The Hambukushu Rainmakers of the Okavango

About the Book

In light of the terrible AIDS tragedy unfolding in southern Africa, one gets an enormous sense of sadness and loss when reading The Hambukushu Rainmakers of the Okavango. Tom J. Larson was one of the last anthropologists to experience and record their ancient culture before it was so radically impacted by modernization and the ravages of the AIDS epidemic. Over the course of many years, he earned the trust of the Hambukushu and was allowed the kind of access needed to painstakingly record the minutiae of every aspect of their daily lives. What emerged is a portrait of a complex, distinctive African culture defined by the abundance of their homeland, the vast and wild Okavango River delta, and by the powerful Rainmaker chiefs who controlled the very fabric of their existence. To read Larson's extraordinary book is to understand how the belief systems that worked so well for them for centuries wreak such havoc on them today.

About the Author

The author made eight expeditions to Ngamiland of the Okavango between 1950 and 1994 to study the culture of the Hambukushu people of Botswana. Professor Larson is a cultural and social anthropologist with degrees from University of California, Berkley, BA, American University, MA, University of Oxford, M Litt, and University of Virginia, PhD. Member of the Explorer’s Club since 1952.