The Bushmen, Survival and many other observers believe that the Bushmen were evicted because their land is rich in diamonds. Their case was subsequently dismissed, and the Bushmen are now left without the legal representative of their choice, in stark contravention of international law. © Survival Internationalīut at the last minute, the Bushmen’s long-standing lawyer, British barrister Gordon Bennett, was barred from Botswana. Botswana’s government is now preventing him from entering the country. Lawyer Gordon Bennett with Bushmen clients after their historic 2006 legal victory. The judges ruled that their eviction by the government was ‘unlawful and unconstitutional’, and that they have the right to live inside the reserve, on their ancestral land. On 13 December 2006 the Bushmen won an historic victory. Through the generosity of its supporters, Survival helped the Bushmen bring their case. During the case, the key clause protecting Bushman rights in Botswana’s constitution was removed by the government. Nearly all were evicted again by the government, some of them for the third time. While the case continued, many Bushmen tried to return to their homeland in the reserve. (Of the original 239 Bushmen, 12% died awaiting justice.) Together with their children, they represented around 1,000 people. © Lottie Davies/SurvivalĪlthough the Bushmen are Botswana’s poorest citizens, the case became the longest and most expensive in the country’s history.Ģ39 Bushman adults put their names to the case, and another 135 adults asked to be added to it. Gana Bushman leader and spokesman Roy Sesana, President of the Bushman organisation First People of the Kalahari ( FPK), in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana. Due to procedural wrangling, evidence did not start to be heard until 2004. They wanted the court to rule that their eviction was illegal. ![]() In 2002 the Bushmen took the government to court. Its policy is clearly to intimidate and frighten the Bushmen into staying in the resettlement camps, and making the lives of those who have gone back to their ancestral land impossible. Refused to issue a single permit to hunt on their land (despite Botswana’s High Court ruling that its refusal to issue permits was unlawful),Īrrested more than 50 Bushmen for hunting to feed their families,Įnforced restricted access to the reserve for the majority of Bushmen, who must now apply for a one-month permit to visit their families. The tourist lodge was developed and built without the consent of the Bushmen, who have been living on this land for centuries. The pool of Wilderness Safaris’ new lodge in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana. Many are now gripped by alcoholism, depression, and illnesses such as TB and HIV/ AIDS. Rarely able to hunt, and arrested and beaten when they do, they are dependent on government handouts. Those who have not returned to the reserve now live in resettlement camps outside the reserve. Their homes were dismantled, their school and health post were closed, their water supply was destroyed and the people were threatened and trucked away. ![]() In three big clearances, in 1997, 20, virtually all the Bushmen were forced out. 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 the early 1980s, diamonds were discovered in the reserve. In the middle of Botswana lies the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, a reserve created to protect the traditional territory of the 5,000 Gana, Gwi and Tsila Bushmen (and their neighbours the Bakgalagadi), and the game they depend on. ![]() They are the indigenous people of southern Africa, and have lived there for tens of thousands of years. There are 100,000 Bushmen in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Angola. This page was last updated on Jand may contain language which is now outdated.
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