Government News: Top Stories

Botswana gives Bushmen tough conditions
by Sello Motseta

The Associated Press Translate This Article
15 December 2006

GABORONE, Botswana (AP) - Botswana's government Thursday accepted a court order to allow the Bushmen, the nation's last hunter-gatherers, to live on their ancestral lands. But at the same time, officials imposed tough conditions likely to prevent most or all from returning.

The High Court ruled Wednesday that the Bushmen were wrongly evicted from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2002. The 2-1 verdict was hailed as a victory for indigenous peoples, not just in this African country but around the world.

In a statement Thursday, though, Attorney General Athaliah Molokomme laid down conditions for the government's implementation of the court order.

``The Central Kalahari Game Reserve remains state land,'' Molokomme's statement said. ``It is owned by the State and subject to the laws of the republic.''

Only 189 people who filed the lawsuit would be given automatic right of return with their children, Molokomme said, far short of the 2,000 the Bushmen say want to go home. Anyone else would have to apply for special permits.

Returning Bushmen may take building materials into the reserve, the statement said, but only ``for constructing non-permanent structures.''

Those returning can use enough water for ``subsistence needs,'' Molokomme said. Park authorities, though, will have the right to restrict the amount of water to what is ``reasonably required.''

This is likely to be a major obstacle given that the government shut the main well in 2002, and water is scarce in the Kalahari.

Under the government's rules, the Bushmen cannot bring domestic animals into the park. Anyone who wants to hunt—obviously a central activity in hunter-gatherer societies—must apply for special permits.

Tribal leaders reacted with defiance.

``The ruling says that we own that land,'' Junanda Gakelevone of the First People of the Kalahari, which represents the Kalahari Bushmen, told The Associated Press. ``We have constitutional rights to stay and occupy that land.''

He said that the court ruling also entitled the Bushmen, also known as the Basarwa, to take domestic animals with them.

``We are going back to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve with our horses and donkeys,'' he said. Without motorized transport—which the Bushmen lack—it takes about a week to walk from the main resettlement camp to the reserve.

Between 1997 and 2002, some 3,000 people were resettled outside the reserve.

Botswana's government said the Bushmen agreed to move as part of efforts to protect wildlife. Authorities said they compensated the displaced Bushmen for their land, and provided schools, medical facilities and job training in the resettlement centers.

But critics say the crowded resettlement camps encouraged alcoholism [and] AIDS .... They say the Bushmen's eviction turned a society of proud hunters into communities dependent on food aid and government handouts.

The Bushmen also claimed Botswana—the world's biggest diamond exporter—evicted them to clear the way for new mines. But the judges in their ruling found no evidence of this.

This part of the verdict was welcomed by mining giant De Beers, which controls the diamond mines with the government.

``De Beers has always maintained that diamonds were not the reason for the relocation,'' said Sheila Khama, chief executive of De Beers Botswana. ``I am pleased that all of the judges in the case have recognized and unanimously confirmed this.''

None of De Beers' explorations in the Kalahari shows any signs of ``generating an economically viable deposit,'' Khama said. ``Even if a viable diamond deposit were found and mined successfully, there would be no need to arbitrarily remove or resettle any communities.''

Botswana is held up as a model of democracy and good government on a continent plagued by corruption. The long-running dispute over the reserve—and support for the Bushmen's cause from notables like Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu —was a severe embarrassment to the government.

The Bushmen are the last of the clans of hunter-gathers who survived in central Botswana's stark, desert plains. They were the original inhabitants of a vast area stretching from the tip of South Africa to the Zambezi valley in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Their rock paintings, knowledge of wildlife and ability to survive in one of the harshest environments on earth have fascinated scholars. They were even the subject of a hit movie: ``The Gods Must Be Crazy.''

Only an estimated 100,000 are left today, most living in poverty on society's fringes.

Survival International, which backed the Bushmen in Botswana's longest and most expensive court case, urged the government to adopt less restrictive rules for the return of the ancient group to their homeland.

``It would be terribly sad, both for the Bushmen and for Botswana, if the government tried to make life difficult for the many Bushmen who want to return and who are now expecting to be able to,'' said Jonathan Mazower, Survival's research coordinator.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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