1 SIDSEL SAUGESTAD The Inconvenient Indigenous Remote Area Development in Botswana, Donor Assistance, and the First People of the Kalahari The Nordic Africa Institute, 2001 2 The book is printed with support from the Norwegian Research Council. Front cover photo: Lokalane – one of the many small groups not recognised as a community in the official scheme of things Back cover photos from top: Irrigation – symbol of objectives and achievements of the RAD programme Children – always a hope for the future John Hardbattle – charismatic first leader of the First People of the Kalahari Ethno-tourism – old dance in new clothing Indexing terms Applied anthropology Bushmen Development programmes Ethnic relations Government policy Indigenous peoples Nation-building NORAD Botswana Kalahari San Photos: The author Language checking: Elaine Almén © The author and The Nordic Africa Institute 2001 ISBN 91-7106-475-3 Printed in Sweden by Centraltryckeriet Åke Svensson AB, Borås 2001 3 My home is in my heart it migrates with me What shall I say brother what shall I say sister They come and ask where is your home they come with papers and say this belongs to nobody this is government land everything belongs to the State What shall I say sister what shall I say brother […] All of this is my home and I carry it in my heart NILS ASLAK VALKEAPÄÄ Trekways of the Wind 1994 ∫ This conference that I see here is something very big. It can be the beginning of something big. I hope it is not the end of something big. ARON JOHANNES at the opening of the Regional San Conference in Gaborone, October 1993 4 Preface and Acknowledgements The title of this book is not a description of the indigenous people of Botswana, it is a characterisation of a prevailing attitude to this group. The focus is on the relationship between the government of Botswana and its indigenous minority, known as Bushmen, San, Basarwa, or more recently N/oakwe or simply Kwe. The analysis combines modern theories about ethnic groups with the under- standing of indigenous peoples that has become a topic in international debates over recent decades. It is my hope that this approach may provide a useful contribution to an understanding of the present situation in Botswana, the proc- esses that have generated this situation, and the potentials for a constructive development in the future. While the approach chosen may seem obvious and even pedestrian to aca- demics conversant with minority issues, characterising the San as an indigenous minority introduces a terminology that is seen as irrelevant or potentially divi- sive by many influential quarters in Botswana, and cumbersome by many bu- reaucrats. In these discrepant views lies much of the challenge, and also much of the justification for this study. The book is a chronicle of a period of history that was important in the establishing of San organisations and identities. It also records the story of the Remote Area Development Programme, which formed an important context for this process, and its less known but also important predecessor: The Bushmen Development Programme. It is also an essay in applied anthropology. It tries to make sense of a rather complex situation by expanding the semantic field within which the discourse on state-minority relations takes place. It is my hope that this study may contribute to the continuous analysis of their situation that the first people of the Kalahari have to undertake (and here I mean all first people, not only the organisation of that name). The data consist of publications and observations in a variety of forms: books, newspaper reports, project- and policy documents, and the public debates as these were expressed in workshops and meetings. Data were mostly collected in 1992 and 1993 when I worked as a NORAD expert attached to the Remote Area Development Programme, and was based at the University of Botswana. The events of these two years are most prominent in my analysis. However, thanks to a programme for research collaboration between the Universities of Botswana and Tromsø I have been able to keep in touch with Botswana after that period, and I draw freely, but less systematically, on events and examples up to the time of writing. Over the years that I have been working with the issues that are the topic of this study, I have incurred a debt of gratitude to a great many people. My thanks go first of all to Benedicte Ingstad, for first introducing me to Botswana and for encouragement in writing this book, and to Janet Hermans, for friendship, for sharing of interests, and for hospitality in Gaborone. Thanks to both for reading earlier versions of this study, and to Janet for patiently correcting my English. Thanks to some very good colleagues at the University of Botswana who in their different ways share my interest and concern for the topic of this book, particularly Joseph Tsonope, also a much valued counterpart in the NUFU-funded 5 San/Basarwa Research Programme, Maitseo Bolaane, Stella Monageng, Shelagh Willet and other participants in the collaborative programme. In Ghanzi, the late John Hardbattle provided inspiration and visions for the future of San people, along with Aron Johannes, Mathambo Ngakaeaja, Hunter Sixpence, Selina Magu and the late Kamana Phetso of the Kuru Development Trust and WIMSA, and Mama Rampadi and Roy Sesana of the First People of the Kalahari. Thanks also to Willemien and Braam le Roux and Coby and Hessel Visser for many stimulating discussions. Also a generalised thanks to the many people, known and unknown who appear in the photographs, whom I cannot reach individually. Your contribution is acknowledged symbolically through providing copies of this book to the organisations that strive to repre- sent you. Thanks to patient readers of previous drafts of this manuscript: Megan Biesele for reading a very early draft, Alan Barnard for meticulous comments, Ken Good for criticism, and Tony Traill for invaluable advice on Khoesan languages. Thanks to Dona Lee Davis and Helle Valborg Goldman for helpful comments on the organisation of my arguments, and Trond Thuen for comments on the concluding chapter. A previous version of this book was completed in 1998 and was defended for the degree of Doctor Philosophiae in 1999. Thanks for lucid comments from my two opponents: Richard Lee and Patrick Molutsi. The Faculty of Social Science of the University of Tromsø and my colleagues at the Department of Social Anthropology have provided a good environment to work in. The Institute for the Comparative Study of Cultures gave me a small travel grant in 1995. The Norwegian Universities’ Committee for Development Research and Education has funded the Collaborative Programme for San/ Basarwa Research (NUFU PRO 20/96) that has given me the opportunity for further travel. A grant from the Norwegian Research Council under the pro- gramme Globalisation and Marginalisation (13166/730) released me from teach- ing in 2000 and gave me the opportunity to revise and update the manuscript for the present book, and a further grant (139329/540) has contributed to the cost of publication. Thanks to Per Mathiesen, husband, friend, and colleague, for valuable com- ments on parts of the manuscript, and to Mari and Kaia, beloved daughters, who went with me to Botswana and for one year suffered a mother who took more interest in Bushmen than in wildlife safaris. Needless to say, the views and conclusions contained in this study are solely mine, and do not necessarily represent the points of view of any of the institu- tions I have been associated with. Tromsø, January 2001 SIDSEL SAUGESTAD This book is dedicated to John, and to those who have carried on. 6 Acronyms and Abbreviations BCC Botswana Christian Council BDO Bushmen Development Officer BDP Botswana Democratic Party CBRNM Community Based Natural Resource Management CKGR Central Kalahari Game Reserve DWNP Department of Wildlife and National Parks (MFDP) ELCIN Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia EPF Economic Promotion Fund FPK First People of the Kalahari GOB Government of Botswana GON Government of Norway ILO International Labour Organisation IWGIA International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs KDT Kuru Development Trust MFDP Ministry of Finance and Development Planning MLGL&H Ministry of Local Government, Lands and Housing NDP National Development Plan NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NIR National Institute of Development Research and Documentation, University of Botswana NORAD Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation NUFU Norwegian Council of Universities’ Committee for Development Research and Cooperation PS Permanent Secretary RADP Remote Area Development Programme SADC Southern African Development Community SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency SNV Netherlands Development Organisation TOR Terms of Reference TGLP Tribal Grazing Land Policy UB University of Botswana UT University of Tromsø VDC Village Development Committee WIMSA Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa WGIP UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations WMA Wildlife Management Area 7 Contents PART 1 – THE PROBLEM 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 26 Nation-State — Minority Relations .......................................................26 A sensitive issue .....................................................................................36 Events and arenas for observation .........................................................38