Hunter-gathering lifestyle is an archaic fantasy

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Botswana’s High Court affirmed on 13 December 2006 that the government’s eviction of the Bushmen was ‘unlawful and unconstitutional’, and that they have the right to live on their ancestral land inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). The court also ruled that the Bushmen have the right to hunt and gather in the reserve. But President Khama said in his recent state of the nation address, ‘The notion… that they [the Bushmen] wish to subsist today on the basis of a hunter-gathering lifestyle is an archaic fantasy.’

Bushman child, Botswana / Photo by Survival International

One of the judges making the 2006 ruling said that the government’s refusal to allow the Bushmen to hunt ‘was tantamount to condemning the residents of the CKGR to death by starvation.’ Yet two years after the ruling, the government has not issued the Bushmen with a single licence to hunt inside the reserve.  A Bushman spokesman said, ‘Hunting is not out of date. We want to be hunters and gatherers today. This is the best way for us to survive in the Kalahari.’

Diamond mine on Bushman land gets government approval on condition Bushmen receive no water

The Botswana government has approved plans for a diamond mine on the Bushmen’s land, on the condition that the mining company Gem Diamonds does not provide the Bushmen with water. It has banned the Bushmen from using a water borehole at one of their communities, but is allowing a nearby tourist lodge to pump water for its guests.

Gem Diamonds claims that the Bushmen are in favour of the mine, but the Bushmen have had no independent advice on its probable impact.  A consulting firm visited the Bushmen earlier this year, supposedly to obtain their views on diamond mining on their land. The company’s project manager joined the board of Gem Diamonds soon after the project ended, calling the impartiality of the consultation process into serious question.

Botswana’s President Khama is a board member of the US-based conservation organisation Conservation International.