BUSHMEN TO TELL OF ANCESTRAL-LAND GRABS
In many countries around the world, diamonds are a symbol of love and longevity, engagements and anniversaries.
But for Jumanda Gakelebone, a field worker of the Kalahari people in Botswana, Africa, diamonds are a symbol of genocide and loss of ancestral lands.
"The diamond companies are coming into our land and not consulting with us," Gakelebone said in a phone interview Monday. "We want our land back. We have to talk to our ancestors through the land. We have to dance to our ancestors on our land."
Gakelebone is one of two Kalahari Bushmen traveling the country, including to Capitol Hill to discuss their loss of lands. While in the Southwest, the Bushmen are visiting Santa Fe tonight for a fund- raiser to help their cause.
According to a story in National Geographic about the Bushmen's U.S. tour, the Bushmen are raising money for their court fight against their eviction by the Botswana government from ancestral lands in the Kalahari Game Reserve.
They also are meeting Hopi and Navajo tribal councils to get advice on how to retain ancestral lands while adjusting to modern culture.
Gakelebone said both American Indian tribes have pledged to write letters of support for the Bushmen and to help fund a cultural exchange between elders of the African and American Indian tribes.
Gakelebone said close to 1,800 tribespeople are being forced to live in resettlement camps. Only 150 tribespeople still live on the 52,000-square-mile reserve granted to the Bushmen in 1961 by the British.
Those who still live on the land have had their hunting licenses revoked and are constantly being charged with poaching, said Rupert Isaacson, a spokesman for the Bushmen.
"It's cultural genocide," Isaacson said.
Isaacson said the people in the resettlement camps are forced to assimilate into the Botswana tribe -- the dominant tribe of Botswana. He said they are being pushed off their land to make room for diamond companies whose mines occupy two-thirds of the reserve.
"We can't be Bushmen. We have to be Botswana," Gakelebone said. "In the camps, we cannot do anything. We cannot feed our families."
Isaacson said the Botswana government has had long ties to diamond-mining industries and in recent months has granted concessions to several more companies to probe for diamonds in the reserve.
Gakelebone is one of two Kalahari Bushmen traveling the country, including to Capitol Hill to discuss their loss of lands. While in the Southwest, the Bushmen are visiting Santa Fe tonight for a fund- raiser to help their cause.
According to a story in National Geographic about the Bushmen's U.S. tour, the Bushmen are raising money for their court fight against their eviction by the Botswana government from ancestral lands in the Kalahari Game Reserve.
They also are meeting Hopi and Navajo tribal councils to get advice on how to retain ancestral lands while adjusting to modern culture.
Gakelebone said both American Indian tribes have pledged to write letters of support for the Bushmen and to help fund a cultural exchange between elders of the African and American Indian tribes.
Gakelebone said close to 1,800 tribespeople are being forced to live in resettlement camps. Only 150 tribespeople still live on the 52,000-square-mile reserve granted to the Bushmen in 1961 by the British.
Those who still live on the land have had their hunting licenses revoked and are constantly being charged with poaching, said Rupert Isaacson, a spokesman for the Bushmen.
"It's cultural genocide," Isaacson said.
Isaacson said the people in the resettlement camps are forced to assimilate into the Botswana tribe -- the dominant tribe of Botswana. He said they are being pushed off their land to make room for diamond companies whose mines occupy two-thirds of the reserve.
"We can't be Bushmen. We have to be Botswana," Gakelebone said. "In the camps, we cannot do anything. We cannot feed our families."
Isaacson said the Botswana government has had long ties to diamond-mining industries and in recent months has granted concessions to several more companies to probe for diamonds in the reserve.
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21 Septembre 2004 à 11:24 dans
- English
