THE JOURNEY FROM HERE TO THERE

The Khoisan, or San People, also known as the Bushmen (members of various Khoisan indigenous hunter-gatherer groups that are the first nations of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa. The San people of Zimbabwe are called Tjwa or Tshwa are formerly known as Bushmen and various other names including, AbaThwa, aMasili, abaKhwa are believed to have been the first people to settle to what is known as Zimbabwe today. Most of their drawings depicting their way of life of hunting and gathering can be seen on rocks or caves around the country and most notable the Matopo Hills in Matabeleland South. They have lived in Zimbabwe for more than 20, 000 years. They were and are composed of many small nomadic groups so it is not easy to know which specific groups lived where. Their recent home has been restricted to places such as the vast Kalahari Desert.

The Khoisan musical culture is essentially based on polyphonic chants and techniques including hockets and yodelling to accompanying dances. Specifically due to the important number of clicks characteristic of Khoisan languages leading to harmonic series development and variations, as well as resonators vocal-based instrumentation.  Instruments are mainly rhythmic and consist of many kinds of tools utilized for cooking, hunting and gathering like bows. San musical structure is mainly polyrhythmic and based on four-tones, played by two instruments, a bow played with the mouth or a bavugu resonant tube, leading to wide harmonic series. Khoikhoi musical dances are accompanied by hocket based chants and instruments such as bows, one-tone reed flutes, and drums (made from pottery and sheepskin). 

The Khoisan who believed in healing each other and staying connected to the earth is a living organism that can not be abused, often would have dancing rituals, such as a healing or rain dances These dances are often shown in the rock art. The San often went into trances during these dances.