Portraits of the San People of the Kalahari Desert (Botswana). The San, "Bushmen" or Basarwa are the living descendants of the first populations that inhabited in southern Africa over 20,000 years ago. They are famous the world over for their distinctive "click" languages, their rich culture rooted in thousands of years of hunting and gathering, and their unrivalled knowledge of the lands they inhabit. Despite all this, they are also among the most disadvantaged people in the region.