G/wi
The G/wi Welcome Visitors
The original residents of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana joyfully welcomed a group of visitors into their villages recently, according to a blog post written by an official with the safari operator. To judge by their website, Wilderness Safaris is a well-established company that offers safari experiences for tourists in southern Africa. The […]
G/wi Hassled by Botswana Government
Five San men have been arrested by the government of Botswana for hunting in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). The punitive measure violates their rights as enshrined by Botswana law and a High Court ruling, according to a letter by Stephen Corry, the director of the British NGO Survival International, to the president of […]
San Still Get by in the Central Kalahari
On August 23, the French daily newspaper La Croix published an article about the San people who are still able to eke out a living in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) of Botswana. The article does not identify whether the reporter is interviewing G/wi or G//ana individuals. Motswakgakala Gaoberekurep, squatting in his small, round […]
Mistreatment of the G/wi
A report published on Wednesday last week included some comments by Jumanda Gakelebone, a long-time leader of the G/wi and G//ana people of Botswana. As always, he forcefully expressed his passionate advocacy for fair government treatment of his people. Gakelebone, 40, identified in this current story only as “secretary and spokesperson of Roy Sesana,” derides […]
Healing Dances of the G/wi
A Botswana newspaper published an interesting piece last week about the dances enjoyed by the G/wi and the changes they are making in their traditions. The article updates the information provided by the standard ethnography of the people, George B. Silberbauer’s 1981 book Hunter & Habitat in the Central Kalahari Desert. In order to understand […]
San People Suspicious of the Botswana Government
A Botswana newspaper last week revealed that the government has hatched a plan to “infiltrate and control” the San people who live in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve—the G/wi and the G//ana. According to the Sunday Standard news story, officials from both the national department of wildlife and from the Ghanzi District have formed an […]
A Time of Stresses in the Kalahari
An increasing number of G/wi and G//ana residents of New Xade, a resettlement community in western Botswana, say they want to return to their former homes in the Kalahari Desert. Jumanda Gakelebone, a prominent advocate for the rights of the long-suffering San people and now the councilor for New Xade, which is in the Gantsi […]
San Glad to be Back in the Kalahari
Some of the G/wi and G//ana San people who were expelled from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) in Botswana have since returned to their ancestral desert in order to be themselves. Hunting and gathering as they have always done defines who they are, they feel, so it is hard for them to stop, despite […]
Strange Circumstances in the Kalahari
The San living in their traditional settlements in the Kalahari Desert were shaken last week by a diamond mine being closed and, two days later, by an earthquake. A variety of news sources covered both events. The Botswana Daily News on April 2 reported on a presentation about the mine to the Ghanzi District Council, […]
Water for San People
A prolonged dry spell in the Kalahari Desert has prompted proposals to drill boreholes for wildlife but advocates for the San people argue that they too need more water. The apparent conflict between the needs of wildlife and of the G/wi and G//ana people, the predominant San societies in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) […]
