The Healing Land: A Kalahari Journey

The Healing Land: A Kalahari Journey
Rupert Isaacson

A brilliantly written exploration – part travel writing, part personal quest – of Africa’s oldest and most famous populationThe Bushmen have long been mythologised and are firmly entrenched in the Western mind. But what is it about hunter-gatherers that is so attractive us, and why do we need these myths? Fascinated by this disappearing population, Rupert Isaacson has been venturing into the Kalahari since he was a child and his book is a search for this truth about the Bushmen through Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. Part travel writing, part history of the Bushmen, part personal quest, it will record what he finds there, the landscapes he travels through, the wildlife he hunted and ate, the characters, corruption and confusion of a people who have wrenched themselves out of the Stone Age (it wasn’t until 1948 that it became illegal to kill Bushmen) into a cash economy over the past ten years.

THE HEALING LAND

A KALAHARI JOURNEY

Rupert Isaacson

Copyright (#ulink_de53a308-376f-5a82-846e-5cf655ea939e)

This edition first published in 2002

First published in Great Britain in 2001 by

Fourth Estate

1 London Bridge Street,

London SE1 9GF

www.4thestate.co.uk

Copyright © Rupert Isaacson 2001

The right of Rupert Isaacson to be identified as the author of this

work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,

Designs and Patents Act 1988

A catalogue record for this book is available from the

British Library.

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Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007393428

Version 2017-08-07

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Dedication (#ulink_58c31f99-bb37-52f9-9f58-49d92cecdc8c)

For the Ancestors

Epigraph (#ulink_059b7838-eb6d-5ed3-a653-8c17f4bc27b7)

Circling, circling …

I have entered the airy, dancing lightness of love.

Rumi

Contents

Cover (#ua699ae14-404d-578a-8685-4c9b63632b2f)

Title Page (#udca538f2-b947-55da-8cea-a7d4f0a6058f)

Copyright (#u43874246-fb8a-5dcd-a7d1-777f2fd37be3)

Dedication (#u2365757c-f38e-5f20-9d29-3e78a8a50091)

Epigraph (#ube739a3a-817a-596e-b18b-a109513f09e3)

Map (#u4535a503-1c89-50ea-9c8c-24ad4c90637e)

Part One: Ancestral Voices (#udff19577-4cc1-5aa1-af6c-09ebba9eb6c9)

1 Stories and Myths (#ud213abe6-bae3-575a-80ef-13312c7685e7)

2 Lessons in Reality (#ub11bd020-6d34-5f09-a4f3-3b804f2d03e5)

3 Under the Big Tree (#ufd4646bf-402b-5763-beea-ccda347cb46d)

Part Two: The Mantis, The Mouse and The Bird (#u3410a0ed-bb5c-56dd-b9b7-2ff23b50adee)

4 Regopstaan’s Prophecy (#u3a1bd958-3c33-52f1-9c46-32e1636e57de)

5 A Human Zoo (#litres_trial_promo)

6 Old Magic, New Beliefs (#litres_trial_promo)

7 Trance Dance at Buitsevango (#litres_trial_promo)

8 Into the Central Kalahari (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Three: The Good Little Donkeys (#litres_trial_promo)

9 Revelations at the Red House (#litres_trial_promo)

10 The Same Blood (#litres_trial_promo)

11 Dream and Disillusion (#litres_trial_promo)

12 The Leopard Man (#litres_trial_promo)