“View of a Bushman Kraal”, from Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa by William John Burchell, published in 1822.

“View of a Bushman Kraal”, from Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa by William John Burchell, published in 1822. 

Two more unrelated illustrations of Khoekhoen villages and their distinctive "matjieshuise" (mat houses), or "Haru Oms" in the local Nama language, from 1885 and 1897, via the Universal History Archive, are added for a more complete image. 

The term "Bushmen" refers to the indigenous non-Bantu speaking hunter-gatherers of southern Africa while the term "Khoekhoen" refers to the indigenous non-Bantu speaking pastoralists of southern Africa. They were often grouped together under the umbrella term "KhoiSan", though this is not a universally accepted term. Both groups lived in the same type of dwellings. 

Between 1810 and 1815, Burchell, a prolific naturalist and artist, travelled in the company of only a few Khoekhoen from Cape Town into the interior of Southern Africa over a distance of more than 7000 km, documenting over 63,000 specimens of plants and animals, and producing 500 illustrations in addition to making astronomical and meteorological observations. 

On the kraal of the Bushmen featured in this post, he left us with the following description: 

“The huts represented in this plate are constructed of mats made of rushes. . . . The Bushmen of the Cisgariepine most commonly paint their mats lengthwise with stripes of red-ochre. The outermost figure on the left will give an idea of the appearance of a Bushman as he is usually equipped for travelling, having his bow, quiver, hassagay and kirri. Before him is a representation of one of their dogs, which are of a race perhaps peculiar to these tribes. Hassagays and sticks, when not in use, are most frequently stuck in the ground by the side of the hut. This plate exhibits, not only the particular view of the spot, but the ordinary appearance of a Bushman Kraal, and the genuine domestic state of its inhabitants, such as they are in their proper and usual mode. In this picture, therefore, the number of figures and their occupations are only those which are consistent with this intention, and have no reference to the unusual and busy scene which this kraal became in consequence of my arrival among these people. The nearest figure in the middle of the picture is that of a man returning home from hunting, carrying a fawn or young antelope at his back. To the left of him are two men, and a woman having her child in her arms, sitting in front of their hut, a very common manner of spending their time in fine weather. . . . Most of the figures have leathern caps of various forms according to the fancy of the maker or wearer. The outermost figure on the right is a man returning from the neighbouring spring with an ostrich-egg shell filled with water. On the left of him, and close to the hut in the foreground, may be seen one of those sticks already described as being loaded with a perforated globular stone for the purpose of digging up various eatable wild roots. The soil here is of a reddish color, and scantily covered with herbage and low bushes.”