Three Bushman children have been arrested by paramilitary police in Botswana. The arrests are the latest signs of a new government policy to intimidate Bushmen who have returned to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR).
The children were jailed last week for being in possession of antelope meat in the CKGR. All have since been released, but further reports of harassment and intimidation have surfaced, and there have been a growing number of Bushmen arrests.
On Wednesday, wildlife scouts beat up and confiscated fruit and berries from one Bushman, Amogelang Segootsane, telling him the food is 'for animals, not humans!' He was being treated in hospital last week.
One Bushman told Survival, 'The Bushmen are being hunted and their rights are being denied because of tourism (....) Police are given guns to go out and hunt and arrest Bushmen gathering bush food. The Bushmen of the CKGR cannot eat, cannot drink. How will they survive without food?'
The Bushmen are becoming increasingly desperate as the government is making their lives in the CKGR impossible.
The tribe relies on hunting game and gathering fruit and berries to feed their families. In 2006, the High Court confirmed the Bushmen's right to live and hunt on their ancestral land in the CKGR, but not a single hunting license has been issued since.
Amogelang Segootsane was treated in hospital last week after he was beaten up by wildlife scouts.
They now risk starvation, or will be forced to rely on government handouts only available in the resettlement camps outside the reserve which they call 'places of death'.
In November, two Bushmen were arrested and tortured for killing an antelope, and were fined US$190 each. Another four men await trial this week for hunting in the reserve.
The Botswana government has repeatedly targeted the CKGR's indigenous inhabitants, often citing wildlife conservation as its motive. Yet the Bushmen have survived for centuries alongside Botswana's game.
Survival International's Director Stephen Corry said today, 'Conservation has long been the excuse used to terrorize the Bushmen into leaving their desert home and it's no coincidence that President Khama is on the board of one of the world's largest conservation organizations, Conservation International. The American NGO obviously knows its board member's atrocious human rights record. Does Khama really believe that a few hundred Bushmen endanger the welfare of the CKGR (an area twice the size of Rwanda) more than a diamond mine? Who knows? The only certainty in this case is Survival's determination to do whatever it takes to back the Bushmen. Boycotts, protests, demonstrations, or supporting a court case: we will rule out none of these if this increase in harassment doesn't end now.'
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The irony is that under the present government wildlife numbers are reported to have been significantly depleted. The bushmen are not cited as the perpetrators. The authorities responsible for anti-poaching and wildlife management seem to have little effect on reducing poaching by well resourced and organised individuals. Allegations of collusion between wildlife officers and poachers seem increasingly plausible. That being the case, one wonders what the government hopes to achieve by persecuting and assaulting bushmen.
I am not a supporter of the Government of Botswana but I am well vested with information with regard to Botswana. One thing that I know and I am sure of is that children of the mentioned ages cannot be arrested in Botswana. I have done a lot of research in Botswana especially amongst the indigenous people. It hurts me to believe that in this era someone is still advocating for the traditional and ancestral rights of people wanting them to remain in the bush when it has become evident that it is hard to survive there. All people in Botswana used to live by hunting and gathering but that has proved not to be unsustainable any more. Botswana has built schools and other facilities to develop its citizens. Like we had a first woman pilot in Africa we want to have several Basarwa doctors and engineers. The Botswana government is not controlled by Khama alone. There are opposition parties and other individuals who have the welfare of Basarwa at heart and I believe it is wrong to want Basarwa to remain as tourists attraction. We call them Basarwa as their rightful tribe name not the degrading name Bushman please. we were once bushmen too when Botswana was still a bush. Resources in Botswana are not regionalised, they all contribute to the national coffers were every Motswana is set to benefit from. To relocate Basarwa from the CKGR is to develop them just like other people. The most educated Batswana today come from minor tribes in Botswana and it would be very unreasonable for the government of Botswana to ignored them under the pretence that they are living in their so called ancestral land. by the way many Batswana have been relocated. There is another group of Basarwa ana other tribes who gave way to the construction of the Dikgatong Dam in Mmadinare. Their ancestors burials were even exhumed which is a very sensitive exercise in African traditions. They found it fit to agree to their relocation for a good course. Where was Survival International if one can ask. Khama became President finding the Basarwa case still in progress and I wonder how being a member of Conservation International could make him hate Basarwa so much that he would make officers to arrest and harass them. Knowing him personally he cant tolerate that especially for the Basarwa. He naturally has a soft spot for them that any other people in Botswana. This year the office of the president issued a memo requesting the army and police to make sure that they recruit more Basarwa even if they don't meet the set criteria, a move that should be applauded. I am of the view that enough injustice has been done to the Basarwa by advocating for their return to the CKGR. In one of the excursions that I took through the land occupied by Basarwa in Botswana I realised that some tourists used to photo graph Basarwa nude. A certain video also was circulated under the title 'Stone age Creatures'. Any right thinking government cannot allow that to be done to its people. The only thing that Khama does not like is excessive consumption of alcohol and someone can accuse him for that I will agree and he imposes that on every Motswana. Is Survival International aware that some community trusts such as the Mmadinare one make millions out of wildlife hunting quotas every year? Why not help Basarwa to do the same in their areas maybe they can also pocket several millions. They definitely need money for other food stuffs because they cannot survive on meet alone. Hunting and gathering is a difficult task to undertake nowadays given the inadequate rainfall in Botswana. Animals too have become very few and by the time they realise that they are under threat they will migrate to other areas. A law in a country has to apply to everyone. Anyone who will become the President Of Botswana will just act in the same manner. because there are more that 34 Basarwa clans in Botswana why is the issue only about those in CKGR?
The issue is more complex than people think. wildlife populations continue to decrease due to prolonged periods of draught not necessarily due to poaching. Like I said I also grew up being a kind of hunter gatherer but today if I go back to my ancestral land I cant even find a hare there. I have worked with the Basarwa their issues are more complex than any outsider can understand. Early travellers introduced them to excessive drinking, a habit that most of them cannot abandon. I do accept that some of us are to blame for enslaving them too, though some tried to expose them to education it was only basic and could not help that much. What me and everyone else should be doing now is to give them enough exposure while the economy of Botswana is still better and education will somehow emancipate them from their plight. Everything has changed, temperatures in Botswana have gone very high, rainfall patterns changed etc. Even an ordinary person is having it hard. Basarwa need medical care, clean water and other social amenities which can only be provide once they are aggregated in one place rather than being in those dispersed nomadic clans. When I used to teach some Basarwa kids, they would abandon school in order to go and join their parents in hunting during hunting seasons. If only people are interested in seeing or testing whether Basarwa can still live the way they did fifty years ago its very unfortunate in today's world. The law in Botswana is also very lenient on them, we can only hope that it remains so throughout, because one will never know what will happen once the government is changed. As it is now, they are transported to and from school, given food and uniforms for free and I don't think any government can sustain that forever. Sometimes they are even transported by government to attend job interviews something that is not done for other disadvantaged or minor tribes or other Basarwa who are not in CKGR. Once more I challenge someone who has the welfare of these people at heart to come up with a better idea on how to help Basarwa to come forward and to something for them while resources still permit. The blame game must be over by now. People should stop advancing their interest by using the Basarwa. A community trust that can operate tourist centres of attraction and business ventures will definitely help and it needs capacity building not apportioning of blames like what people are doing today.