The Khoekhoe have long been recognized as historically distinctive livestock-raising people, whose ancestors were responsible for the establishment of cattle raising across the western half of southern Africa. A further, no longer extant Limpopo Khoekhoe people have been identified as having a major impact on the establishment of cattle and sheep raising in the eastern side of southern Africa as well. What has been less clearly depicted is where the linguistically very closely related peoples of the Kwadi-Khoe branch of southern African Khoesan stand in these developments, and what the impact of these changes might have been on other, non-Khoe peoples. A third element, of particular relevance in the potentially correlative archaeology, is the place of ceramic technology in this story. Together, these themes are key in proposing wider linguistic, historical and archaeologically informative perspectives on the early history of livestock and livestock-raising peoples in southern African history.

To cite this article: Ehret, C. 2008 in press. The early livestock raisers of southern Africa. Southern African Humanities 20.