Hunting in Namibia

Ray Mears joins a tribe of Namibian hunters as they search for food on the African plains.


Ray Mears is a British author and TV presenter on the subject of bushcraft and survival techniques, best known for the shows Ray Mears' Bushcraft, World of Survival and Extreme Survival.


In This Video, Ray learns some more survival skills from the Jo'hansi bushmen of Namibia. According to Wikipedia, The indigenous people of southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Basarwa, Kung, or Khwe.


These people were traditionally hunter-gatherers, part of the Khoisan group and are related to the traditionally pastoral Khoikhoi. Starting in the 1950s, through the 1990s, they switched to farming as a result of government-mandated modernization programs as well as the increased risks of a hunting and gathering lifestyle in the face of technological development.


The Bushmen have provided a wealth of information for the fields of anthropology and genetics, even as their lifestyles change. One broad study of African genetic diversity completed in 2009 found the San people were among the five populations with the highest measured levels of genetic diversity among the 121 distinct African populations sampled.