In around 2300 (before present), hummer-gatherers called the San acquired domestic stock in what is now modern-day Botswana. Their population grew, and spread throughout the Western half of South Africa, they were the first pastoralists in Southern Africa, and called themselves Khoikhoi, which means 'men of men' or 'the real people'. This name was chosen to show pride in their past and culture. The Khoikhoi brought a new way of life to South Africa and to the San, who were hunter-gatherers as opposed to herders. This led to misunderstandings and subsequent conflict between the two groups.
The Khoikhoi were the first native people to come into contact with the Dutch settlers in the mid-17th century. As the Dutch took over land for farms, the Khoikhoi were dispossessed, exterminated, or enslaved and therefore their numbers dwindled. The Khoikhoi used a word while dancing that sounded like Hottentots and therefore settlers referred to the Khoikhoi by this name-however today this term is considered derogatory. The settlers used the term Bushmen for the San, a term also considered derogatory today. Many of those whom the colonists called Bushmen were in fact Khoikhoi or former Khoikhoi. For this reason, scholars sometimes find it convenient to refer to hunters and herders together as 'Khoisan'.
When European settlement began, Khoikhoi groups called the Nam aqua were settled in modern day Namibia and the north-eastern Cape; others, including the Koran, along the Orange River; and the aqua, interspersed among the Xhosa in the Eastern Cape. But the largest concentration of Khoikhoi, numbering in the tens of thousands, inhabited the well-watered pasture lands of the south-western Cape. These ‘Cape’ Khoikhoi would be the first African population to bear the brunt of white settlement.