San in Namibia James Suzman Legal Assistance Centre an ASSESSMENT of the STATUS of the SAN in NAMIBIA I
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Regional Assessment of the Status of the San in Southern Africa An Assessment of the Status of the San in Namibia James Suzman Legal Assistance Centre AN ASSESSMENT OF THE STATUS OF THE SAN IN NAMIBIA i REGIONAL ASSESSMENT OF THE STATUS OF THE SAN IN SOUTHERN AFRICA REPORT SERIES • Report No. 4 of 5 AN ASSESSMENT OF THE STATUS OF THE SAN IN NAMIBIA James Suzman LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTRE (LAC) Windhoek • April 2001 ii REGIONAL ASSESSMENT OF THE STATUS OF THE SAN IN SOUTHERN AFRICA © Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) 2001 Any part of this publication may be reproduced for educational or academic purposes, on condition that the authors, the publisher and the financial contribution of the European Community to the Regional Assessment of the Status of the San in Southern Africa are acknowledged. First printed April 2001 Printed by John Meinert Printing, Windhoek Photographs courtesy of the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa, Silke Felton and James Suzman Publisher’s contact details: Street address: 4 Körner Street, Windhoek Postal address: PO Box 604, Windhoek, Republic of Namibia Telephone: (+264) (+61) 223356 Fax: 234953 E-mail address: [email protected] Web site: http://www.lac.org.na ISBN 99916-765-61-1 AN ASSESSMENT OF THE STATUS OF THE SAN IN NAMIBIA iii PREFACE At the 22nd Session of the ACP-EU Joint Assembly held in Windhoek in March 1996, a resolution was passed recognising the “special difficulties encountered in integrating hunting and gathering peoples in agricultural industrial states”, and calling for “a comprehensive study of the San people … in the light of international conventions”. To this end it was decided that a study titled A Regional Assessment of the Status of the San in Southern Africa would be conducted, with funding from the European Union (EU). With a view to implementing the project, the EU commissioned Prof. Sidsel Saugestad at the University of Tromsø to prepare an inception report incorporating a broad work plan and budget. This report was revised in Windhoek in late 1998 by the implementing agency, the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), and implementation commenced following the exchange of contracts between the LAC and EU in January 1999. A project co-ordinator was formally appointed in the same month, and a total of ten researchers were contracted to conduct the research and prepare a report on their findings. The outcome of the study is a series of five reports. The first in the series serves as an introduction to the study as a whole. The second, third and fourth are country-specific reports on the situation of San in South Africa, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe (combined in one volume), Botswana and Namibia. The fifth is the outcome of a specialist consultancy commissioned as part of the study to focus on gender issues in relation to San. The study as a whole was made possible by a contribution from budget line B7-6200/98-13/ENV/VIII of the European Community (EC). All opinions expressed in the study report series are the opinions of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the EC, nor of the LAC. James Suzman Study Co-ordinator Windhoek January 2001 iv REGIONAL ASSESSMENT OF THE STATUS OF THE SAN IN SOUTHERN AFRICA ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A great many people assisted me both in conducting the research and in producing the final version of this report, and I am extremely grateful for their time and effort. I wish to thank particularly Silke Felton, Matthias Brenzinger, Karin Rousset and David Naude for their extensive assistance during the research phase. A special word of thanks is also due to the organisations which I approached for various forms of assis- tance while conducting the research and also while writing up the report, namely: the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA), the San Traditional Authorities in Namibia, the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia (NNDFN), Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC), the Ombili Foundation and the Government of Namibia line ministries referred to herein. Of course I am greatly indebted to the many San communities whose warm welcoming and willingness to co-operate made my task a pleasant rather than arduous one. I am very grateful to the staff at the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) for the administrative assistance and moral support they rendered throughout the study period; to the members of the study advisory group for their guidance and assistance throughout; to Pierre du Plessis, William Hofmeyer and Perri Caplan for polishing up all the draft texts and producing print-ready reports; and to the EU delegation in Namibia for helping to ensure the smooth running of the entire project. James Suzman AN ASSESSMENT OF THE STATUS OF THE SAN IN NAMIBIA v CONTENTS FIGURES AND TABLES ...................................................................................................................................... x ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................... xi MAPS Map 1: The regions of Namibia........................................................................................................................xiii Map 2: Distribution of San speakers in Namibia ...............................................................................................xiv Map 3: The communal and commercial farming areas of Namibia .................................................................... xv Map 4: San resettlement areas in Namibia.......................................................................................................xvi SUMMARY ...............................................................................................................................................xvii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................1 1.1 San in Namibia ........................................................................................................................................2 1.1.1 Who are the San?...........................................................................................................................2 1.1.2 Demography and population............................................................................................................4 1.1.3 Historical overview..........................................................................................................................5 1.2 The dynamics of San marginalisation ....................................................................................................6 1.2.1 Dependency ...................................................................................................................................6 1.2.2 Popular stereotypes ........................................................................................................................8 1.2.3 Culture and society .........................................................................................................................9 1.2.4 Social problems ..............................................................................................................................9 1.3 Conclusions ..........................................................................................................................................10 CHAPTER 2 THE COMMERCIAL FARMS ................................................................................................................11 2.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................................................11 2.2 From German settlement to independence ..........................................................................................11 2.2.1 Farming areas into which San were incorporated as farm labourers................................................12 2.2.2 Generational farm workers ............................................................................................................13 2.2.3 The social organisation of farm life: baasskap ................................................................................14 2.2.4 The breakdown of generational farm labour patterns – 1975 to 1990 ..............................................14 2.3 Social and cultural transformation .......................................................................................................15 2.3.1 The breakdown of traditional social groupings and institutions ........................................................15 2.3.2 Gender and transformation............................................................................................................15 2.4 San in commercial farming areas: independence onwards .................................................................16 2.4.1 Broader socio-economic and political change: mobility and insecurity .............................................16 2.4.2 Impacts on San.............................................................................................................................19 2.4.3 Current living and working conditions of San farm workers .............................................................20 2.5 Conclusions and recommendations.....................................................................................................23 2.5.1 Incentive schemes for farmers.......................................................................................................23