The Healing Land: The Bushmen and the Kalahari Desert

by Rupert Isaacson

Acclaimed by Rian Malan as "full of mystery, magic and strange coincidence," The Healing Land is a moving account of a remarkable personal journey through the Kalahari desert. Although brought up in “grey, drearily ordinary” London, Rupert Isaacson’s links to Africa have always been strong. His mother was once a South African and his father was raised in what was then Rhodesia. Isaacson senior fled to England with no regrets, but Polly, Rupert’s mother kept her memories of Africa alive, and handed them on to her children via the Bushmen nursery stories and remembrances of her early life there. Thus, from an early age, Isaacson was “Long before I ever went to southern Africa, its names and regions had been described to me so many times that I could picture them in my mind’s eye.”

Isaacson’s relatives, mostly his grandfather Robbie, a Rhodesian farmer, frequently visited with exotic gifts and stories in tow, leaving the little boy wide-eyed and curious to go to the land of his ancestors. At eight, Isaacson finally visited Robbie in Africa, and “found the place as seductively, intensely exciting as all the stories had led [him] to expect.” He also witnessed the other, less pleasant side of Africa. The war for independence was still being fought, and his grandfather’s farm was fenced in with barbed wire and guarded by armed men. This first visit, however, sealed his connection to the African continent, and from then on he considered himself part English, part African. His curiosity now knew no boundaries and by the time he was twenty he embarked on his first solo trip to Africa.

This marks the de facto beginning of the book as Isaacson, now a grown man, finds himself restless at home in England, yearning to be united with the Kalahari which he has made central to his identity as a young man. He visits Botswana’s capital Gaborone where he meets his cousin Frank Taylor, a rather atypical white African, living in an austere home where he moved with his family, quitting his prosperous farm in South Africa, in order to help Botswana’s rural poor. Isaacson learns of the plight of the Bushmen. Due to an upsurge in cattle ranching, the territories traditionally used for hunting have been fenced off and the game the Bushmen relied upon has been prevented from following the rain thus dying in droves. Eager to go deeper into the desert and to experience the Kalahari, Issacson makes several trips to the area during the following few years but never really makes it into the heart of the desert, but explores the areas surrounding it, living on a farm in Zimbabwe, traveling in South Africa and learning of its Bushman heritage. There he becomes enmeshed in the civil strife of 1993, which immediately preceded the first free elections and the rise of Nelson Mandela. He comes to experience the resentment of the black population towards the he is attacked, mugged, chased by a mob of angry South African youths, but somehow all these events never put into question his resolve to come back.

Eighteen months later he is back with his girlfriend and a contract to write a guidebook to Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia. They start off from the Namibian capital Windhoek and two days later encounter two Bushmen while camping under a great baobab tree. Greetings are exchanged and it turns out that one of the Bushmen works for an NGO helping the cause of the local population. He speaks perfect English and invites Isaacson to go hunting with him the next day. The couple is naturally thrilled, but when they show up early next morning in the Bushman village no one seems to be up. It takes quite a while for everyone to wake up (presumably from alcoholic stupor) but all is well, and they ultimately leave for the hunting ground. The experience is disappointing, as Benjamin and his friend Xau make several attempts to catch antelopes but fail rather miserably. On their way back to the village Isaacson once again learns of the Bushmen plight, this time first-hand, and the lack of interest by the government to resolve their claims. He decides to help and try to involve a London travel agency to package tours into the Kalahari from which the Bushmen would benefit financially. Meantime, he and his girlfriend become friends with most of the villagers, sharing stories and songs, buying trinkets, and in the end witnessing a full-blown tribal dance.

After his move to the USA that same year, Isaacson comes across an issue of National Geographic which features a photograph of two Bushmen kneeling in the red sand of South Africa next to a ancient figure of their dying father. According to the caption, it turns out this is a picture of the dying Regopostaan, patriarch of South Africa’s Xhomani Bushmen, the last remaining clan of traditionally living Bushmen in the country. They’ve been ejected from a National Park, which used to make up their traditional hunting grounds, and the park authorities are resisting the ...

Genres: Africa, Nonfiction, Memoir, History, South Africa, Anthropology

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Rupert Isaacson was born in London to a South African mother and a Zimbabwean father. Isaacson's first book, The Healing Land (Grove Press), was a 2004 New York Times Notable Book. He has travelled extensively in Africa, Asia, and North America for the British press and now lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Kristin, and their son, Rowan.

Reviews

[Valerie Nemeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an attempt to recover after the last waste of time, thinking that even if the book wasn't so great I would learn something. Well actually while it really is much like a travelog, Isaacson is quite a proficient writer and paints a beautiful picture of the environs he is visiting, the land which his parents' families had long standing roots. I wouldn't call it a page turner, and I had some trouble keeping all of the names and positions straight, but I did become engaged enough to care about what was happening with the Bushmen and their attempts to reclaim the land, and along with that their way of life, which was stolen from them. My follow up research indicates not a particularly good outcome even today, so that is a bit depressing. That said, I have come away with a greater awareness of the politics of Southern Africa, and that is a good thing.

[Denise Rawling · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing journey into a land and a culture, a threatened way of life poised on the edge of extinction. The writer with a long fascination for the Bushmen people living in the Kalahari travel there and becomes part of their attempt to claim back some of their traditional lands that they have been pushed out from. He gets to know many of the people and tells their stories both magical and sad, not shying from the alcohol the violence the desperation but also sharing the strength, the mysticism, the knowledge and the determination to try to save their way of life and their people. An important recording of a time and people, a privileged glimpse into a unique culture under threat, a clear eyed story honouring leadership and determination without shying from the deep problems.

[Sandrine · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting insight into the struggles of the last few remaining bushman and their attempts - and success - in securing land rights. Sad that natives of a land as vast as the Kalahari Desert should need to fight to maintain their ancestral ways of life. Nevertheless, a satisfying conclusion.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw this author at Sundance this year with his movie about his autistic son and the journey he and his wife took to find Shamen in Mongolia who ride horses, (I know it sounds really strange but was one of my favorites) so I was interested in his background. This is his story about trying to find Bushman of the kalahari. Its a sad story of how the Bushman are pretty much all but gone and the few that remain are dealing with the common social problems of alcoholism and domestic violence and fences...The healing shamen parts were my favorite parts of his journey. Its sad that these people are going the way of the rest of the worlds indiginous peoples....

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a non-fiction piece about one man’s discovery and championing of the Bushmen of the Kalahari and their land right claims. It is fascinating in terms of the ‘modern day’ pressures the tribes feel - such as dealing with alcoholism - and how the African states want to control and force them to dissipate and to control the lands for tourism themselves. There is the struggle between tradition and modernity, racism and myth, interwoven with the idea of the dance being the vehicle for healing and the notion of the people, the land and communities all needing this healing. The writing is at its best when focused on the Bushmen and not the writer’s inner journey.

[Dan Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this about five years ago at the recommendation of a woman that I met at a Winter Solstice yoga event in Florida. She was living in Oregon - as I remember - and involved in organic farming. She was convinced that care of the earth and the wisdom of indigenous cultures were going to be of primal importance - and recognized/accepted as such - in the coming years. She was right! The book is difficult to read in its depiction of the people's suffering and decline, but there is wisdom there - even in the most maladjusted individuals.

[Julian Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author follows his own personal quest for family roots in Botswana and to understand the oppression of the Kalahari Bushmen.

Engagingly written, you feel his frustrations with life and his wonder at discovering new things which challenge establishment views.

A spiritual journey, personal travelogue and highly-charged story.

An eye-opening and thought-provoking must-read for anyone who has an interest in travel, people, Africa or history.

[Zoë · Rating 4 out of 5]

As lengthy, circuitous and tortuous as many tracks must be throughout the Kalahari this book does eventually come to a somewhat hopeful conclusion. Isaacson crisscrossed the western and southern Kalahari over the span of many years and this is not only his adventure but that of the Bushmen and their attempts to reclaim their homelands.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some interesting information, but the flow was quite disjointed and it was confusing to follow the characters. The fate of the bushmen is sad but I wonder if the aspiration of having the land to call their own is the solution to all their problems these days.

[Amy]

A bit self serving

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book evoked strong memories of my time (19 years) in Botswana, to the extent that I now feel guilty of not paying closer attention to the plight of the Bushmen at the time. Many knew about the forced removals of Bushmen from the Central Kalahari Reserve, but few cared. Sad.