Location: The Khoikhoi are related to both the San and Southern Bantu. They are believed to have originated from the intermarriages between the Bantu and the San people. They settled in the southern and western part of South Africa.
Khoikhoi means “men of men” in the Khoikhoi language. They are also called Hottentots by the Dutch people in South Africa. Originally the Khoikhoi looked like the San but a little bit taller.
Subsistence:The Khoikhoi people are mainly nomadic pastoralists. Men look after the cattle, sheep and goats while women are responsible for the domestic work. Milk is their main staple.
Social organization: Khoikhoi culture has been changed by contact with the Boers and invasion of the Bantu people. They have been absorbed into the large detribalized and mixed-blood population of South Africa. Their social system has been absorbed in the existing social systems in the areas where they settled.
The Khoikhoi are divided into tribes and each tribe is led by a chief (the tribal chief acts as head of a village) and occupies its own region. Each tribe is divided into clan groups and cross-cousin marriage is legal.
The smallest unit in Khoikhoi social organization is the family which consists of the father, mother, and unmarried children. Each family has its own hut. A combination of 10 to 20 huts, meaning 10 to 20 families, forms a kraal (clan). A combination of related clans forms a tribe. Each tribe had its own leader with clan leaders under the tribe leader.
Religion:Their religion is animistic.
History:The Khoikhoi migrated into South Africa from Botswana and they followed two different routes. One group traveled westward toward the cape while the other group traveled south-eastward toward Highveld and the south coast. Those who followed the western route used to rear sheep and were able to live in the dry lands of Kalahari. The other group kept larger herds of cattle.
As the flocks increased in number, the Khoikhoi and the San began to fight over land. The Khoikhoi defeated the San because the San people were fewer in number, they did not have an organized stable community, and they did not have a consistent food source.
The Khoikhoi stayed in one area until all the good pasture was eaten up by their cattle and sheep and they could move to a new area. They did this moving from one place to another following the seasons.
Though this page has been carefully researched, the author does not claim expertise on the Khoikhoi.
Please send questions, comments, and corrections to emuseum@mnsu.edu and include the URL.
If you are Khoikhoi, your feedback is much appreciated.
Resources:
About.com
Pre-Colonial Cultures in South Africa. Electronic document, http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa-SAColonists1.htm, accessed April 2009.
Center for History and New Media
2006 Cultural Contact in Southern Africa. Electronic document, http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/modules/lesson7/lesson7.php?s=0, accessed April 2009.
Kay Kay
2008 The History of the Khoikhoi People of South Africa. Electronic document, http://www.socyberty.com/Subcultures/The-History-of-the-Khoikhoi-People-of-South-Africa.92753, accessed April 2009.
MSN Encarta
2009 Khoikhoi.
Electronic document,
Smith, Andrew B.
2002 Where Have All the Hottentots Gone? The Archeology and History of the Khoekhoen. Science in Africa. Electronic document, http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2002/august/khoi.htm, accessed April 2009.
Written by: Esther Nalubwama, 2009