Lonely road of the Botswana San

2001-04-10 12:43

Media24 Africa Service

Johannesburg - The police vehicle was the last thing we expected to see amid the cluster of grass huts in one of the most isolated places in Botswana.

Since we entered the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) the previous day, we have encountered no other person, vehicle or sign of civilisation. After spending the night in the bush it took another two hours of tortuous off-road driving to cover the remaining 60km to our destination, the small San community at Malapo.

It is a road seldom travelled and then only with good reason. Yet the police land-cruiser appeared from the bushes the moment we stopped among the huts and the clicking sounds of the Bushmen language filled the morning.

The clamour died away as the two policemen walked over to were our San guide, Xacwa Jedom, was exchanging greetings with the small knot of elderly men and women dressed in filthy, torn Western clothing. The uniformed cops said nothing. They merely stood around and watched and listened.

Xacwa (41), representative of the Working Group for Indigenous Minorities of Southern Africa (Wimsa) for the Central Kalahari region, turned his back on them and pretended to study the horizon with interest. The uncomfortable silence lasted another 20 minutes before the policemen announced they were returning to headquarters (a three hour-trek) and left.

Assault charges filed

The moment their bakkie disappeared around the first bend of the sandy track the excited clicking started again. Xacwa, a man who has travelled to Europe several times to convey the plight of BotswanaÆs San communities to the United Nations, translated. The two recently departed policemen were the ones who tortured and falsely arrested the hunters of the community, they claimed. Xacwa confirmed that the men of Malapo had indeed filed formal assault charges against the policemen with the help of another human rights organisation, First Peoples of the Kalahari (FPK).

One of the hunters, Gaketsewe Gaorapelwe, showed us his legal permit, issued by the Botswana conservation authority, to hunt game inside the reserve for meat and skins. About two weeks ago he killed an oryx with a throwing spear - from horseback, as is the habit of the San of Botswana nowadays. The small community ate their fill and he hung the tail of the oryx in his hut as a trophy.

Then the police and game wardens came. "The police stormed into my hut, they assaulted my family. They beat me with their fists, kicked me and stomped on me. They tied me up and dragged me outside before hitting my mother and throwing my daughter and her baby to the ground."

Gaketsewe was first accused of hunting an eland, for which his permit does not allow, and then of killing two oryx, one more than allowed. Other hunters of the community claimed they were similarly assaulted while detained in a makeshift kraal in the nearby bush. One showed how the men were allegedly forced to stand for hours in the Kalahari sun with their hands on the ground and their feet on the bumper of the police vehicle.

Following these ordeals several of the men were taken to the government prison at Rooikops, outside the reserve, were they were detained on charges of hunting eland, a protected species. These charges were later dropped and they were released. The human rights organisation FPK, who represented the San hunters in this matter, refused to comment on the case on the grounds that they could not talk to foreign journalists.

Attempts to drive San away

However, San leaders of the Dxanakhoe and Chuchoe clans said the case involving the Malapo hunters was just one more incident in an on-going campaign of intimidation aimed at driving the San off their ancestral lands inside the reserve. The government of Botswana wants them out of the way so they can fully exploit the rich diamond deposits inside the sprawling reserve.

When approached for comment the Botswana government did not deny plans to expand their diamond mining operations on San land. Nor did the government deny that they wanted to move the 4000-odd San remaining in the reserve to government settlements outside the boundaries of the CKGR. In fact, many had already been resettled.

But allegations of human rights abuses, intimidation and forced removals were untrue, said Gaewetse Koketso, government spokesperson and co-ordinator of its development programme for isolated regions of Botswana. "We believe it is better to move these people to the new government settlements like New !Xadi (outside the reserve), as there is permanent water, food and medical services. But we are not using sjamboks to force people to get onto the trucks.

"We are trying to convince people to move and those who are refusing will do so eventually. We are not aware of any incidents of torture. The San should thoroughly weigh the advantages of moving," Koketso said.

Human rights organisations took govt to task

But Xacwa, speaking on behalf of the human rights organisation Wimsa, dismissed KoketsoÆs denials and said the government only stopped forced removals when human rights organisations took them to task.

The CKGR and the game inside its boundaries was declared part of the crown and given to its San inhabitants by the British monarch when Botswana was under colonial rule. The intention was for them to continue to live, hunt and gather veld food on the lands of their ancestors. Although the present government denies that this was the case, the FPK (the organisation in the mid-nineties to stop the removals from the reserve) are in possession of the original deeds, Xacwa said.

He said the government at first claimed they wanted to move the San from the reserve because their livestock introduced foot and mouth disease to wild animals, which in turn negatively affected trade in game products with the European Union (EU). "We talked to the EU about this and discovered it was a lie. The truth was that the government wanted to mine diamonds."

'Model settlements'

Soldiers forced entire San communities in the reserve to break down their huts, herded them onto trucks and dumped them at settlements like New !Xadi, he said. These "model settlements" have since become places of forced idleness, poverty and despair where the San turn to alcohol abuse and live off government food handouts.

"Black businessmen sell large quantities of strong drink on credit to these people and when they cannot pay their debts, their women are sometimes taken as payment in kind. The people cannot hunt as they are outside the reserve and the irregular food handouts they get from the government are not sufficient. The new houses and jobs they were promised have not materialised."

The forced removals stopped when FPK - Xacwa was one of the founding members before he moved on to join Wimsa Y went to the United Nations Workshop for indigenous Minorities for help. But the government continues to intimidate people into moving "of their own free will", he alleged.

"Some of the San who were originally moved out has fled back into the reserve, and they refuse to be moved again. The hunters of Malapo who were abused were among these people," he said. "The police and conservation officials continually raid their huts, assaulting men, women and children. They are issued permits to hunt for food, but many of the animals listed on these permits are not even found in the reserve and others, like eland, are protected."

Threats to withhold food, water, medicine

The San are threatened that the irregular supplies op food, water and medicine they receive from the government will be withheld if the do not leave the reserve. Those who do move voluntarily, are paid a one-off amount of 2000 Pula (about R2940) per household as compensation. But the money does not last and after that, there is nothing: no new houses, no jobs, no way to supplement meagre food rations from the veld.

Xacwa said the San are not opposed to the development of the diamond mine at Ghope, inside the reserve. But they want to benefit from it. They want jobs on the mine, without sacrificing their traditions. They believe this will enable them to gradually adapt to the modern world. "But they cannot be forced to change overnight. They must be allowed to learn in time what is good and what is bad, what to embrace and what to reject."

Alice Mogwe, of the Gaborone-based human rights organisation Ditshwanelo, said like Wimsa and FPK they are aware of on-going human rights abuses against the San. "We are doing everything in our power to stop this, but the government will not listen. But we will carry on the fight for the recognition of the identity of the San and to ensure that they are treated in a humane manner," she said.

The Botswana government does not recognise the separate ethnic identity of the San and they are not listed as a group in the national census. The countryÆs oldest inhabitants are also not represented in the influential council of chiefs, who deliberate on matters of concern to the many tribes of Botswana.

Botswana is also not a signatory of UN declarations and conventions protecting the rights of indigenous peoples.

- News24