An examination of the Ju/Wasi San in the eastern Bushmanland area of northeastern Namibia back in 1980 would have revealed the grave problems faced by these people. Almost 1,000 people were crowded into a settlement at Tsum!kwe, an administrative center established by the South African government in 1960. The Ju/Wasi, as were many contemporary indigenous populations in modern nation-states, were poverty-stricken, malnourished and plagued by severe socio-economic difficulties. In general, their unemployment levels and infant mortality rates were high (in the case of the latter, alarmingly so) and their life expectancy was low.