Posted on 9-3-2004

San fight to keep Kalahari hunting grounds


Following the seasonal rains, the Kalahari Desert in central Botswana is
alive with rolling waves of green grasses and stretches of bright yellow
wild flowers. Large herds of antelope munch the vegetation and canter
across the plains. Jackals and hyenas lurk nearby to pick off the
stragglers.

Morua Kgoma (62) has picked a pouchful of tasty berries. He has also
plucked fresh, pulpy leaves and pounded them in a mortar to make a kind of
bush pesto. With long, elegant fingers Kgoma has expertly uncovered tubers
that look like new potatoes and small onions. He will roast them over a
fire for an evening meal. "There is lots of food here," he says. "We can
always survive here. We know where to find our food. This is where we were
born and where we belong."

But life has become increasingly difficult for Kgoma and the other San
people of the Molapo community. The Botswanan government, in an ongoing
campaign to force them off the Kalahari, has cut off their water supplies,
closed schools and health clinics and stopped paying monthly pensions to
the elderly and disabled.

Government officials have trucked them away to bleak settlements. The
government campaign now faces a legal challenge by a coalition of San and
human rights groups. Molapo is the last stand of the San people, the
resourceful hunter-gatherers who were the original inhabitants of southern
Africa and have lived here for at least 40 000 years. "We don't want to
move away from here," says Kgoma. "We can dig for water and find the other
things we need. "My children have all scattered," he says of his five
offspring. "Some got jobs, others moved out when they could not get water.
But I want to stay. When I sleep here I know my ancestors are nearby. When
I wake up in the morning and I sneeze, I know my ancestors are with me."

Kgoma is surrounded by the most of the remaining inhabitants of Molapo.
Once a community of more than 1 000, just 58 people have stayed. "We don't
know what will happen in the future," he says. "We keep listening and
hoping that the outside world will bring good news. But the government
wants to throw us away. We don't know what is going to happen to us."

Way of life

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve was made a national park in 1961
specifically to protect the San's habitat and way of life. Now almost all
of the country's San people live outside the park and cannot freely carry
on their hunting and foraging traditions.

It is estimated there are 60 000 San among Botswana's 1,6-million people.
They are distinctive, with light brown skin and high cheekbones, and speak
a musical "click" language.

The Botswanan government of President Festus Mogae claims that it is
merely "persuading" the San people to leave their ancestral lands. "The
former residents of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve have been encouraged
to move out for two fundamental reasons," said government spokesman
Clifford Maribe. "Firstly, their modern economic activities, be it
hunting, arable and/or pastoral agriculture or some other commercial
activity, are inconsistent with the status of the game reserve. "Secondly,
the people have been encouraged to move out to give themselves and their
children the benefit of development."

Critics claim the government is forcing the San off the Kalahari park
because it does not respect their ancient culture. Others say the
government wants to have total claim to possible diamond deposits on park
lands.

The most militant supporter of the San's rights to stay on the Kalahari is
the London-based group Survival International. "The government claims it
wants to move the bushmen off the Kalahari park to protect the wildlife on
the park and because it is too expensive to provide them with services in
remote areas," Survival International director Stephen Corry told The
Guardian. "These reasons are clearly spurious. There is plenty of game on
the park. The government is spending more money relocating the people than
it did to provide them with basic services. "The government also says it
is relocating people for their own development. But the people are
miserable in the new settlements. We can only conclude the Botswanan
government wants to move the bushmen in order to have full claim to
diamond rights on park lands."

Corry said his organisation would continue with its 20-year campaign to
support the San people through petitions, demonstrations and boycotts of
De Beers diamonds and tourism.

The San have been moved to settlement camps where there is little sign of
positive development. Beer halls appear to be the chief economic activity
at the settlement of New Xade, where most of the people of Molapo have
been resettled. Alcoholism is rampant, according to development workers.
Visitors are quickly besieged by beggars, indicating the extent of
demoralisation. A new school and a hospital have been built for the
several thousand San residents but the rubbish-strewn settlement consists
mostly of thatched huts on dusty plots. Water taps are provided throughout
the camp. Despite so many people being concentrated in a small area, they
do not have toilets. "These people just want to go in the bush," says a
government development worker dismissively.

In early February five San men were arrested for illegally hunting
antelope and could be jailed for up to two years if found guilty. Anger
erupted in New Xade as people stoned police escorting the men to court.

A government-funded project provides employment for some San people who
make bricks and another teaches agricultural skills. But overall the
settlement is depressing and dispiriting.

Hope

The hope of the San people to regain their lives on the Kalahari rests on
the legal challenge, which is expected to come to court in May. It alleges
it was illegal for the government to shut off water supplies and other
essential services to the San communities on the Kalahari game reserve and
to refuse to issue them with hunting licences. The case, which is being
brought by a coalition including the First People of the Kalahari, the
Working Group for Indigenous People in Southern Africa and Ditshwanelo,
the Botswana Centre for Human Rights, argues that the government is
obliged to restore the San to their traditional land.

Alice Mogwe, director of Ditshwanelo, says the plight of the San is "part
of the biggest human rights challenge in Botswana". They are "the poorest
of the poor in Botswana" and the government has deprived them of their
hunting rights.

Mogwe suggests the government does not intend to destroy the San culture,
but it does not know how to allow the San to be part of their development.
She said a plan was drawn up to allow the San to continue living in the
Kalahari park. "We had a vision of them being able to live in the park and
be involved in sustainable activities, like walking safaris," she said.
But in 2001 the plan broke down.

Mogwe says she hopes the court case will convince the government to return
to the drawing board to come up with a better solution for the San people.
"The tragedy is that we are replaying what was learned in colonialism,"
said Mogwe. "We don't want that to happen to the Basarwa [the Botswanan
name for the San]. We want them to remain who they are and yet be a part
of Botswanan national culture. We believe it is possible to do both. They
need to have a sense of belonging. But how can you achieve that if their
basic rights are not recognised?"

Back at Molapo, night has fallen and Morua Kgoma gathers with others
around a fire. He tells stories of how the ostrich lost the ability to
start fires and why the noses of the white man and black man are
different. He uses the sand in front of him to trace illustrations.

Considering the difficulties of his people to stay on their land, Kgoma
draws in the sand. "We are like a circle within a circle," he says. "We
are the small circle inside and the Botswana government is the large
circle surrounding us. We need to find the way to stop being separated." -
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004