Kalahari Desert

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The Kalahari Desert is a large arid to semi-arid sandy area in southern Africa extending 900,000 km², covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains.^[1] The surrounding Kalahari Basin covers over 2.5 million km² extending farther into Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, and encroaching into parts of Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The only permanent river, the Okavango, flows into a delta in the northwest, forming marshes that are rich in wildlife. Ancient dry riverbeds—called omuramba—traverse the Central Northern reaches of the Kalahari and provide standing pools of water during the rainy season. Previously havens for wild animals from elephant to giraffe, and for predators such as lion and cheetah, the riverbeds are now mostly grazing spots, though leopard or cheetah can still be found.

The Kalahari Desert (shown in maroon) & Kalahari Basin (orange)

Climate

Derived from the Tswana word Keir, meaning the great thirst, or the tribal word Khalagari or Kalagare (meaning "a waterless place"^[1]), the Kalahari has vast areas covered by red-brown sands without any permanent surface water. Drainage is by dry valleys, seasonally inundated pans, and the large salt pans of the Makgadikgadi Pan in Botswana and Etosha Pan in Namibia. However, the Kalahari is not a true desert. Parts of the Kalahari receive over 250 mm of erratic rainfall annually and are quite well vegetated; it is only truly arid in the south-west (under 175 mm of rain annually) making the Kalahari a fossil desert. Summer temperatures in the Kalahari range from 20 to 40 °C. In winter, the Kalahari has a dry, cold climate with frosts at night. The low winter temperature can average below 0 °C. In addition, this desert was the setting for the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy."

Game reserves

A meerkat in the Kalahari

The endangered African Wild Dog in CKGR

The Kalahari has a number of game reserves - the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR, the world's second largest protected area), Khutse Game Reserve and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Animals that live in the region include brown hyenas, lions, meerkats, several species of antelope (including the oryx or gemsbok), and many species of bird and reptile. Vegetation in the Kalahari consists mainly of grasses and acacias but there are over 400 identified plant species present (including the wild watermelon or tsamma melon).

Ancestral land

The area is the ancestral land of the Bushmen (San) peoples. There are many distinct tribes, and they have no collective name for themselves. The names San and Basarwa are sometimes used, but the people themselves dislike these names (San is a Khoikhoi word meaning outsider, and Basarwa a Herero word meaning person who has nothing) and prefer the name "Bushman". Their language, Khoisan, is a language of clicks. The name bushmen was given to them by early settlers who may have named them for the fact they live in the bush or it might have been given because of their use of aromatic spices collected from various bushes. They are thought to have been the first human inhabitants of Southern Africa; there is evidence that they have been living there continuously as nomadic hunter-gatherers for at least 22,000 years. The Bushmen of the Kalahari desert were first brought to the western world's attention in the 1950s when author Laurens van der Post published his most famous work The Lost World of the Kalahari, which was also turned in to a BBC TV series. This and other later works about the Kalahari prompted the creation of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 1961 in order to preserve the Bushmen and their homeland.

Kalahari minerals

There are large coal, copper, nickel and uranium deposits in the region. One of the largest diamond mines in the world is located at Orapa in the Makgadikgadi, North-Eastern Kalahari. Pomfret, on the edge of the desert, has asbestos in the subsoil and a shuttered asbestos mine.^[2]

Diamond mining

The overseas campaign group Survival International say the real reason for the re-settlement is to free up the land for diamond mining, especially in the area of Orapa, the diamond capital of the country. But the Botswana Centre for Human Rights, Ditshwanelo, disputes this, claiming that the government is being altruistic, but misguided. Nonetheless, the London Daily Telegraph of October 29, 2005 reported that the government had begun another wave of forced removals.

Administrative areas covering the Kalahari

Kgalagadi District, Botswana
Ghanzi District, Botswana
Southern District, Botswana
Kweneng District, Botswana
Central District, Botswana
North-West District, Botswana
Namibia

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Mary Sadler-Altena, "Kalahari: Introduction" webpage: Template:Dlw: Kalahari name/climate/reserves and history.
↑ South Africa - Pomfret. abc.net. Retrieved 2007-01-03.

External links

Deserts

Coordinates: 23°00′S 23°00′E

af:Kalahari bn:কালাহারি মরুভূমি ca:Kalahari da:Kalahari-ørkenen de:Kalahari es:Kalahari eo:Kalaharo fr:Désert du Kalahari is:Kalaharíeyðimörkin it:Kalahari he:קלהארי lt:Kalaharis nl:Kalahari ja:カラハリ砂漠 no:Kalahari pl:Kalahari pt:Kalahari ro:Deşertul Kalahari ru:Калахари sl:Kalahari sr:Калахари fi:Kalahari sv:Kalahariöknen vi:Kalahari tr:Kalahari Çölü zh:喀拉哈里沙漠

Credits

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Kalahari Desert ^history

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History of "Kalahari Desert"

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[SAltena-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Mary Sadler-Altena, "Kalahari: Introduction" webpage: Template:Dlw: Kalahari name/climate/reserves and history.

[2] South Africa - Pomfret. abc.net. Retrieved 2007-01-03.

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