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| Bushman women, Namibia
© Mark Håkansson/Survival |
12 Sep STOP PRESS: ARMED POLICE AND OFFICIALS HAVE NOW ENTERED THE
RESERVE AND GIVEN THE BUSHMEN 10 DAYS TO LEAVE. SOME BUSHMEN ARE
REPORTED TO HAVE FLED INTO THE BUSH.
The
Bushmen are facing a new and severe assault on their rights since
the resumption of their three-year court case against the government
for evicting them from their ancestral lands in the central Kalahari.
Although the court is now sitting, the authorities have launched a
massive clampdown, clearly designed to end the Gana and Gwi Bushman way
of life and to destroy them as distinct peoples.
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1) The government announced last week that it is putting guards around
their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to blockade the area
and stop Bushmen going in.
2) More Bushmen have been arrested for hunting. Xhatshoe Xhose, Maiteko
Digotlhong and Gothata Digotlhong were arrested on 2 August.
3) The wildlife department has barred entry into the reserve to the
Bushmen's lawyers, stopping them consulting with their clients, even
though the high court specifically asked them to do so.
4) The radio authority has refused to renew licences to Bushmen who
were using community transmitters to contact each other when they
needed help.
5) Officials have gone as far as stopping the Bushmen's own
organisation, First People of the Kalahari, from talking to those in
the reserve.
6) The government is on the point of changing the country's
constitution, removing protection for the Bushmen.
All this amounts to the most serious assault on Bushman
rights since their eviction in 2002.
Selelo Tshiamo, one of several Bushmen severely tortured by officials
in June, died earlier this month. He had been repeatedly beaten on the
chest to the point where he coughed blood. His chest pains increased
until he finally succumbed to his injuries.
Recent
investigations show that the Bushmen in the
forced relocation
camps have started to die after contracting HIV/AIDS. At least
thirty-seven Bushmen have the infection in just one of the camps.
Drunkenness and prostitution are spiralling out of control.
The government attack is being launched at the same time as De Beers
has characterised these abuses as a debate' about models of
sustainable development'. The company relies on Cambridge University
anthropologist, Dr James Suzman, to legitimise its position.
The Natural History Museum in London continues with its De
Beers-supported diamond exhibition, rejecting Bushman calls to mention
the conflict in Botswana.
De Beers's repeated assertions – that there is no connection between
the evictions and diamonds – was undermined in court last week by
government witness Akolang Tombale from the ministry of minerals. Under
cross-examination he admitted that over 30 exploration permits,
covering most of the Bushman reserve, were applied for just a few days
before the Bushman relocations' in 2002, when the head of De Beers in
Botswana welcomed the evictions. The company, which has made legal
threats against Survival, has described the NGO's work as cynical' and
dishonest'; Botswana officials have called Survival a terrorist
organisation' and threatened its officers.
Foreigners in Botswana who draw attention to the Bushman oppression now
face expulsion. The legal appeal of Professor Good of Botswana
University against his deportation was rejected last month, and a
Zimbabwean journalist has been thrown out for reporting on the Bushmen.
Both the British government, and the recently ennobled Liberal Democrat
peers, Lord Jones and Baroness Tonge, continue to back the evictions,
relying on 19th century colonialist models of development'. Three
prominent fashion models, on the other hand, have declared in favour of
the Bushmen: Iman quit as the face' of De Beers; Erin O'Connor said,
I would make that stand, and say no' to De Beers; and last month
teenage model, Lily Cole, announced that she will no longer model for
the company.
Another positive note this week is that South African development
worker, Elijah Molahlehi, saw his first play open at the Oppenheimer
Theatre in Welkom. Entitled, Survival in the wilderness', the work
depicts the evictions in the face of the Bushmen's deep spiritual
attachment to the lands they have lived on for tens of thousands of
years. The theatre is named after the grandfather of De Beers's
chairman, Nicky Oppenheimer, an irony not lost on the enthusiastic
African audience. The play has already attracted the attention of
Woman in white' playwright, Charlotte Jones, who welcomed this use of
theatre to spotlight the dispossession of the Bushmen.
Veteran newscaster and author, Sandy Gall, who witnessed previous
evictions in 1998 today criticised De Beers for not intervening on the
side of the Bushmen and called for a boycott of tourism to Botswana. He
said, The last hunting Bushmen in the world are now on the edge of
destruction, only international support can save them. Botswana's
friends in the UK parliament won't help them, nor will the European
Union or the United Nations. Unless ordinary people make their voices
heard it will be too late and our 21st century world will add the Gana
and Gwi Bushmen to the long list of indigenous peoples destroyed by
racism and greed? Have we learnt absolutely nothing? Are we really
going to allow yet another government to exterminate its tribal
peoples?'
Survival International, which has a history of running campaigns for
several decades, has made it clear that it will support boycotts of
Botswana tourism and De Beers until the Bushmen get their land back.
Gloria Steinem attended the organisation's demonstration at De Beers's
new store in New York in June, and Julie Christie spoke at the protest
at London's Natural History Museum the following month. Survival is
launching a boycott De Beers' website, and is about to market
merchandise with the same message. About 250,000 people supported
Survival's Bushman petition and many have pledged ongoing help.
Survival's director, Stephen Corry, said today, The tragic destruction
of the Gana and Gwi Bushmen reaches into the very roots of humanity and
touches not only every human being alive today, but the generations yet
to be born. The Gana and Gwi call themselves first people of the
Kalahari', they might as well say, first people of the world'. They
have been here longer than any of us. They are the last survivors of
the world's first modern humans. It is not up to the Botswana
government to wipe them out of history, with nothing more than an
arbitrary and cruel presidential directive in favour of just more
wealth for the country's elite – and of course the fantastically rich
owners of De Beers. We will fight for the Bushmen's right to survive
however long it takes. If they lose, then we will make certain that the
crimes which brought their end are not expunged, but written large into
history. Twenty-first century governments can no longer destroy
indigenous tribes with impunity.'
Everything raised by Bushman appeals is spent solely on the
Bushmen (and accounted for accordingly by our auditors). This includes
supporting their legal case and providing direct assistance where
necessary. If you wish to give to a specific aspect of Survival's work
(with the Bushmen or with other tribal peoples), please let us know at
the time of your donation. We guarantee not to spend your money on
anything else.
