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Quotations
from Gana and Gwi Bushmen about their land, torture and relocation
1999-01-01
Source:
Survival International
Quotations
from Gana and Gwi Bushmen about their land, torture and relocation
More
on the Bushmen at: http://www.survival-international.org/bushman.htm
"The lives of our people are not free. It is terrible not to
be free. In the rest of Botswana people live in peace and harmony
but not in this corner, the central corner of the Kalahari Game
Reserve."
- Bushman, January 2002
I do not want this place. It is foreign to me. My land is in there
[the reserve]. I would rather die there than live here.
Bushman, New Xade, May 2002
I don't care about infrastructure. What I miss is the land. It was
our original land.
Gakebarate Thankane, April 2002
We want to live in our land and to choose the way we want to live.
Roy Sesana, April 2002
I am feeling very sad. We were created by God on the land of our
fathers and their forefathers � it is our ancestral home.
The government has treated us unfairly. We were not given any
choice about moving out.
Molatlhwe Mokakale, April 2002
Now we have to leave our graveyards and go. The government sees no
problem with taking us out of our ancestral lands and putting us
somewhere else. Our Bushman culture and our social living is
destroyed, there is no respect for any of those things, there is
no democracy for us.
Roy Sesana, October 2001
The government said I must leave Molapo because there's eland
here, diamonds here and other things here. I think the government
tells me to leave so others will enjoy the riches of this land.
But I'm going to stay because those things are mine, not the
government's.
Gakeitsiwe Gaorapelwe, Molapo, October 2001
This place is not for the wildlife department. It is my father's
father's father's land.
Bushman woman, Molapo, October 2001
What I can say is that this is my place. Now the wildlife
department and the government say we must go out, I don't know why.
I was born here and my parents were born here. This is my place
and I can't go anywhere.
Bushman woman, Molapo, October 2001
We said that we didn't want to abandon our culture here and go
elsewhere. This is our ancestral land, why should we leave it and
go elsewhere? If we agreed to relocation, would the government
provide us with our natural resources and with our culture and
heritage, which we have here?
We know this land belonged to our great grandparents � we
have their burial sites here. But now, just because we are the
Bushmen, it seems that our land is being taken from us. Just
because we are Bushmen and we can't stand up for our land. We
think it is because we are Bushmen. We don't see it happening to
other peoples, only to the Bushman communities.
Tlhalefang Galetshipe, January 2001
Quotations from Gana and Gwi Bushmen about torture
In August 2000, officials from the wildlife department and local
police department in Rakops, a town in eastern Botswana, entered
the Bushman village of Molapo, in the Central Kalahari Game
Reserve. The officers said that Bushmen had been 'over-hunting' or
hunting animals which are not included on the 'special game
licences' which they now need to hunt at all. Around 20 men and
four women were pushed around and hit; some of the men (including
one too old to hunt) were then taken into the bush near Molapo and
interrogated over a three to six day period until some said they
had killed eland and/or giraffe. The links below are to some of
the statements made to Survival by the Bushman men and women
involved. (Please note that names are not given, as the speakers
generally feel safer remaining anonymous.)
Quotations from Gana and Gwi Bushmen about relocations
(Please note that where names are not given it is because the
speakers feel safer remaining anonymous.)
Note from Survival International: Forcible relocations took place
in 1997 and 1998. Many Bushman families then tried to return, but
faced difficulties in doing so. After the relocations stopped, the
government continued to pressure and intimidate people into
relocating. In early 2002, pressure intensified, and almost all
those left in the reserve were driven from their homes.
I am feeling very sad. We were created by God on the land of our
fathers and their forefathers � it is our ancestral home.
The government has treated us unfairly. We were not given any
choice about moving out.
Molatlhwe Mokakale, April 2002
It's our first experience of life outside the reserve and we feel
like fish who have been taken out of the river. The government
knows our culture very well, they know we must be able to
communicate with our ancestors. Making us leave the place of our
forefathers' graves is a form of oppression.
Khumanego Phethadipuo, April 2002
We didn't want to come here. Government officials told us to go.
They said we would get no water if we stayed. The life here is
very difficult. [In the reserve] we could gather wild fruits.
There is nothing like that here.
Philatwe Lentodi, April 2002
I could not have survived [in Molapo] because they failed to give
me water... I didn't like to leave it, but only [left] because
I've been defeated and moved out.
Galotshaba Goitsoimodimo, February 2002
We don't understand how we have come to this place. We did not get
inside the truck voluntarily. We were told to get inside the truck.
Gaema, February 2002
We are being forced. We are being oppressed. We are being made to
relocate by force.
Xhaitshoda Keemetswe, February 2002
People are frightened. The government is saying it will cut off
all supplies. My sister is leaving, and my mother and father are
emotionally sick because of what is happening... They say the army
is coming in.
Xlaexlan Gakelekgolele, January 2002
They have been trying to get us out since 1996. Now they are
stopping our water and rations, to drive us out.
Mathambo Ngakaeaja, January 2002
Families want to come back to the reserve. But the only problem is
the water, because people when they start thinking of going where
there is no water, they start thinking of something else. They
themselves would like to be staying in the reserve, the only
problem is water.
Bushman, October 2001
We were in New Xade [resettlement camp], and came back. It was
because we thought of this coal, the coal of our ancestral land.
It used to be our clinics and hospitals. When our children were
sick, we would tie it round their necks, and cure them. This was
done at the site of the graves of our ancestors.
The government is still trying to pressure us to relocate. They
have no meetings, but they come and register people for
relocation.
We had some problems returning. The police kept coming to check on
us as we were on our way, and brought local police with them. They
kept counting us, and counting our goats and donkeys.
People come and try to encourage us to relocate, and people have
registered. Those of us who have come back from New Xade and
Khaudwane [the resettlement camps] felt like we were being cooked
in a pot, we were trapped and couldn't get out. When we tried to
leave, they said 'You are going to kill a giraffe, or an eland.'
Life was bad in the new villages.
Molatlhwe Mokakale, January 2001
Nobody from the government came here to say why they wanted to
move us. Nobody consulted us. They know nothing about development.
They have to come and make development here.
Jakelakgolele Gaoderekwe, February 1999
We were loaded onto big trucks with all our domestic animals. Our
donkeys and livestock were stolen. We were told we would be given
cattle but we weren't. We were told our children would go to
school but they ran away because they were beaten. It was a
difficult place to stay. A social worker came and said there will
be no monthly ration unless we are in New Xade [the resettlement
camp]. I told her 'I don't care for your mealie meal, I will
survive with roots.' Some of my relatives were stabbed in New Xade.
The teachers beat the children. The department of wildlife and the
local and central police followed us as far as Old Xade when we
went back home.
Kaitsotla Kermetsroe (who had returned from New Xade to Mothomelo),
February 1999
A sick old woman was loaded onto a truck and she died on the way
to Khaudwane. We tried to follow up as to why she was put in the
back of the truck with the wood of the dismantled huts. After the
relocation, Mr Moeti, the Bushman councillor from Metsiamanong
followed it up. We raised it with Minister Nasha [minister of
Local Government, whose department orchestrated relocations and
the recent cutting of services] in the New Xade meeting and she
took it politically and criticised him.
Dingongorego Mokweneng, February 1999
From the beginning of the removal we weren't consulted. The
vehicle came to say we had to be relocated. Before the removal I
was not in Gope and I returned to find that my family had been
moved here. They were told they had to move and no reason was
given.
Motoiwa Mopogami (speaking in Khaudwane resettlement camp),
February 1999
We are not happy here and life is difficult... We need the chance
to go back freely without disturbance. It's like being a prisoner
here. We are treated like prisoners.
Tshekelo Mogoladijo (speaking in New Xade resettlement camp),
January 1999
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