe moved out of the northern Botswana/Zambezi region and split. One major migration route skirted the western edge of the Kalahari desert, moving down through modern-day Namibia and into the Northern and Western Cape with the Kalahari was the geographic pivot around which this entire pastoralist expansion rotated. Moving large herds of sheep and cattle through a Thirstland required moving between reliable pans and riverbeds like the Nossob, Auob, and…

People in this episode

Host: Desmond Latham

Topics covered

• pastoralism
• migration
• archaeology
• Kalahari
• Dorsland Trekker
• Khoekhoe
• San

Keywords

• Dorsland
• Thirstland
• pastoralists
• Khoekhoe
• San
• migration
• Kalahari
• archaeology
• water sources
• economic shift

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Okavango, Kalahari, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Northern Cape, Western Cape

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