Objective Although the San in Namibia have been targeted by intensive development efforts, there is little knowledge available about San diet quality and nutritional status. The objective of this study is therefore to estimate and quantify the dietary diversity of a San group, and to investigate how socioeconomic characteristics affect dietary diversity. The dietary data (n = 200) for this cross-sectional study were collected as a part of a larger doctoral research investigating food environment, food choices, and dietary changes of the Khwe San in Bwabwata National Park East. Results The mean dietary diversity score (DDS) of the participants was 2.44 out of 10, with only two people having a DDS of 5. 87.5% of participants consumed only from 2 or 3 different food groups, mainly grains/roots and dark green leafy vegetables. DDS significantly correlated only with the level of education and with age. Due to their collinearity, the group with no education had the lowest DDS, but also belonged to the oldest age group. The overall dietary diversity of the Khwe is extremely low, indicating severe nutritional inadequacy. The small differences in DDS among the socioeconomic groups indicate the importance of other determining factors, such as cultural and food environmental characteristics.

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This chapter looks at how specific research methods are chosen when conducting research with Indigenous Peoples and how theoretical principles and approaches are manifested on the ground. The authors share their personal stories and reflect on their research practices based on their fieldwork experience with the North Sámi in Finland and Norway, and with the Khwe San in Namibia. The two Indigenous groups represent two markedly different contexts. However, the commonalities in the upholding of cultural traditions allow researchers to reflect on methodological choices on shared grounds. Two sets of principles for conducting research in an Indigenous context are discussed, while the authors reflect on two main topics in more details; power relations and reciprocity. This chapter argues that principles such as methodological flexibility and the researcher's relationships with the community members, cultural values and the research topic are vital elements of research carried out with Indigenous communities.

The maintenance and continued transmission of indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge (TK) is of increasing concern as it continues to be undermined by colonisation and modernisation. Formal education plays a significant role in this process and can be seen as both a cause of knowledge erosion as well as a potential remedy to its demise. In this article, I describe the lived realities of the Namibian Khwe San people in relation to the maintenance of their TK and their perception of the formal education system. The results of this study suggest that while the majority of Khwe youth perceive the knowledge and skills obtained from school as more important than their own TK, many also value their own knowledge highly. Meanwhile, the Khwe parents would like their children to be successful in the formal education system in order to obtain employment and ensure financial security, but they also consider the maintenance of their culture and TK to be equally important. Despite this diversity of opinions, teachers at local schools follow a ‘one size fits all’ national curriculum, repressing social and cultural features of the Khwe. Removing structural barriers in formal education, implementing culturally responsive approaches at school and enabling the transmission of TK both inside and outside the formal education system could loosen dependency on external support and allow the Khwe to exercise their rights to self-determination.

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