Socio-economic, political and cultural issues of San people

They are the oldest inhabitants of southern Africa, Botswana and Namibia and Angola. They are mainly located in remote, inaccessible areas. Many still live as hunter-gatherers in rudimentary shelters, moving within their ancestral territories, while others have settled in homesteads, where they practice agriculture, surrounded by Bantu neighbors, or live in urban communities. Initial contact with San communities showed that they suffered greatly as a result of the war. Their access to food had been reduced, mortality rates were high, and their way of life was under serious threat. There is a long history of open exploitation and discrimination against the San by neighboring Bantu groups, who have more socio-economic and political power. San, also called (pejorative) Bushmen, an indigenous people of southern Africa, related to the Khoekhoe (Khoikhoi). They live chiefly in Botswana, Namibia, and southeastern Angola. Bushmen is an Anglicization of boesman, the Dutch and Afrikaner name for them; saan (plural) or saa (singular) is the Nama word for ¿bush dweller(s),¿ and the Nama name is now generally favoured by anthropologists.