Dwelling in Tourism: Power and Myth Amongst Bushmen in Southern Africa
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Dwelling in tourism African Studies Centre African Studies Collection, vol. 54 Dwelling in tourism Power and myth amongst Bushmen in Southern Africa Stasja P. Koot Published by: African Studies Centre P.O. Box 9555 2300 RB Leiden [email protected] www.ascleiden.nl Cover design: Heike Slingerland Cover photo: Shadows interacting: Toppies Kruiper of the South Kalahari Bushmen tracking and writing in the sand for my girlfriend Lisa, a semi-tourist, and me, an anthro-tourist, in Kgalagadi [photo: Stasja Koot] Printed by Ipskamp Drukkers, Enschede ISSN: 1876-018X ISBN: 978-90-5448-133-1 © Stasja P. Koot, 2013 To Lisa and Timo, with love Contents List of tables ix List of photos ix List of maps x Prologue: Books and care xi List of abbreviations xiii Acknowledgements xiv Note on orthography xvii 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Bushmen hunter-gatherers 5 Dwelling in a modernising environment 17 2 THEORETICAL APPROACH 30 On hunter-gatherer economics 30 Dwelling, power and agency 38 The authentic Bushman in nature tourism 49 3 ICONS OF THE PAST, ICONS OF THE WEST: JU/’HOANSI DWELLING IN THE STRUCTURE OF NYAE NYAE 59 Introduction: Ju/’hoansi dwelling in a changing environment 60 Tourism dwellings and affordances in Nyae Nyae 72 The private sector in Ju/’hoansi environment 85 Meet the hunters 94 4 TOURISM AFTER THE WAR: KHWE DWELLING INSIDE BWABWATA 105 Introduction: Khwe dwelling in a suspicious environment 106 Tourism dwellings and affordances in Bwabwata 117 On the banks of the Kavango River 125 On benefits and conflicts: Trophy hunting 133 The Khwe diaspora: Dwelling in an international tourism environment 137 5 IMAGINED AND BRANDED: SOUTH KALAHARI BUSHMEN DWELLING IN A LAND CLAIM OUTSIDE KGALAGADI 150 Introduction: South Kalahari Bushmen dwelling in a ≠Khomani environment 152 Tourism dwellings and affordances at the farms 164 Molopo lodge in the middle of the farms 174 Tourism dwellings and affordances inside the !Ae !Hai Kalahari Heritage Park 180 !Xaus lodge, the heart of !Ae !Hai 190 vii 6 THE LANDLESS: HAI//OM DWELLING AT FARMS OUTSIDE ETOSHA 201 Introduction: Hai//om dwelling without land 202 Dwelling in Tsintsabis 220 Outsiders as affordances dwelling in the Hai//om environment 228 Treesleeper: An affordance 239 7 CONCLUSION 252 References 267 Annexes 284 1 Methodology 284 2 List of respondents 292 3 WIMSA media and research contract 300 4 Tender for White Sands, Bwabwata 304 5 Tender for trophy hunting concession, Bwabwata 305 6 Press release for the signing of the KAZA TFCA treaty 307 7 My motivation behind Treesleeper Camp in 2000 309 8 Dwelling with Survival and Wilderness in the Central Kalahari, Botswana 312 9 No research at !Khwa ttu, South Africa 315 10 Dwelling at the Dqãe Qare Game Reserve, Botswana 316 11 Movie Stars, Bushmen and baasskap at N/a’an Ku Sê, Namibia 318 viii List of tables 0.1 Click sounds in the two most common systems xvii 1.1 Population numbers of contemporary Bushmen, by country 6 1.2 Protected areas in Southern Africa that resulted in the involuntary resettlement of Bushmen 11 3.1 The development of the NNDFN and the Nyae Nyae Conservancy 66 List of photos 2.1 Bushman Art and African Museum, Windhoek, Namibia 57 3.1 Broken toilet at the Djokwe community-based campsite 79 3.2 A common sight in Nyae Nyae, using ostrich eggs for crafts 81 3.3 Lisa dancing with the Ju/’hoansi from //Xa/oba Living Hunters’ Museum 83 3.4 Logo of the Tsumkwe Country Lodge 87 3.5 Self-made road sign to Mountain Pos displaying the Buhman image 91 3.6 Dried elephant meat 97 4.1 The Kyaramacan Association’s logo 114 4.2 Typical Khwe baskets at Mashi Crafts, Kongola 119 4.3 Anton Dakomba watching a performance of his Hiyemacan //Au group 122 5.1 A contradiction of tall and small and a returned gaze: Nhamo Mhiripiri & Dawid Kruiper 151 5.2 Isak Gooi and his wife at their stalletjie with a lion depicted on his !xai 166 5.3 SASI homepage picture and logo 171 5.4 A borehole in Kgalagadi, dedicated to Karel ‘Vet Piet’ Kleinman 172 5.5 The sign to the Molopo liquor store 178 5.6 The Bushmen’s fenced path to the Molopo liquor store 178 5.7 Traditional Bushmen and a dead pangolin in !Ae !Hai 187 6.1 Homepage of the Baobab Game Ranch 210 6.2 Treedeck 226 6.3 Tree at Okaukuejo, Etosha and the original Treesleeper logo 242 6.4 The Treesleeper logo today 243 6.5 ‘African’ and ‘eco’ building styles combined at Treesleeper 244 6.6 Two performances: Left backstage at /Gomkhaos and right frontstage at Treesleeper 245 ix List of maps1 1.1 The four areas of research 4 1.2 The different Bushmen groups in Southern Africa 7 3.1 Ju/’hoansi n!oresi (hunting territories) in Nyae Nyae 67 3.2 Nyae Nyae Conservancy 70 4.1 Bwabwata National Park 109 4.2 The area around N//goabaca and White Sands 126 4.3 KAZA TFCA 139 5.1 Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and the farms 159 6.1 Hai//om population in and around Etosha, 1982 208 6.2 Little Etosha in the making, September 2012 218 1 All maps in this thesis are produced or reproduced by DeVink MapDesign. x Prologue: Books and care When I went to Sub-Saharan Africa for the first time in 1998, many people told me that once you have ‘touched’ Africa, you will keep going back. A cliché, maybe, but true for me. As a Masters student of anthropology, I had travelled a lot. My experiences as a tourist were abundant and varied, but not in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was then, during my first visit to Tsintsabis, Namibia, in 1998/1999 that I started caring for ‘Africa’ and spe- cifically for ‘the Bushmen’.2 And I now realise this is an essential part of the reason why I am still connected. It was then that I read Robert Pirsig’s philosophical novel Lila (1991) that triggered my enthusiasm for anthropology again after I had lost interest in it a bit, thinking it was not ‘scientific’ because it was not ‘objective’. Lila showed me that anthropology was important, and so I started caring. In the book, an anthropologist working with native Americans explains that “(t)he only way to find out about Indians is to care for them and win their love and respect” (Ibid.: 43). Today I am aware that my personal caring was the start of a paternalistic attitude that I developed over time. Another book I read at the time was Robert Gordon’s Picturing Bushmen: The Denver African Expedition of 1925 (1997), which changed my mindset and I began to see the Bushmen as ‘victimised’ people. It also familiarised me with the theme of ‘representation’. In 2001 I wrote some short prose entitled Sketches of Tsintsabis, where I wrote about reading Picturing Bushmen: While reading, I realise more and more how important the views of other people have been, concern- ing the contemporary situation of the Bushmen. I think about many things that I was told about them so far and realise that I can put them in a better perspective now. Not only things from the research (my MA), but also remarks from tourists and other people. I think about it: “How much we all love the primitive Bushmen … who really cares about them now?” (Koot 2002) Obviously, victimisation, representation and caring cannot be seen as separate issues. Today, some 14 years later, my view has become a lot more nuanced but the caring has not become any less. Looking at this critically can raise questions such as ‘Which Bushmen exactly do you care for?’, ‘Do you care for all or just a few Bushmen?’, ‘Is caring not patronising to a certain extent?’, ‘And if so, at what price?’, and so on. And I do not deny such questions, indeed, I welcome them. However, I do not always have the 2 The terms Bushmen, San or Basarwa are used to describe the original hunter-gatherers of Southern Africa and are all synonyms with slightly negative connotations (Saugestad 2001: 28-29). In this the- sis I use the term ‘Bushmen’, which is sometimes considered derogatory or racist. It was dropped in favour of the term ‘San’, but this also has a derogatory connotation. The Bushmen had and still have over a dozen self-applied terms because of the tremendous linguistic diversity (cf. Lee 1979: 29-30). The continued use of ‘San’ by academics seems to further mystify the people that are in Namibia called ‘Bushmen’ by most people, while there is no reason to pretend that the change of term would reduce the invidiousness and racism that exists in the various relationships with other cultures, which is where the terms get their emotive content (Gordon & Douglas 2000: 6). The people of Tsintsabis tend to use ‘Bushmen’ and in 1999 and between 2003 and 2007 when I lived with them I became familiar with ‘Bushmen’ as a collective name for the (former) hunter-gatherers of Southern Africa. However, this does not mean I consider this to be a ‘better’ name, I needed to make a choice. xi answers. I just know that from my personal experiences I care, and it is because of this that I am still connected with ‘the Bushmen’ today. In the conclusion to my MA thesis, I recommended setting up community-based tourism in Tsintsabis (Koot 2000: 87-89, see Annex 7). And when I made this sug- gestion, I did not expect it to happen.