Andrew Smith, ”First People: The Lost History of the Khoisan” (Jonathan Ball, 2022)

First people communities are the early groups of hunter gatherers, herders, and the oldest human lineages of Africa, some migrating from as far as East Africa to settle across southern Africa, in countries like Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. In First People: The Lost History of the Khoisan, archaeologist Andrew Smith, who has excavated at some of the richest prehistoric heritage sites across Africa and has a career spanning 50 years, examines what we know about southern Africa’s early people, drawing on evidence from archaeological sites, rock art, the observations of colonial-era travellers, linguistics, study of the human genome, and the latest academic research.

Full of illustrations, First People is an invaluable and accessible work that reaches from the Stone Age and travels through time to the most recent history of the Khoisan. Smith, who has studied the history and prehistory of the Khoisan throughout his long and distinguished career, paints a knowledgeable and fascinating portrait of their land occupation, migration, survival, culture, and practices.

Additional Notes:

Article referenced in the recording, available for free online:

Charles L. Redman, Ann P. Kinzig (2003) “Resilience of Past Landscapes: Resilience Theory, Society, and the Longue Durée”. Conservation Ecology 7(1).

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2...

Professor Andrew Smith is an archaeologist and researcher who has excavated in the Sahara and Southern Africa, working with Tuareg pastoralists in Mali, the Khoekhoen descendants in South Africa, and the Ju/'hoansi Bushmen in Namibia. He has joined expeditions to Egypt and has done research in Ghana, Mali, and Niger, and is an emeritus professor in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town.

Gene-George Earle is currently a PhD candidate in Anthropology at East China Normal University in Shanghai.

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