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OUDTSHOORN, South Africa (AP) -- Abraham Koopman was just 21 when apartheid drove his people off their land and destroyed his Griqua community's nomadic, pastoral lifestyle.

Sixty-five years later, ``we have nothing,'' Koopman said. Slaughtered by colonists, oppressed by the apartheid regime and marginalized under the country's young democracy, South Africa's indigenous people, once derisively known as Bushman and Hottentots, say they have had enough.

Leaders from nearly all the nation's major indigenous groups gathered at a conference that ended Sunday to demand redress for past wrongs, the return of stolen land and official recognition as South Africa's first indigenous nation.

``The people are fed up,'' said Abraham Andrew Stockenstrom le Fleur II, chief of the Griqua National Conference, one of 36 indigenous groups gathering in Oudtshoorn, about 270 miles east of Cape Town.
South Africa's first inhabitants were nomads -- Khoikhoi cattle farmers and San hunter-gatherers. They are now collectively known as Khoisan.
Under South Africa's culture of colonialism and apartheid, many Khoisan became ashamed of their heritage and assimilated into mixed-race communities.

An estimated 1 million of South Africa's 45 million people are thought to have some Khoisan ancestry, but few maintain allegiance to their roots and still speak the ancient languages. Only a handful of communities in remote rural areas continue to live traditionally.

Three San men wearing animal skins stood out starkly among the rest of the conference delegates attired in Western clothing.

``Our culture is dying and our people are not educated,'' said Tina Brand who, like Koopman, is a member of a Griqua community from the central town of Kimberley.

Since the end of apartheid and the country's first all-race elections in 1994, the government has granted the Khoisan limited recognition and has started projects to preserve their culture and help impoverished communities.
``The role the Khoisan people have played in this country cannot be underestimated,'' Deputy President Jacob Zuma told the conference. ``As government, we will continue doing all we can to ensure that the struggle of the Khoisan people for a better life bears fruition.''

But many Khoisan are still angry that current land restitution laws only apply to property seized after 1913, long after the theft of Khoisan land began.
A resolution passed at the conference urged the government to address the issue of Khoisan land stolen since 1652. The Khoisan also demanded constitutional recognition of their identity, legal protection for their culture and promises that their languages -- some of which are in danger of dying out -- will be taught in schools.

Zuma praised the growing sense of pride among people of Khoisan descent -- a pride systematically eroded under colonialism and apartheid. ``You have taken charge of your own heritage and your own destiny,'' he said.
Willa Boezak, one of the conference organizers, agreed.

``This movement is really sweeping across the nation,'' he said. ``Communities are reorganizing themselves. This revival of the Khoisan is happening.''

But some argue that little of substance has changed.
``Our people still suffer terribly,'' said William Langeveldt, one of the conference speakers. ``Without access to our ancestral land, we have to work for a boss ... we are dependent on other people.''