The San are a nomadic hunter-gatherer population that has been living in the vast Kalahari desert region for over 20,000 years; they are present in Botswana and Namibia in good number, but also in South Africa and Zambia in small part. The San are small in size and generally with light yellow skin, that usually ages prematurely, making them very wrinkled.

The San are also known by the name of Bushmen, but this definition is sometimes used with a derogatory value, though it literally means «bush men» and this definition is not displeasing to the San; while the term «San» was attributed to them by the Khoikhoi and means «stranger» or simply «different», different in the sense that unlike the Khoikhoi, the San did not possess cattle.