The Bushmen are the true indigenous people of Southern Africa. For centuries they have lived undisturbed and in harmony with the environment. Their lifestyle was that of nomadic hunter-gatherer groups where leadership was undefined and tribal fights unknown. History has, however, not always been kind to these peaceful people. As other African tribes moved down from the north and the early white settlers moved up from the Cape, they encountered the Bushmen who inhabited almost the whole of Southern Africa. Soon the Bushmen were displaced by the more dominant alien cultures in the region, so much so that today the Bushmen live only in the most harsh and remote parts of Southern Africa.

Unfortunately, even there they have lost all rights to natural resources and access to land. Today, the once proud Bushmen have been reduced to being nothing more than a source of cheap labour, often forming communities where survival depends on handouts from governments. In a rapidly changing world, the Bushmen are facing the dilemmas of poverty, unemployment, abuse and exploitation.
For the past decade development workers, donor agencies and governments have made an effort to assist Bushmen communities with development programs. Success has been limited, especially in the field of regaining traditional rights over land and natural resources. To address these issues, The Intu Afrika Corporation has developed a project that it believes will provide a blueprint for the successful implementation of development projects with the Bushmen and other indigenous minority peoples. The project has the support of the WIMSA, the Working Group for Indigenous Minorities of Southern Africa, which acts as the collective voice for the Southern African Bushmen community.
The Intu Afrika Kalahari Game Reserve, with its well-developed eco-tourism infrastructure, is situated in the red dunes of the Kalahari Desert to the north-east of the small town of Mariental in Namibia. The reserve is home to a large variety of game and birds as well as plentiful tree and grass species typical of the Kalahari red dune eco-system. It is here in the Kalahari in a traditional hunting area of the Bushmen where the idea was born for members of the Bushmen community to join hands with the management of a game lodge in order to develop eco-tourism projects for the benefit of all parties concerned.
Following a period of research by two anthropologists employed by Intu Afrika, the !Kung community living in Corridor 17 (located some 230 km south-east of Gobabis) were identified as possible candidates for participation in the Intu Afrika Bushmen Project. The Bushmen community living in this area were dependent on government support since all attempts to be self-supporting had failed due to a lack of water, overgrazed land and the absence of game. The land is communal and Herero or Nama/Damara farmers manage most of the farms. Given these circumstances it became clear that the Corridor 17 Bushmen community was in need of help, and community members expressed an eagerness to become involved with the Intu Afrika project. After much discussion and many visits to the area, the community decided to support the project and selected a group who would move to the Intu Afrika Game Reserve. Once there, they immediately became actively involved in the building of their own !Kung village on the game reserve. Today,  each family in the community is living in a cozy home of their own.
The objective of the Intu Afrika Bushmen Project is to empower the community in order to regain their dignity and pride. This has been done by creating employment opportunities and the giving the Bushmen scope to practice cultural activities that utilize traditional Bushmen skills in order to generate income for the community. These activities include game guiding, tracking, camp supervising and craft-making. Intu Afrika provides the basic training required to perform these tourist-related activities.
Another important aspect of this project has been the drafting of a clear legal agreement between the Bushmen Community at Intu Afrika and the Intu Afrika Corporation. This provides security for the community through a shareholding in the company and game reserve held in trust on behalf of the community.

We at Intu Afrika have full confidence that this joint venture will benefit both our company and the Bushmen community, as well as the Namibian tourism industry as a whole. The success of this pioneering project will also clear the way for the development of community-linked tourism amongst other indigenous minority communities in Namibia.

Lodge facilities
The lodge offers a full range of facilities to guests. These include a restaurant, lounge, bar, curio shop and a swimming pool, together with a boma shelter beneath a giant Camelthorn tree. The lodge can accommodate up to 36 Guests in 5 free-standing luxury chalets, eight double rooms attached to the main lodge building and in 5 cottages adjacent to the lodge.

Activities
Lodge activities include the following (extra fees are applicable):

• Game drives across the red desert dunes
• Kalahari sundowner
• Starlight dinner
• Bushman desert walk
• Visit to the !Kung Bushmen community
• Tea/coffee and cake in the desert, beneath the Camelthorn trees
• Game drive through the pans
• Two-and three-day hiking trails guided by a professional Bushman tracker

Additional activities and services

• Day visits to the !Kung Bushman Community (arrival to lodge by plane or car)