Khoikhoi
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Khoikhoi ("people people" or "real people") or Khoi, spelled Khoekhoe in standardised Khoekhoe/Nama orthography, are a group of Khoisan people native to southwestern Africa. Unlike the neighbouring San people, the Khoikhoi have traditionally practised pastoral agriculture. When European immigrants colonised the area after 1652, the Khoikhoi maintained large herds of Nguni cattle in the Cape region. The Dutch settlers labelled them Hottentots, in imitation of the sound of the Khoekhoe language, but this term is today considered derogatory.
Archaeological evidence shows that the Khoikhoi arrived in what is now South Africa from Botswana through two distinct routes—travelling west, skirting the Kalahari to the west, then down to the Cape, and travelling southeast out into the Highveld and then southwards to the south coast. Chiefly, the largest group of the Khoikhoi to remain as a group are the Namas.
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