Situation Report: The San: Southern Africa`s Forgotten People, Chris Maroleng

THE SAN: SOUTHERN AFRICA`S FORGOTTEN PEOPLE

Chris Maroleng, May 2002

The San are the aboriginal people of Southern Africa, whose distinct hunter-gatherer culture stretches back over 20 000 years. According to recent anthropological evidence, 10 000 years ago their exclusive domain stretched from the Zambezi to the Cape of Good Hope. Now Southern Africa’s estimated 110 000 remaining San face extinction, living lives of poverty on margins of society. Today the Gana and Gwi, (who number between 600 and 700) the last remaining San of Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) are struggling against the government of Botswana to win back the right to roam freely in their lands.

The plight of the San of the CKGR, which is located in Botswana’s Ghanzi District began as far back as 1896 when the Ghanzi area was ceded to the British South Africa Company of Cecil John Rhodes, much to the chagrin of the Batawana, (one of the Tswana ethnic groups) who claimed territorial rights over the area. In 1898 the Government of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, as it then was, allocated 42 farms to a group of Afrikaner farmers to settle in the Ghanzi District. As a result of this decision to allocate the lands on the Ghanzi Limestone Ridge to these farmers the San and the other people who lived on the farms either remained as labourers or had to find other places to live. Some of the people went to what became the town of Ghanzi; others went to cattle posts in the communal areas to the south of the Ghanzi Farms, and a few moved east into what is now the CKGR. The result of these movements was the restructuring of the social landscape of the Ghanzi region and beginning of the marginalisation and impoverishment of a sizable portion of the San population.

Recent reports from Botswana indicate that the current government is now using all means “including torture”, to force the last remaining San out of the CKGR (Booker, Christopher. Sunday Telegraph; 24/02/2002 :P14). To make things worse on 18 February 2002, it was reported that the Botswana officials had turned off essential water supplies to the San. According to the government, this became necessary because government sanctioned cattle ranching has lowered the water table, depriving the San of natural water.

Even though the inhumane treatment of the San by the government of Botswana is not a new phenomenon in the history of this country, it raises the question why this government would act with such renewed zeal and determination to force the remaining Gana and Gwi off their land and truck them out to a shanty town that these San call “the place of death”.

Many analysts argue that the primary reason behind the eviction of the San has much to do with a ‘clandestine government policy’ which seeks to stop the San from claiming mineral rights over an area in the CKGR, reserved for the San by the constitution when Botswana gained its independence in 1966.

This area has now been found to contain diamonds. However, the question of mineral rights is further complicated and intertwined with what can best be described as a deep-seated contempt of the San that the politically and economically dominant majority Tswana ethnic group seem to have. The government has also adopted this ‘racist’ attitude and it seems to be important in determining the way that the Botswana government deals with the San. President Mogae himself has referred to the San as “Stone Age creatures”.

The government, in its defence, claims that the relocation of the San from the CKGR is essential for them to have access to sustainable state services such as health care and formal education. This is because the government insists that it cannot currently afford to provide water and other services to the San communities in the reserve even though it costs only US$3 per person per week.

The position taken by the government of Botswana seems even more baffling if one considers the fact that it turned down an offer by the European Union (EU) to cover the cost of keeping the San in the CKGR. This offer was to form part of CKGR Management Plan that was signed by the Botswana government and the EU in 1996. One of the key provisions of this agreement was that the water supply to the San would not be turned of. It was on the basis of this assurance that the EU agreed to continue its long-standing support to conservation and management of wildlife resources in Botswana. The most important provision of this agreement (relating to the provision of services to San communities) would be rendered meaningless if through the cutting off of services these communities ceased to exist. As a result, the continued funding of this project by the EU stands in the balance.

Local Human rights groups such as Ditshwanelo and international organizations like Survival International have condemned the termination of services to the San communities calling this “a gross violation of Human rights and the Constitution of Botswana”.

These measures taken by the government of Botswana do indeed constitute a clear violation of the human rights of the San. However, more significantly the eviction of the San from their tribal lands violates the constitution of this country, which makes provision for the creation of a reserve as far back as 1961 “specifically for the Basarwa to practice their hunter gather way of life”. To make matter worse the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks said that it would no longer issue hunting permits to San for use within the reserve.

Put all of this together and it begins to become clear that the government of Botswana has embarked on a systematic programme to evict the Gana and Gwi from the CKGR altogether. The government`s actions are most likely motivated by economic considerations rather than any real concern for the well being of these nomadic hunter gatherer communities.

However, there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel, as 243 members of the San communities living in the CKGR filed an urgent lawsuit on the 8th of April 2002 in Botswana’s High Court opposing the government’s decision to evict them and cut the supply of water and other essential services. The United Nations “special rapporteur on indigenous people”, Rodolfo Stavenhagen has now gone on record “condemning the Botswana governments actions unreservedly”, after holding talks with the communities affected by this government’s policy.

Should the government of Botswana succeed in its unofficial policy of forcing the San of the CKGR off their land and into government camps where their tribal life is torn away, to leave them as listless drunks and beggars, this would constitute the greatest single crime perpetrated against the San in decades. A concerted effort should be made by the international community to assist the San in their struggle against the government. This would at least insure that the forgotten people of southern Africa do not become the lost people of southern Africa.