A natural shelter.

With the right knowledge, one can survive in the veld indefinitely.

The San owned very little, yet they survived in the veld for centuries.

By Rean Steenkamp

In a modern society we have many comforts that “primitive” societies do not have, such as electricity, running water, and so on, but are we that much better off? I would say many inhabitants of first world countries certainly are. Although far from perfect, the current world is the best it ever was. Today, most developed countries have human rights, at the very least. Few all-powerful kings or dictators are left and much has been done to destroy class distinctions. In developed countries even the president can be tried and sent to prison if he commits a crime. Most children have a reasonably fair chance to uplift themselves from an underprivileged situation if they are prepared to study and work hard.

Aids remains a terminal disease, as does many forms of cancer, but most diseases are curable. Today, doctors can replace hearts, arms and legs and soon there will be spare parts for almost the entire human body. Shortsightedness is cured with a small 15-minute operation and diabetes is a manageable illness. We can undergo operations that make us younger, better looking or taller. Some say we are on the brink of solving the problem of ageing itself and that we will soon be able to live twice the length of our current lifetime, or even longer.

Unfortunately, only a small portion of the earth’s population really benefits from new developments. Even in developed countries there are the “Haves” and the “Have-nots”, and the “Have-nots”, who can’t afford these new technological wonders, are on the increase. It may also be that we have lost something in our quest to develop industrially. Is it not one of man’s habits to swing the pendulum too far to the other side? Modern man has come a long way in the development of science and industry, but may have lost much in other areas.

Before I continue, however, I need to distinguish between primitive and underdeveloped societies. My definition of a primitive society for the purposes of this article is one that is untouched, or fairly so, by the industrial world. This would include people living in the jungles of the Amazon or Borneo. By underdeveloped societies I mean those in third world countries that were usurped by industrialisation, but are not fully developed or integrated into it.

Although people in developed counties live in fine houses, drive excellent air-conditioned cars, work in air-conditioned buildings, and enjoy the luxuries of television, cell phones, internet, laser therapy, heart transplants and many other fantastic conveniences we only dreamed of a couple of years ago, we still have many unhappy people, while crime, war, drug abuse, and many other evils continue to proliferate.

Laurens van der Post writes of the San Bushman in his book The Heart of the Hunter:” …no matter how grim the fate or circumstances, no matter how meagre the scrap of living allowed to him, life was always worth it and worth fighting for to the end. Such natural aristocracy of spirit alone, I would have thought, should command attention in an age which, despite its advantages and comforts, has seen such a lowering in the human being’s sense of value of life that he is increasingly inclined to take his own”.

The poor of today
The number of vagrants and beggars in South Africa, and probably most parts of the world, is on the increase. These people are no longer hobos - people who became vagrants because of drinking or some other anti-social problem that caused them to lose their jobs, homes and families. No, these beggars have homes and families. Some of them lose their houses after a while and also become vagrants. They are still normal people who lost their opportunity to work and pay for a shelter. This is a growing problem all over the developed world.

A few years ago you could find a hobo on a street corner and easily identify him as an alcoholic who has lost everything. He would have a purplish complexion and an overall look of decay about him. Today you often see a vagrant who is much younger and healthier looking with a hiking bag on his back. He travels with his house on his back and begs for money to buy food, not drink.

This got me thinking. Most of us have lost our bond with the earth – with the soil. Most of us have also lost our own piece of land. There was a time when the earth, with all its wide-open spaces, belonged to everybody. That’s how it was when the San and Khoi were the only people in South Africa. They did not own anything, but they knew how to live off the veldt. They ate wild fruits, vegetables and roots and hunted.

Then came the time in most parts of the world when all the land was claimed. At first it probably belonged to tribes and then to tribal chiefs and kings. Today most of the land in the world, especially in the developed countries, belongs to either an individual or company. The vast majority of people in developed countries, however, only own a yard and in name only, since they still have to pay taxes on it and it can be claimed should the authorities need it.

Vagrants, thus, have no place to go. They can go to a park or they can go to some open field that seems deserted, but their stay on it is illegal. Even if the vagrant is not discovered, the place on which they stay is not as easy to live off, as it was hundreds of years ago. It may not be impossible, though. The person may be living on a beach, where he or she can live from what is gathered or caught from the ocean. However, I suspect most of these people do not know how to do this. People from the city or towns who lose their jobs stay in the city or town and try to make money in some way or other, either by doing odd jobs or by begging. Sometimes they turn to crime.

A vagrant would probably prosper more by fishing at the South African West Coast for instance, and by trying to discover what grows in the veldt that he can eat. Such a person only needs to find out where such a place is and how to get there. Then they must be prepared to live like the San Bushmen.

The San Bushmen learnt how to live off the veldt through tradition. They knew what to look for and where to look for it, and when to move to another area. The San owned nothing and did not work for a salary – the same as today’s vagrants. Yet, they made bows from trees, arrowheads from bone and rock and a potent poison from a beetle’s larvae. Using the bow and arrow, a primitive, though effective weapon, they hunted game and made clothing, bags and other utensils from the skin and bones of these animals. With equipment and food harvested from nature, these people managed to survive for thousands of years, even in semi-desert areas such as the Kalahari.

Because the San Bushman knew their country so well, they often had an easier time getting food than one would expect. The adults often spent only a few hours a day working at hunting and gathering. Sometimes they did not go at all, but spent their time telling stories of their past hunts, or relating myths about their gods, including the sky, moon and rain, the animal world, and even how they became hunter-gatherers. Much of this time was spent around the campfire.

Most urbanised people have lost the ability to find their own food. Everything they eat is mostly bought at a shop. They don’t know how to plant, gather or hunt. They have no idea how to survive without the support system they grew up with. They are like specialised ants, knowing only how to do one job. They need the rest of the nest to survive.

When their jobs become obsolete, they are often at a loss. True, many people learn to do something new and start a new career, often even late in life. People in lower-paid jobs are often not well educated and find it much harder to start a new life when they lose their jobs. They have much bigger competition when looking for a job and usually have fewer funds to support them in their search for a new career. Their families or support group often face the same problem, as they cannot offer help. In the end they slip through the system and become vagrants. It would be great if they could return to nature and live off the land.

Since so few pieces of natural land still exist or do not belong to someone, it is probably just as well. Imagine what would be left of the national parks and conservancies if they were flooded with urban dropouts, trying to live off them. The last areas of unspoiled land would soon be destroyed.

However, it would certainly be to the industrialised man’s advantage to acquire some of these lost survival skills should he find himself in a survival situation. The moment this happens the urbanite would then have to re-evaluate his concept of “primitive” and the skills of the “primitive” bushman would then be greatly appreciated.

It makes good sense for the individual to prepare him or herself for possible survival situations by learning a variety of hunting skills. A rifle hunter should learn how to shoot with a bow. Outdoor enthusiasts should learn how to make primitive weapons from natural materials that can be used for hunting. One should study as much material as possible on natural history and so on. Many people have never killed anything for food. Someone else usually does this for them. Killing another living creature for the first time, therefore, might prove to be a difficult psychological barrier to overcome, although it might be necessary for survival.

Hunting skills depend not only on one’s ability to make weapons and know how to use them, but also on a sound knowledge of animal behaviour, botany, tracking ability, bush navigation and a host of other factors. These are skills that “primitive” man was equipped with. To use the term “primitive” when referring to these people is thus an injustice to the depth of their knowledge, ingenuity and technical ability.