ABSTRACT
The very notion of Bushmen being engaged in copper mining clashed with the standard stereotype of Bushmen. Determining the degree of Bushman autonomy is difficult because claims to the Bushman area were made later by pastoral Herero. Two aspects of Bushman life in pre-colonial Namibia during the eighteenth and early nineteenth century are pivotal. First, Bushmen exercised considerable autonomy. There was no strong centralized authority in the region where most of them lived. It was seen by Europeans as an area that was subject to rival claims by Herero and Ovambo. The southern advance of Herero pastoralists was checked by some singular resistance by a Heikom Bushman leader named Tsameb. The botanist-explorer Hans Schinz's remarkable map showed the area as being occupied by "Ondonga tribute-paying Bushmen". Second, Bushmen were producers of copper; indeed most of these copper deposits were in this locality.
