SOS Bushmen

The earliest modern inhabitants of southern African were the bushman (San) and the Hottentot (Khoe) peoples.

The quote is from the department of tourism website on 'culture and history of Botswana.' While the word bushman has been removed from laws of Botswana because it is deemed derogatory, the tourism department has not updated the information on its website. Addressing kgotla meetings in Ngwaketse area last year, the assistant minister of agriculture, Peter Siele said that the word 'Bushmen' was being replaced with Basarwa. Director of the department Tlhabologo Ndzinge, admitted that the offending term has been used on their website and other promotional brochures, not for derogatory purposes but to highlight cultural experiences of the Basarwa in order to attract the attention of prospective tourists.'Our website was developed some years back. We are in the process of updating it and other publications as well. In our recent promotional brochures we have used either 'the San' or 'Basarwa',' Ndzinge said.

This was the sobering assessment of Namibia's indigenous San community, delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Libertina Amathila last September after a visit to the north-eastern Otjozondjupa region where the majority of San live.

"We need to go into full force as government. They should be given land -- a place they can call their own so that they can feed themselves, run agricultural projects, water the gardensàand women can do needlework projects," Amathila said.

LAST week, outside Kimberley in South Africa's Northern Cape province, the first 40 recruits of Sanda, a new security company, paraded in the blazing sun and rolling dust to celebrate the end of their training. This would not be much of an event, were it not for the fact that all the recruits are Bushmen, the once traditional hunter-gatherers also known as San who roamed Southern Africa for thousands of years.

Sanda is bringing much needed hope to the 6,500 !Xun and Khwe Bushmen who live on Platfontein farm and who own a majority stake in the new venture. It is the brainchild of Gert Schoombie, a retired colonel from the South African Defence Force. "God gave me a very clear vision," he explains. The Bushmen's traditional tracking and hunting skills could be used to deal with predators, recover stolen livestock and prevent attacks on farms by spotting unusual activity. At the same time, this would provide a stable source of income for people short of jobs and prospects, while preserving fast-disappearing skills and traditions. Luckily, God also sent Absa, a South African bank, which provided cash to start the project.

Kamama Mukua, the local Khwe leader, believes that this heralds a new future for the community, originally from Angola and Namibia. With his three-piece suit, sunglasses and hat, he dressed for the occasion. Like many others in Platfontein, he was enrolled in the Portuguese colonial army during the war in Angola in the 1970s. When the defeated Portuguese went back home, the conscripted Bushmen and their families fled to Namibia. With Namibia's independence in 1990, they moved to South Africa, and most were dumped in the Schmidtsdrift military camp, a desolate dustbowl near Kimberley. They remained there for ten years, living in tents, largely forgotten. A few years ago, they pooled their government allowances to buy Platfontein, the farm where they are now.

The plan is to train 1,000 guards over the next five years. Marais Kluge, a local farmer and Sanda's marketing director, says demand far outstrips supply. Loutjie du Toit, from the Bloukop farm in Mpumalanga province, has already recruited three guards from Sanda. The farm, he explains, loses about 15 sheep a week to theft, and a few more to jackals. He expects that even guards with bows and arrows will be a strong deterrent.

Eight Bushmen were arrested at gunpoint, threatened with death, and tortured last week before being held for a night in prison and charged for hunting in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana.

One of the men, Vitanon Mogwe, told Survival, 'The wildlife officers told our families they would shoot us and kill us so we ran for two days to the next village to hide. When they found us they pushed their guns into our chests and asked us what should stop them killing us right now.'

The eight men were tied to a pole for a day in a press-up position, and kicked and beaten if they tried to move.

The men are currently living in Kaudwane resettlement camp, having been evicted from their land in the reserve in 1997 and 2002. They are all listed on the charge sheet as 'unemployed'. The Botswana government banned hunting and gathering in the reserve following the 2002 evictions. The evicted Bushmen, who lived mainly by hunting and gathering, are now dependent on government 'destitute rations'. One Bushman at Kaudwane old Survival, 'I am doing nothing, and I'm suffering from hunger. That's why you're seeing us eating dogs.'

The persecution, arrest and torture of Bushman hunters in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve has been going on for about two decades, and has intensified in recent years.

Another group of four Bushmen were arrested for hunting in the reserve earlier in March. Two of the four were also tortured.