# The Literacy of Tracking: A comparative analysis of tracking within two Bushman post-hunter communities

> Is reading tracks like reading a book? A cultural studies student went tracking with two Kalahari Bushman communities, the ≠Khomani in South Africa and the !Xoo in Botswana, and found tracking alive but changing. The !Xoo read each other’s shoe treads to know where their children have gone, while the ≠Khomani turn tracking into a living from tourists who want an “authentic” Bushman experience.

Summary by Kersey Lawrence, Original Wisdom. Updated 9 November 2026. Page: https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2010-logie-literacy-tracking-comparative-analysis/

## Citation and access

- **Authors:** Christopher Logie
- **Year published:** 2010
- **Journal or source:** MA dissertation, Culture, Communication and Media Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal
- **Full citation:** Logie, C. 2010. The literacy of tracking: a comparative analysis of tracking within two Bushman post-hunter communities. MA dissertation, Culture, Communication and Media Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College, Durban, South Africa.
- **Access status:** Hosted (freely available elsewhere)
- **PDF:** https://www.originalwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/2010_Logie_the-literacy-of-tracking-a-comparative-analysis-of-tracking-within-two-bushman-post-hunter-communities.pdf

## Tags

- **Species:** Humans
- **Region:** Africa > Botswana; Africa > South Africa
- **Tracking:** Individual identification; Spoor age estimation; Tracking; Tracks; Tracks and signs identification; Trailing
- **Methods and technology:** CyberTracker; Ethnographic fieldwork; Indigenous knowledge; Interviews
- **Data type:** New field data
- **Observer qualification:** Reported but not validated
- **Discipline:** Anthropology; Human dimensions; Human tracking; Indigenous knowledge; Social science
- **Year published:** 2010

## Detailed keywords

- **Species:** Studied: humans (≠Khomani and !Xoo trackers). Animals whose tracks or presence are mentioned (common names only, no scientific names given): rat, donkey, mongoose, porcupine, snake, steenbok, duiker, gemsbok, wildebeest, springbok, bat-eared fox, eland, rabbits and hares, and domestic goats and cattle. Porcupines are valued because the herbs in their stomachs are used as medicine.
- **Location and habitat:** Witdraai, Northern Cape, South Africa (home of the ≠Khomani; land restored in 1999, about an hour from the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park). Ngwatle, Kgalagadi District 1 (KD1) concession area, Botswana (home of the !Xoo; described as Southern Botswana in one place and Western Botswana in another), and their old hunting grounds at Masetleng Pan, about three hours’ drive away. Kalahari Desert, fine desert sand, salt pans and savannah.
- **Topics:** tracking as a form of literacy (reading the environment); uses of tracking today (“actual” tracking for hunting, poaching, herding and everyday sense-making, and “virtual” tracking for tourism and nostalgia); tracking tourism (//Uruke tracking experience); cultural commodification; stereotypes and representation of Bushmen in film, advertising and education; identity (essentialist and non-essentialist, after Stuart Hall); globalisation; loss and transmission of tracking knowledge; a tracking school linked to Louis Liebenberg; hunting permits and poaching laws in Botswana; CyberTracker as a way to record and keep knowledge. Inconsistencies in the dissertation: the title page names a Master of Arts and the declaration a Master of Social Science; the contents list Chapter Four as “Desert Research” but its heading is “Taking Tracking Home”; a guide’s mislabelled donkey tracks are described as “antelope” tracks on page 58 and as “zebra spoor” on page 71; the text says ten respondents were selected (six !Xoo, four ≠Khomani) but later says “four participants from each community”; the tourism experience is called the “//Uruke Traditional Tracking Experience” in the acronym list and the “//Uruke Tourism Tracking Experience” on page 49; Hendrik “Pin” Kruiper is listed as a respondent, while Chapter Five profiles Toppies Kruiper (both called sons of Dawid Kruiper; it is not clear whether they are the same person).
- **Statistics or models:** None
- **Data type:** New field data: ethnographic fieldwork, participant observation and informal, semi-structured interviews and group interviews, during field trips to Ngwatle in October 2005 and to Witdraai and Ngwatle in July 2007, as part of the Rethinking Indigeneity project.

## Synopsis

### 1. What they did

Bushmen are famous as trackers, and most people picture them hunting with bows and poisoned arrows. The author, a media and cultural studies student, wanted to know how tracking is really used today, how two Bushman communities present it to outsiders, and how this shapes their sense of who they are. He also followed up an idea from J. Edward Chamberlin: that tracking is a kind of reading.

He compared two “post-hunter” communities:

- The ≠Khomani at Witdraai in South Africa’s Northern Cape, who regained land in 1999, are close to a main road and see many tourists, filmmakers and researchers.

- The !Xoo at Ngwatle in Botswana, a remote settlement with few visitors, little media apart from radio, and strict hunting laws.

Ten trackers recommended by their communities took part: four ≠Khomani (several of them guides on a tourist tracking experience or roadside craft sellers) and six !Xoo. The author went out tracking with them (a tour on ≠Khomani land, and outings with the !Xoo at Masetleng Pan) and held informal interviews and group discussions, in October 2005 (!Xoo only) and July 2007 (both). The analysis draws on theories of globalisation, representation and identity.

### 2. What they found

The ≠Khomani

- Animals on their farms are now very scarce, so little hunting takes place, and hunters use guns, dogs and donkeys. Two guides first said they still hunted traditionally, then admitted they had “perhaps over-elaborated”.

- They still read tracks to know what is around them, for example whether a snake is nearby, and to keep track of friends and family.

- Much of tracking’s value is now as a commodity for tourism, film and advertising. One guide said he had once passed off donkey tracks as wild antelope tracks for foreign tourists, to give them “what they want”. Craft sellers changed into skins when they saw outsiders coming.

- Community members described a tracking school linked to Louis Liebenberg, where young people learn from senior trackers, and trips where trackers had to explain tracks in detail to keep being invited.

The !Xoo

- They track while hunting with permits (using spears and donkeys) and when poaching, though poaching is severely punished.

- In everyday life they recognise each person’s footprints and shoe treads, which tells them who has passed, where children have gone and how long ago, and has helped stop burglaries. They follow the tracks of goats and cattle to find strays, and the tracks of predators or poachers when livestock go missing.

- They also track for nostalgia and fun, often in groups as a friendly competition. One elder said following a gemsbok trail let him relive the past. At Masetleng Pan the trackers debated the signs together; once an elder said two gemsbok would soon come onto the pan, and about two minutes later they did.

- A tracker in his early twenties showed as much skill as the older men, but the elders fear that knowledge of tracking wild animals will die with their generation.

- They could not understand questions about a spiritual connection with the earth, and did not present themselves as “Bushmen” in the stereotyped way.

Tracking and reading

Trackers in both communities agreed that tracking is like reading. A ≠Khomani guide said it was how he made sense of his world and what he was paid for; another said tracks in the sand and road signs both “help us to understand what is around us”. The !Xoo said outsiders read “things” to know where they are, while they read the sand and veld.

### 3. What they concluded

- Neither community fits the popular stereotype, but tracking is still part of everyday life in both. It has changed with each community’s circumstances: culture is constantly changing.

- Heavy contact with tourists and media has shaped ≠Khomani identity. They know what outsiders expect and present themselves to match, and tracking has partly become entertainment and a way to earn a living, which also helps keep some knowledge alive.

- The !Xoo, with far less media contact, show a less fragmented identity. For them tracking is mainly a practical way of making sense of their surroundings, and a way to reconnect with the past. They also contract their tracking to a hunting safari company, which they see as different from tracking for themselves.

- In remote places, the ability to read the environment through tracking plays a role similar to literacy in towns and cities.

- New ideas such as CyberTracker, which lets non-literate trackers record observations with icons and Global Positioning System (GPS) locations, may help keep tracking knowledge alive and create jobs. It was unclear how far the ≠Khomani had been employed to do this.

### 4. How tracking was or was not used

Tracking was the subject of the study rather than a research method. The author went tracking with ≠Khomani guides and with groups of !Xoo trackers, and recorded what they said about why and how they track. The reported uses include tracks and signs identification, judging the age of tracks, identifying individual people by their footprints and shoe treads, and following tracks of game, livestock, children, predators and poachers. No tracking skill was measured.

### 5. Tracker or observer certification

Reported but not validated. The trackers were chosen because their communities (or a senior !Xoo tracker) recommended them as having extensive tracking knowledge. No certification or test of their skill is reported, although the dissertation describes a tracking school and trips in which trackers had to show their skill to Louis Liebenberg.

### 6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

- Interviews recorded on a dictaphone where possible, often around a morning fire, sometimes turning into group discussions that reached a shared answer.

- CyberTracker is discussed (from published sources) as a way for non-literate trackers to record geo-referenced observations.

### 8. Implications for tracking (Original Wisdom's observations)

_These are Original Wisdom's observations, not the authors'._

- The !Xoo examples show tracking used well beyond wildlife: reading the footprints and shoe wear of people they know, checking on children and finding stray livestock. This is everyday human tracking in a place where the sand records almost everything.

- The account of a guide mislabelling donkey tracks for tourists shows why tracking tourism and research benefit from some independent way of recognising real skill.

## Cite this summary

Lawrence, K. 2026. Summary of: The Literacy of Tracking: A comparative analysis of tracking within two Bushman post-hunter communities (Logie, 2010). Original Wisdom, Tracking Literature. https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2010-logie-literacy-tracking-comparative-analysis/