The Khoikhoi

San, people of southern Africa, consisting of several groups and numbering over 85,000 in all. They are generally short in stature; their skin is yellowish-brown in colour, and they feature prominent cheekbones. The San have been called Bushmen by whites in South Africa, but the term is now considered derogatory. Although many now work for white settlers, about half are still nomadic hunters and gatherers of wild food in desolate areas like the Kalahari semi-desert, which stretches between today's Nation States of Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. Their social unit is the small hunting band; larger organisations are loose and temporary. Grass huts, caves, and rock shelters are used as dwellings. They possess only what they can carry, using poisoned arrowheads to hunt game and transporting water in ostrich-egg shells. The San have a rich folklore, are skilled in drawing, and have a remarkably complex language characterised by the use of click sounds, related to that of the Khoikhoi.