Tsholotsho San community embraces modernisation

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THE San community in rural Tsholotsho is embracing modern ways of living and mainstream development.

BY PHYLLIS MBANJE

THE San community in rural Tsholotsho is embracing modern ways of living and mainstream development.

Often labelled as outcasts or primitive by other ethnic groups, the San community has been one of the most misunderstood group of people who, since the advent of modernisation, chose to live in the forests and shunned modern civilisation.

But recently, they joined the local communities and even turned up for the ongoing typhoid conjugate vaccination (TCV) campaign.

Speaking to NewsDay at Mtshina Primary School in Tsholotsho, ward 10 councillor Mackson Ndlovu recently said it had taken years to integrate this community into local groups.

“We took advantage of the ongoing typhoid vaccination campaign and roped in the community whose members had turned out in their numbers,” Vela Maphosa, a member of the San community said.

He said they also wanted their children to be vaccinated against diseases, adding that they were also going to school.

Previously, the children did not go to school and were stereotyped as primitive. The San in Zimbabwe are estimated to number around 2 500, which is about 22% of the total southern Africa San population.

  • Follow Phyllis on Twitter @pmbanje

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