In the middle of Botswana lies the Central Kalahari Game Reserve created to protect the traditional territory of the 5,000 Gana, Gwi and Tsila Bushmen (and their neighbours the Bakgalagadi), and the game they depend on.
In the early 1980s, diamonds were discovered in the reserve. In three big clearances, in 1997, 2002 and 2005, virtually all the Bushmen were forced out of the reserve by the Botswana government. Their homes were dismantled, their school and health post were closed, their water supply was destroyed and the people were threatened and trucked away. They now live in resettlement camps outside the reserve.
In 2002, the Bushmen took the government to court. They wanted the court to rule that their eviction was illegal. Due to procedural wrangling, evidence did not start to be heard until 2004.
On 13 December 2006, the Bushmen won an historic victory. The judges ruled that their eviction by the government was indeed ‘unlawful and unconstitutional’, and that they have the right to live inside the reserve, on their ancestral land. The court also ruled that the Bushmen have the right to hunt and gather in the reserve, and should not have to apply for permits to enter it.
Although the Bushmen won the right in court to go back to their lands, the government has done everything it can to make their return impossible, including banning them from accessing a water borehole which they used before they were evicted.
Without the well, the Bushmen are forced to make arduous journeys by foot or donkey to fetch water from outside the reserve.
The Bushmen launched further litigation against the government in a bid to gain access to their borehole. A hearing was held in June 2010 but the judge later dismissed their application.
The 2010 ruling, which came a week before the UN formally recognized water as a fundamental human right, has now been slammed by Africa’s key human rights body for denying the Bushmen’s ‘right to life’.
With talks with the government having failed, the Bushmen turned to the courts to gain access to their well. The Bushmen, who are simply seeking permission to use the well, are appealing on the grounds that the denial of water subjects them to inhuman and degrading treatment.
At the same time as banning the Bushmen from accessing water, the Botswana government has drilled new wells for wildlife in the reserve, and is due to give Gem Diamonds the go ahead to mine at one of the Bushman communities. It also allowed Wilderness Safaris to erect a luxury tourist lodge on Bushman land in the reserve, complete with bar and swimming pool for tourists.
President Khama, whose nephew and personal lawyer sit on the board of directors of Wilderness Safaris, has previously described the Bushmen’s way of life as ‘an archaic fantasy’, and recently referred to them as ‘primitive’ and ‘backward’.
One Bushman from the region who wished to remain anonymous, said, “We are still hoping, not to be given anything, but simply for justice and our rights. The government hopes that by denying us water, it will force us from the reserve once more. It must know by now that we are determined to live with our ancestors on the land we have known since time began.”
About Survival International
Survival International is a human rights’ organization formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous people and uncontacted tribes, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples’ fight to keep their ancestral lands, culture and their own way of living. Survival works for the people who they call “some of the most vulnerable on earth”. A part of their mission is to educate people from misconceptions that help justify violations of human rights against indigenous people, and the risks that they face from the advancement of corporations, governments and also good intentions based on an idea of “development” that is forced upon them. Survival believes that in fact their alternative way of living is not lacking, they represent a model of sustainability in the environment that they are a part of and they possess a rich culture from which we could learn. For more information, visit www.survivalinternational.org.
Source: Survival International.
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