Making a Difference

24 Marginalized San Communities

MarginalizedSan Communities After completing my assignment of the German Special Initiative, I wondered what I would do next. I didn’t have long to wait. One Opposition Member of Parliament, Honourable Moongo, asked the Prime Minister the following question: was the Prime Minister aware that a San man had died of hunger in one village (he named the village) and if the answer was ‘yes’, what was the Prime Minister intending to do about it? The Prime Minister was out of Windhoek on the day his answer was expected so I, as Deputy Prime Minister, had to answer that question. I hadn’t heard about the person who had apparently died of hunger, so I simply said that I didn’t know but I would investigate and come back to the House with the answer. ‘San’isthenametheNamasuseforpeoplewhoaregatherers(referred to in colonial times as Bushmen or ‘boesman’). In Otjiherero they are called ‘Ovakuruvehi’ (the ancient people of the land), or ‘Ovakuruha’ in short. In Botswana, the San are called ‘Masarwa’. Traditionally, the San led a nomadic life as hunters and gatherers across southern Africa. However, their ancestral hunting grounds were decimated by other communities, and they were specifically targeted and even hunted by white European settlers. They have sometimes compensated by hunting cattle and this has brought them into conflict with other communities. There are ten San sub-groups in Namibia: 1 !xo; led by Chief Sofia Jacobs 2 Ju/’hoansi; led by Chief Bobo 3 !Kung; led by Chief Arnold 4 Khwe; no Chief yet 5 HaiÆom; led by Chief David 193 Marginalized San Communities 6 Khoe; led by Chief Langman 7 !Xu (Vasekele); Ohangwena Region 8 Nharo; Tsumkwe West 9 /Nu-//En; Omaheke Region 10 /Auni; Hardap Region. As this book went to press in July 2012, Chief Arnold sadly died after a car accident. His successor has not yet been appointed. I don’t have a breakdown of the numbers in each group but altogether they number some 30,000 San people in Namibia, mainly in the following regions: Omaheke, Otjozondjupa, Kavango, Caprivi, Ohangwena, Oshikoto and Omusati. They are also found in towns and are scattered here and there throughout the country. The traditional hunting and gathering grounds of the San people have become inaccessible. Farmers fence off the land, and in some instances they hunt the wild animals from which the San survive. So the San, not having any other source of meat, since they do not own cattle, are accused of stealing other people’s cattle. Most San are poor and marginalized but are not thieves in general. Occasionally they may kill somebody’s cattle, but this is rare. Fact-Finding Mission I went to the President and told him about the issue raised in the National Assembly, and what I wanted to do. I thought the best thing would be to visit all the regions where the San people are found, in order to answer that question. So I asked for permission to travel around the country to investigate the condition of the San communities. The President readily agreed for me to go, to compile a report and come up with recommendations. Once Parliament went on recess, I started my trip. First, I wrote to the Governors of all thirteen regions to inform them about my trip and asked them to make a programme for me to visit their respective regions, particularly those who had San people in their constituencies. I left for the regions in September 2006 with my delegation, which consisted of my two drivers and one security officer. We were aware that there were no hotels in some places, so we travelled with our own tents, and our pots and pans. Making a Difference 194 The first region we visited was Omaheke, where we were well received by the Governor, Ms Laura McCleod-Katjirua. She gave us a thorough briefing about the region and, in particular, the situation of the San communities there. The next day we started our visits to different villages, accompanied by her and her officials. Though I was born in a village and knew how people lived in villages, I didn’t expect to see the utter poverty we witnessed there. Wherever I went, the San people were destitute. They were living on the margins of existence. At Independence, we inherited eleven ethnic administrations that had been set up by the divisive South African apartheid...