Treesleeper Camp: Setting and Structure
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0##1*##.#0+.S +.!21-,-++3,'27 #0!#.2'-,,"-, +%#0#2'-,-$31&+#, 23"7-, -++3,'27V1#"," 3*230*-30'1+',1',21 '1Q +' ' JJ:*JH@V J10V`1 7Q`V1RVJ %$% Thesis Advisors: Prof. Wouter van Beek, Dr. Marcel Rutten This research was conducted as a final thesis for the Research Master African Studies 2008- 2010 at the African Studies Centre, Leiden University, within the thematic specialisation of ‘Development and Social Change’ and the regional specialisation of ‘Southern Africa’. *#-$ -,2#,21S 1 Introduction and Conceptual Framework ................................................................ 1 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Argument Outline and Research Problem ........................................................ 2 1.3 Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................... 5 1.3.1 Community ................................................................................................... 5 1.3.2 San/Bushmen Terminology .......................................................................... 7 1.3.3 Anthropology of Tourism and Cultural Tourism ........................................ 10 1.3.4 Agency, Access and Marginalisation .......................................................... 13 1.4 Field and Methods .......................................................................................... 15 1.4.1 A Village and its Project. Tsintsabis and Treesleeper Camp: Setting and Structure .................................................................................................................. 15 1.4.2 Research Methodology ............................................................................... 20 1.5 Structure of Chapters ...................................................................................... 22 2 The Community of Tsintsabis: Different Communities in One Community ........ 24 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 24 2.2 An Outsider’s First Impression of Community Life ...................................... 24 2.3 The Relevance of Ethnicity in Tsintsabis ....................................................... 26 2.3.1 Newcomers and the “First People” ............................................................. 26 2.3.2 Hai//om and !Kung People .......................................................................... 30 2.4 Family: A Fundamental Entity in Tsintsabis? ................................................ 33 2.4.1 Family vs. Community: The Role of the Headman .................................... 33 2.4.2 Political and Religious Affiliation Splitting Families? ............................... 36 2.5 Impact of the New Road ................................................................................. 38 2.5.1 The Road: a Top-Down Project .................................................................. 38 2.5.2 The New Road: Changes for Tsintsabis and Treesleeper ........................... 41 2.6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 46 3 The Community-Based Treesleeper Project: Uniting and Separating the Community ..................................................................................................................... 49 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 49 3.2 Inside Treesleeper: Staff and Tsintsabis Trust ............................................... 50 3.2.1 Staff and Management ................................................................................ 50 3.2.2 Relation between Trustees .......................................................................... 54 3.2.3 Relation between Staff and Trust ................................................................ 57 3.3 Villagers’ Involvement in Treesleeper ........................................................... 60 3.3.1 Villagers’ Perspective on the Project .......................................................... 60 3.3.2 Treesleeper and Influence of Prominent Families ...................................... 65 3.4 Different Understandings of Justice ............................................................... 67 3.5 Dispute between Treesleeper Management and School ................................. 70 3.6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 74 4 Perception and Self-perception of Bushmen in the Context of Marginalisation ... 76 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 76 4.2 Perception of Bushmen in the Past and the Present ........................................ 77 4.2.1 Anthropologists’ Views of Bushmen and Western Media’s Contribution to the Image Creation of Bushmen ............................................................................. 77 4.2.2 Commercial Farmers’ Attitude towards Bushmen between Exploitation and Education ................................................................................................................ 82 4.2.3 Changes in Governments and Changes in Governments’ Perspectives on Bushmen ................................................................................................................. 87 4.2.4 Views and Approaches in Development Aid for Bushmen ........................ 98 4.3 Hai//om’s and !Kung’s Self-Perception ....................................................... 103 4.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 106 5 Treesleeper’s Impact on the Perception and Self-perception of Bushmen .......... 110 5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 110 5.2 Bushwalk at Treesleeper: An Encounter between Bushmen's Pride of their Past and Tourists' Image of Bushmen ....................................................................... 112 5.3 Traditional Performance at Treesleeper: Bushmen’s Contributions to the Dance and Tourists’ Expectations of the Dance ....................................................... 119 5.4 Treesleeper’s Village Walk: Differences in Hosts’ and Guests’ Perspectives on the Encounter ....................................................................................................... 127 5.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 134 6 Final Conclusion .................................................................................................. 137 6.1 Analysis of Processes of Change .................................................................. 137 6.2 Community-based and Cultural Tourism and its Future Perspectives ......... 141 7 References ............................................................................................................ 145 List of Acronyms CBNRM = Community-Based Natural Resource Management LAC = Legal Assistance Center MBEC = Ministry of Basic Education and Culture MET = Ministry of Environment and Tourism MLR = Ministry of Lands and Resettlement MLRR = Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation MRLGHR = Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development NACOBTA = Namibia Community Based Tourism Assistance Trust NDP = National Development Plan NDT = Namibian Development Trust NGO = Non-Governmental Organisation NP = National Park NTB = Namibian Tourism Board NWR = Namibian Wildlife Resorts PLAN = People's Liberation Army of Namibia (military wing of SWAPO) RDP = Rally for Democracy and Progress SADF = South African Defence Force SWAPO = South West African People’s Organisation UN =United Nations WIMSA = Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa i Acknowledgement I am indebted to many people for their support and encouragement in the completion of this research. First of all I am grateful to the people of Tsintsabis who welcomed me and assisted me in my fieldwork. Especially I would like to thank Moses //Khumub, who introduced me to the village and had a lot of patience for my many questions, and Bettie Khous-oos, my research assistant, who helped me to identify interviewees, translated many interviews for me and became an important contact person. My special thanks also go to the staff members of Treesleeper Camp, who made my stay a time that I will always remember. In the Netherlands, I am grateful to Stasja Koot. Without his mediation and practical information about Tsintsabis and Namibia the research would not have been possible. I owe my special thanks to my thesis advisors Wouter van Beek and Marcel Rutten, who provided me with suggestions and comments during the preparation of my fieldwork and my thesis writing. In Namibia, I would like to express my gratitude to Graham Hopwood, Lizaan van Wyk and the research associates of the Institute for Public Policy Research, who provided me with great working surroundings during my time in Windhoek and helped me with my practical organisation. I am thankful to many more people of the tourism industry, of civil society’s organisations and of government institutions in Namibia, who assisted me in my research. A lot of thanks also to my