The new struggle
Tshireletso Motlogelwa | Friday November 1, 2013 16:11
‘At some point Survival International will have to leave us to fight it because ultimately it is our struggle,‘ Job Morris, San intellectual
When Basarwa actors who had been hired to act Basarwa characters in the now acclaimed movie, The No.1 First Ladies Detective, arrived on set, they found that being San was not enough to qualify them to depict Basarwa characters in the movie. They had to do something else – shed their trousers, shirts and shoes and put on something a bit more “authentic” – loincloths and hunting spears.
The panning and tracking shots provide the beautiful landscape before moving to the opening scene. In the first few minutes of the most world famous of dramas to be shot in Botswana, the protagonist, Mma Ramotswe, as a young girl, learns the ways of the bush through this family of Basarwa people.
The usual images of the simplicity and close-to-nature treatment of the cinematographer with the sound create the warm fuzzy feeling that an international viewer should feel when watching not just Africans but the most native of Africans going about their business of interacting with the environment.
Competing interests hem in Basarwa. No other ethnic group has been so spoilt of suitors. No other ethnicity has seen such a glut of representatives and do-gooders waiting to save them, from others and from themselves. Government here, Survival International and its western funders there, researchers from abroad waiting to deliver tomes after observations, tourists with phallus of lenses and notepads, development experts waiting to deliver solutions and conservationists to save the flora and fauna.
For nearly a decade now, a war has been fought between a benevolent international NGO, Survival International, and a paternalistic government desperate to defend an international image.
Historically, Basarwa have been most discriminated against, economically oppressed and socially excluded. In the 1980s and 1990s, the fight by Basarwa for self-determination and a bigger voice within Botswana government’s development programme was led by an organisation called The First Peoples of the Kalahari.
As the struggle gained momentum and faced more challenges, the international community, especially academics and non-governmental organisations from Nordic countries, moved to bridge the gap. As the Basarwa fought their battles, they accumulated allies, and in modern times no ally has been as vociferous and some say, radical, as the UK-based Survival International.
In the early 2000s, Basarwa brought a court case against government appealing the forced removal of some Basarwa from settlements in the CKGR to outside the park by government. Survival, which supported the case, also mounted an international campaign against Botswana diamonds, the mainstay of the Botswana economy. In a way, Survival escalated the Basarwa struggle and brought international attention to it. Some critics have argued that the involvement of Survival International moved a government extremely sensitive to its international image to harden its position when dealing with Basarwa located within the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve at the height of the relocation saga. Survival argues that it had sought other less drastic means to move government’s position without any success. Stephen Corry rejects the idea that their involvement hardened positions, saying the government’s position was uncompromising from the beginning.
“Survival’s campaign only really started after the evictions, when all other approaches had failed. These evictions started no less than sixteen years ago. In that time, the government has never budged from its position that the Bushmen must be kept out of their ancestral lands – so how could Survival possibly have ‘hardened’ that position? When we were able to talk to the Bushmen directly, we went to considerable lengths to ensure they wanted us to take the action we did,” argues Corry.
Then Judge Unity Dow when delivering her judgement on the relocation case expressed the view that government seemed irked by the involvement of the international NGO.
“The government can be as irritated and/or annoyed as it wants to be at what it considers outside interference in its affairs but it cannot, it should not, in response to such irritations disadvantage its own people. More than anything else, a government that hears sounds of discontent is obliged to pause and listen and ask itself why it is that a course of action it thought reasonable and rational is attracting dissent and disquiet,” Dow said then.
At the height of the CKGR dispute when Roy Sesana was asked whether the involvement of foreign organisations did not threaten the ability of government and Basarwa to engage, he argued that government had had ample time to engage with Basarwa meaningfully, and it could have done so if it wanted to.
Sesana, speaking to Mmegi in New Xade, argues that Survival was an indispensable partner to the struggle of Basarwa for self-determination. Sesana who founded the local partner to Survival International, The First Peoples of the Kalahari, says what Survival added to their campaign is an international dimension which helped put pressure on government.
“We were not respected at all when we started questioning the treatment our people were getting from government. Everyone thought we are Basarwa so who cares? Where are we complaining? Who would hear us? It was only when Survival put pressure on government that government began to take our concerns seriously,” argues Sesana.
An observation that Corry also makes: “There is obviously a power imbalance between the all-powerful government and the Bushmen who were unable to prevent their eviction, and who asked for help – why wouldn’t they?”
There are those who argue that Survival International’s exchanges with government have often seemed to happen above Basarwa, the very same people the organisation argues that it represents. Some warn that Survival’s strategy may be too radical and thus may alienate the same people Survival is trying to help. A new generation of Basarwa thinkers say while Survival International ‘s role has been positive to the objectives of Basarwa struggles, a more circumspect position should be adopted.
Mmegi meets a group of young Basarwa intellectuals in a room at the University of Botswana where they are engaged in various levels of academic work. Survival gets a mixed review. Job Morris an activist and University student shakes his head. “They are too radical, I think”.
He finds the organisation’s method questionable. “Sometimes you find that they present what they hear without so much as evidence. They are quick to present what they hear as truth,” he says, arguing that the organisation’s engagement with other stakeholders involved in the issues is limited. Tshisimogo Leepang a Naro agrees. Leepang says the problem stems from the fact that Basarwa are always the ones offered help.
“Survival has a role but it cannot just say its just dealing with cases. Why not work to empower people. You can negotiate on behalf of people but sooner or later you have to come to a position where you have them prepared to take over their own struggle,” he argues.
But Corry says they have worked with FPK all these years to empower the organisation. “Survival went to great lengths to support the Bushmen’s own organisation, and to give its spokespeople a platform to speak to the outside world directly themselves. We have tried everything we can to empower the Bushmen, and will continue to do so,” he says.
Leepang worries that the Survival campaign may inadvertently depend on stereotypes of Basarwa. He says Survival may be in danger of “marginalising the marginalised” by seeking to depict Basarwa in sentimental and hopeless terms to attract funding, a charge Corry denies.
“Ideas of ‘untainted’, of ‘pure’ hunting and gathering, have never been perpetrated by Survival, and we are not of course responsible for how journalists (themselves barred from the country) report the issue,” Corry says.
Government spokesperson Dr Jeff Ramsay has often clashed with the NGO for what he views as an attempt to portray Basarwa as an exotic ethnic group.
“Stereotypes about Khoe, whether they come from within our own country or emanate from abroad are in this respect harmful, and undoubtedly contribute to the problem,” argues Jeff Ramsay this week. Just last week, Corry and Ramsay traded blows. Ramsay accused Corry of portraying Basarwa as Bushmen to sentimentalise their image for their western funders. Corry retorted by showing the country’s tourism body, the Botswana Tourism, using the same images to sell Botswana as a tourist place.
Survival International on its website defends its decision to use the term Bushmen this way: “Survival uses the term ‘Bushmen’ because members of the tribe generally prefer the term to other widely used terms such as ‘Basarwa’ or ‘San’, and because it is the most readily understood term by readers of English” .
Morris says because Basarwa are disempowered in their own struggle, they remain victims of labelling by even those who mean well, from researchers to human rights activists.
There is no question that Basarwa are victims of both the government’s flawed policies, which perpetuate some stereotypes and Survival’s attempt to portray their helplessness against government attack. All these tussles over Basarwa have no input from the people supposedly being defended, some have argued.
“You have to understand any organisation that provides any assistance would have its own agenda. It may help your cause but often it has its own agenda which may not necessarily be helpful to your long term goals,” says Leepang.
He says the ultimate goal should be for Basarwa to drive their own struggle. In that way they would be able to set its goals and sustain it.
Morris urges Basarwa intellectuals and communities to face government programs with a sober mind, without “opposing for the sake of it”.
Leepang concurs: “The future lies with us Basarwa intellectuals to not just contribute to the development of our people but to play an active role in our communities. Ultimately the resolution to these challenges will come when we are fully involved.
Morris says in the future when Basarwa have enough people in influential positions they will be able to tell their story. This story is part of a collaboration between Mmegi (Botswana) and Zam Chronicle, an online magazine (Holland)