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| Bushman elder, CKGR, Botswana 2004
© 2004 Stephen Corry/Survival |
'The government has cut off everything that enables us to survive,
but we won't move because we were born here.' – Bushman who remains in
the CKGR.
Two years after the Botswana government evicted hundreds of Gana and Gwi
'Bushmen' from their ancestral land, the authorities are now stepping up their
persecution. They are bringing charges against a group of Bushmen who were
arrested as they were hunting near the resettlement camp where the government
has left them.
Hunting is the only alternative the Bushmen in the camps have to government
handouts. In a recent meeting with UK parliamentarians in New Xade resettlement
camp, many Bushmen made it clear that they are desperate to return to their land
in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), where they had lived for thousands
of years. The government, however, forces the Bushmen to apply for permits if
they wish to visit their relatives still in the Reserve (an impossibly
bureaucratic procedure for most), and has forbidden them from taking in
desperately needed supplies of water.
February 2004 marks the second anniversary of the eviction of the last 700
Gana and Gwi Bushmen and their neighbours the Bakgalagadi from their lands in
the Reserve. In February 2002, after fifteen years of pressure during which most
Bushmen had already been forced out, their last remaining water borehole was
smashed and they were forced to dismantle their huts. Policemen and soldiers
threatened to burn them in their homes if they refused. Despite the threats,
several dozen Bushmen and Bakgalagadi refused to move and remain on their land,
relying on the rain and underground tubers for water.
About 2,500 Bushmen and Bakgalagadi now live in two bleak resettlement camps
which they call 'places of death'. Since the first evictions in
1997, observers have witnessed the steady disintegration of families as people
succumb to alcoholism and depression.
On a recent visit, a Bushman told Survival, 'There's a lot of
alcoholism and people are not eating. People go into the bars and drink beer so
they can forget things. In CKGR people had fit minds and bodies. Here, people
contracted by the government are bringing in AIDS. In our culture, we didn't
know all these diseases.'People are bored and feel helpless, as they depend on
the government for handouts of food – the barren land round the camps supports
little hunting or gathering. One Bushman told Survival 'This makes us very sad.
We feel powerless. We feel like bits of rubbish put in a waste bin.'
Many want to return to their land, and in spite of intense intimidation from
the authorities, some have. Life inside the Reserve is harsh, as the Bushmen are
banned from hunting, gathering and collecting firewood and, since the borehole
was smashed, water is extremely scarce. But courage and resilience have enabled
them to withstand constant pressure to move. One recently told Survival 'The
government has cut the water but I will carry on here. I said to myself that I
will live on my ancestors' land where they are buried and I'm still alive.'
The government maintains the relocations were voluntary, but in an
embarrassing admission recently Botswana's Foreign Minister told a group of
students in London, 'We put these people [the Bushmen]... where we want
them to be.'
As soon as the Bushmen were evicted in 2002 the government carved up most of
the Reserve in diamond exploration concessions; De Beers and BHP Billiton own
most of them. De Beers has refused to condemn the forced removals of the Bushmen
and in fact its managing director in Botswana has publicly welcomed them.
The Bushmen and Bakgalagadi have appealed, through Survival, for
international support in their efforts to return to their ancestral land and
live there without further harassment.
