Naro Giraffe presenting sacred dances to President Festus Mogae
published in Mmegi news (Botsuana)-3/23/2005
Your Excellency, I’m a traveller from Brazil who spent some time in your beautiful country, with its amazing people and cultures. I’ve done some research on the situation of the so-called “Basarwa” and their relocation.
You say you want to “develop” these people, but according to the dictionary, to develop is “to make bigger or better”. How can you possibly know what is better for a completely different people with a different culture and values, who have been living on this earth for longer than your own people? I’m not saying they should have more rights because of that, but they must have the same rights. They must be given a chance to choose how they want to live their own lives. If they choose to live as hunter-gatherers, with all due respect, who are you to say they cannot do that because it is something from the past?
In one of your speeches you stated: “... we shall also continue to reject the old colonial apartheid myth that insists that some black communities are more indigenous than others”. According to the UN, “Indigenous peoples are the inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures and ways of relating to other people and to the environment. Indigenous peoples have retained social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live”. To quote Alice Mogwe: “The tragedy is that we are replaying the colonisation game if we don’t allow the San their right to be different.” Do you see the connection? It is not about considering some people more indigenous than others, it is about the significance of being indigenous and what that implies in your way of life. The majority of Botswana have adopted Western characteristics of society, culture, economy and politics. Some people such as the Basarwa/Bushmen do not want that. And it is not about them going back to their old ways and walking around in loincloths, it is about them choosing how they want to live and how they want to develop.
Why can’t they be different? As you stated yourself: “The strength and success of our nation depends on our ability to appreciate and manage our differences”. The country has adopted an amazing policy with Vision 2016, but you contradict yourselves with your present actions and some of the goals: “...freedom of will, will be fully protected”; “There will be high standards of personal morality, and tolerant social attitudes towards people of different cultures, ethnic traditions, religions or disabilities”; “Botswana will be a united and proud nation”; and even in the meaning of the word “Botho” (Setswana word for respect, good manners).
Botswana has everything it takes to build a “united and proud nation”, except that the government is insisting on expressing lack of “Botho” towards minorities. It is unacceptable that one doesn’t respect people from their own country. It is unacceptable that one doesn’t respect their most basic rights such as freedom of will and choice, to choose where and how they want to live their own lives. Everyone, even the minorities have the right to live a life of dignity without hierarchies telling them what to do, how to live, which languages to speak and what to believe in. I expect that for writing this, I’ll be stereotyped as just another romantic who wants to see the bushmen walking around in animal skins; an arrogant white coming to tell you what to do. Well, don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to tell you or them (Basarwa) what to do. I don’t think I know better. I don’t think you know better either. That’s why I wish that you would stop telling them what to do and thinking you know it better.
I’ve been to New Xade and some other settlements. I was told that the government is giving the resettled people of New Xade lots of food. This sounds like good help but is only making them completely dependent on the government. You take away their land, their rights, their independence as a people and their lives as they know it and in exchange you give them money, food and other material goods. Lots of money is being spent in “developing” the relocation camps, but you are forgetting that the people are the most important.
At first, I was impressed with the work that NGO Permaculture Trust of Botswana (PTB) is doing in helping people to make small vegetable gardens, make bricks for their own houses, raise poultry and start a craft shop. But then I realised that even though this is a positive side, in the situation as a whole, it is negligible. It is far from compensating all their losses. The work that PTB is doing is just another way of inducing the Basarwa to do what you think is better for them, disregarding their position. In school they are forced to learn in English and Setswana but nothing about their own languages and cultures. The adults are given money and goods but no conscience about how to handle that. Just as many other indigenous peoples around the world, this is leading them towards HIV/AIDS, alcoholism, domestic violence and poverty.
No one is trying to deny the Botswana government the right to develop its citizens. Indeed, it has the obligation to do so, but in a manner that respects their human rights - and their right to participate fully in the development process and not be coerced into “developing” in a manner that may contradict their values, culture, and individual and communal aspirations.
I hereby make a plea to the government of Botswana and all its beautiful people to have a little more respect for one another. Show that you really care, put “Botho” into practice right now.
God bless Botswana and all it’s peoples to live One Love, One People and Peace. One people doesn’t mean to assimilate all cultures into the main one. It means that all people get together as one, loving, respecting and caring for each other. With diversity in unity. Our cultures are our most valuable possessions. The world is moving towards One love and One people, each one at their own pace. Nobody needs to be pushed, not even the Basarwa/Bushmen.
With love and respect.
Thomas Bisinger
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