Botswanan bushmen allowed home

Posted By Diyana Ishak Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - 5:48 PM Share

GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/Getty Images

The San people of Botswana have won a landmark case today in a battle over their land in the Kalahari desert. Also known as the Bushmen, the San were forced to leave the land that their ancestors had inhabited for 20,000 years in order to make way for Botswana's wildlife and tourism industry, as well as lucrative diamond mining (including operations by De Beers, which has denied such claims). The Guardian takes the government line:

The government insists the Bushmen have changed their lifestyle so much that they no longer belong in the Kalahari reserve, an animal sanctuary the size of Belgium, and are affecting conservation efforts. They are better off in settlements, where they have access to clinics and schools, it says, adding that diamond mining has nothing to do with the decision. The government complains that the Bushmen's foreign supporters, including South African anti-apartheid hero, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and British actors Julie Christie and Colin Firth, are romanticising a hunter-gatherer lifestyle which no longer exists.

Advocacy group Survival International, by contrast, hailed the legal ruling in favor of the Bushmen as a "victory for indigenous peoples everywhere in Africa."

EXPLORE:AFRICA, CULTURE, DEVELOPMENT, LAW

Passport, FP’s flagship blog, brings you news and hidden angles on the biggest stories of the day, as well as insights and under-the-radar gems from around the world.