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| Bushman women, Namibia
© Mark Håkansson/Survival |
The BBC's flagship news programme Newsnight has broadcast an in-depth
investigation into the Botswana government's expulsion of the Bushmen
from their ancestral land. (Click here to view)
Interviewed by the BBC, President Mogae says, 'We will not allow them
[the Bushmen] to hunt in the Park' [Central Kalahari Game Reserve],
directly contradicting previous statements that the Bushmen could hunt in the Reserve as long as they used 'traditional weapons'.
'Let them call us primitive. Let them call us Stone Age people. Our way
of life suits us. We have seen their development, and we don't like
it,' said Daleathwe Phetadipuo, a Bushman woman.
'They just came and grabbed people and pulled down the huts. They said
my children had to go to school in the new settlements. My children
were shouting and screaming as they took them away. I begged the
government to let my children come back and live with me,' said another
woman, Gakeorore Moeti.
'We've been beaten, tortured and taken to court for hunting eland. Why?
Why can't we hunt in our own land like we have for thousands of years?'
said one Bushman man. Another, Chika Moeti, now living in a relocation
camp, added, 'Really I want to go to my mother's village, my homeland,
because actually all these bars, and all these 'facilities', I think
they are nothing in my life. What I value is my dignity; my land is my
dignity.'
The report can be viewed for 24 hours here.
