Kalahari bushmen return to their rightful home.

Jan 2007. Forty Bushmen have returned to their homes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve this weekend, despite a heavy police presence and attempts to persuade them to stay in the relocation camps

 

All the Bushmen in the convoy were allowed into the reserve by the wildlife guards at the gates, although some were only issued with temporary permits.

The police attempted to persuade the Bushmen not to leave New Xade relocation camp by telling them that President Mogae first wanted to talk to them, but the Bushmen insisted on going home.

In the early 1980s, diamonds were discovered in the Central Kalahari. Soon after, government ministers went into the reserve to tell the Bushmen living there that they would have to leave because of the diamond finds. In three big clearances, in 1997, 2002 and 2005, virtually all the Bushmen were forced out. Their homes were dismantled, their school and health post were closed, their water supply was destroyed and the people were threatened and trucked away.

However in December 2006 Botswana’s High Court ruled that the Botswana 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. 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.

Survival International director, Stephen Corry, said, 'We hope that the authorities will not try to make life difficult for the Bushmen wanting to return home, and will see that it is in their own interest, as well as that of the Bushmen, that the process is as calm and problem-free as possible. The Bushmen are ecstatic and are full of gratitude for all those who supported them, both in Botswana and throughout the world.'

Courtesy of Survival International.