How did the San people survive near the Namib Desert before the 20th century?

Before the 20th century, the San people survived in the harsh environments near the Namib and Kalahari deserts as nomadic hunter-gatherers. Their survival strategy was centered on the band, a small, autonomous, and flexible unit typically consisting of several related families.12

To sustain themselves, the San relied on a deep knowledge of their environment, utilizing portable equipment and lightweight materials like wood, reeds, and animal skins to create tools, clothing, and shelter. Their subsistence was based on:1

• Foraging: Women gathered wild vegetables, fruits, nuts, and insects, which often formed the bulk of their diet.13
• Hunting: Men hunted game using bows and poisoned arrows, snares, and throwing sticks. Because they lived in arid regions, they carefully managed their movement based on the availability of seasonal water holes and food plants.13
• Adaptability: During periods of food abundance, bands lived as a single community, moving camps every few weeks. In harsher seasons, they split into smaller household groups to better exploit limited resources.3

Their culture was defined by this mobile, survival-oriented lifestyle, which allowed them to inhabit desert margins for generations.12