A Kalahari Family - 5 part series

Since the 1950s John K. Marshall has documented the every day lives and struggles of the Ju/'hoansi (!Kung) Bushmen of the Kalahari desert in Southern Africa. Over the course of more than half a century their lives have changed considerably from a traditional foraging lifestyle to wage labor and finally to pastoralism and cooperative farming. These changes have been influenced by changes in the politics and ecology of their land. They have witnessed much of their land being taken by governments and given over to other ethnic groups or to game preserves. They have lived through war and changing governments, and have fought to change the way they are treated by outsiders. John Marshall's own view of the Ju/'hoansi has changed significantly during this time. Early on his films often portrayed them as a sort of cultural fossil, an exho of our own pasts (See "The Hunters"). In later films he not only explored the problems that such a view has caused the Ju/'hoansi but also the has taken a much more activist role in advocating for their communities right to self-determination. The films from this 5-part series are from late in Marshall's career and give us a challenging document of the forces of cultural change in the lives of the Ju/'hoan people.