Quite often, the San people are mentioned in articles about Hoodia Gordonii. The are said to have been using the herb for thousands of years, to be able to survive during long hunting expiditions in the wild. You have probably read a similar story on the last Hoodia site you visited. But, who are they really?
The San reside in the southern part of Africa, and territory spans most of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. Up to the 1950s, they were living as hunters and gatherers. The San made the transition to farming due to extensive government mandated modernization programs. The nomadic hunter lifestyle had become problematic as the population grew after the second world war.
The South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) patented Hoodia in 1998, without contacting the San people. After some initial difficulties, an agreement was made between the CSIR (who had licenced development of the P57 molecule to Phytopharm) and the San organization the Working group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA). This deal means that the San will get royalties from the sale of P57 extract. So far, no money has been paid because the P57 has still not yet been legally developed and sold on the market.
The San bushmen were unknown to the western world as late as the 1950s. Women have a high status in this family oriented society. The social structures themselves are quite democratic as many decisions are made by consensus.The Bushmen’s Y-chromosomal DNA haplogroup making them one of the oldest existing populations in the world. Sadly, the San risk getting absorbed into the rest of the african population.