From the stone age to modern warfare in a couple of years and the hunter-gatherer lifestyle lost.

The tale of the ancient Southern African bushmen and their hunter-gatherer lifestyle loss is a sad one.

The conflict in Angola and northern South West Africa is just one more chapter in the destruction of that ancient hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

When the Bantu speaking tribes migrated into Southern Africa from the north and the Europeans colonized the south, conflict with the indigenous hunter gather tribes ensued.

The bushmen hunter-gatherers and roving clans had no concept of property or ownership.

Livestock that wandered into their reach was hunted and utilized for food.

Bantu speaking tribes and Europeans alike treated them as vermin and bushmen were killed on site, or hunting parties were sent up to exterminate them.

A bleeding body from battle cave in the South African Drakensberg.

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This drove the bushmen to the drier more inaccessible and uninhabited parts of Southern Africa.

A few clans still remain today in the southern Kalahari Desert.

Another pocket existed in Southern Angola and the Northern Kalahari.

In Southern Angola the local tribes also hunted them and in turn they hunted the local tribes with their poisoned bows and arrows.

It wasn't long before the Portuguese used them against the locals in the war of independence.

They would train them to shoot, give them ammunition and send them out into the bush to kill as many of their traditional enemies as possible.

They required no food, uniforms, boots etc. With their excellent bush skills they were able to completely subsist for months on their own.

When the Portuguese pulled out of Angola many of these joined with their northern South West African counterparts against SWAPO.

They were part of the highly successful task force Zulu in operation Savannah and were later formed into 31 and 201 battalions and used by other battalions for their unmatched skills in tracking.