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| Bushman boys, Namibia
© Mark Håkansson/Survival |
A delegation of British MPs has just returned from a visit to Botswana paid
for and organised by the government there. The Bushmen evicted from their
ancestral lands, whose situation they were supposed to investigate, have
denounced the visit as 'controlled by the government.'
Most of the MPs spent just a few hours talking to Bushmen in one of the
relocation sites, and most of those chosen to talk to them were appointed by the
government.
When other Bushmen tried to explain how they wanted to return to their
ancestral lands, they were prevented from speaking. The MPs did not attempt to
visit the hundreds of Bushmen who have returned to their lands inside the
Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
Not all the MPs, however, were taken in. Dianne Abbott told the Sunday
Telegraph that the relocation centres were 'more like refugee camps than
communities… I am quite convinced that they were moved against their
will.'
The visit was organised by the huge PR company, Hill & Knowlton, which
has been contracted by the Botswana government and De Beers to counter the
Bushmen's campaign for their land rights. It is one of many visits, all
similarly stage managed, led by Nigel Jones MP. Hill and Knowlton have set up
and administer a new all-party group on Botswana which is chaired by Mr Jones.
The trips are paid for by Botswana's diamond revenue, controlled by De Beers,
and include luxury safaris.
Nigel Jones told the BBC last week that they only saw 'one or two people who
were not happy'. When the reporter put it that the Bushmen themselves were
reporting 'huge social dislocation', he replied, 'Well, we didn't see any of
that,' and went on, 'the government has been pretty generous.' Mr Jones has
previously accused those supporting the Bushmen's right to return to their lands
as 'prefer[ring] Basarwa women to die in childbirth in the bush' and 'people to
die from curable diseases'. (The Bushmen are called 'Basarwa' in Botswana, a
derogatory term.)
Botswana's President Mogae visited the same settlement only two weeks ago and
handed out food and blankets to the Bushmen, telling them not to try to return
to their lands, in spite of the fact that they are now taking the government to
court for the right to go back – the case starts this week.
The Gana and Gwi Bushmen lived largely by independent hunting and gathering
until the evictions. They are now destitute and dependent on government
hand-outs. They call the government sites 'places of death', saying there is
nothing to do there except get drunk. They are arrested if they try and hunt.
Prostitution is becoming common.
The Bushmen are the indigenous inhabitants of all of southern Africa and, it
is thought, have lived there for at least 40,000 years.
Stephen Corry, director of Survival, said today, 'For the
Oxford-educated president to hand out blankets to the Bushmen and tell them not
to try and return to their land is like the British 'buying' the land of
Canadian Indians for 700 blankets in 1850. British MPs were complicit in that
deal, and now some are doing the same thing in the Kalahari. Both episodes bring
shame on Britain. Have we learned nothing from history?'
For further information, please contact Miriam Ross at Survival International
on +44 20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org
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