G/wi
Potential Improvements for the G/wi
The government of Botswana continues making the right noises about improving the lives of the San who remain in their ancestral areas of the Kalahari Desert. News about the way Botswana has started taking some responsibility for helping the G/wi and G//ana San people—at least for ending its repressive policies toward them—was reported in this […]
Changes for the G/wi
One of the most fascinating recent news stories from Africa has been the remarkable reversal by the Botswana government, which has stopped persecuting the San and started promoting tourism for them instead. When the news of this change surfaced a couple months ago, it was clear that many of the San people themselves were dismayed […]
A Compromise Solution in the Kalahari
A compromise solution that might end the persecution of the G/wi and the G//ana San peoples by the government of Botswana started leaking out to the press a month ago. The government had forcibly removed the San people from their homes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) many years ago and it has denied […]
Adventures in Botswana
Daniel Koehler has published three more installments in his blog about his filming adventures among the G/wi and G//ana San people of Botswana. His blog post published on April 22 described a trip he took from New Xade, the resettlement town he has been living in, out to the traditional community in the desert called […]
Searching for Life in the Kalahari
Opaletswe, a young San man, tells Daniel Koehler at New Xade that even though he is poor, “when you dance, you feel like you are very rich.” Koehler has posted three new entries to his blog about the G/wi and the G//ana people living in New Xade, the resettlement community in western Botswana where he […]
A New Blog about the G/wi
The San living in the desert of Botswana are still strongly attached to the land, Daniel Koehler wrote last week, a value which they hope their children will embrace. Koehler is one of five grantees chosen from a field of 864 people who applied for a Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship. He is living with […]
Life in the Desert, or Life in a Resettlement Camp
Kesebonye Roy spoke about San life in Molapo, a Kalahari Desert village: “If someone gets sick, we go to the grave site of that person’s ancestor to ask for help.” However, another San person, Mmolawa Belesa, who lives in a resettlement camp called New Xade, located just outside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), said […]
Botswana Persecutes the G/wi
The G/wi, and the other San peoples of Botswana, continue to be deprived of their rights, despite persistent campaigns on their behalf by Survival International, a London-based NGO. Two weeks ago, an article in the Botswana Gazette, a major news source in that nation, described an important study done by SI that provides details of […]
San Hunters Versus Botswana
A high court in Botswana dismissed a case the government had brought against four San men accused of hunting in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The men, some of whom may have been G/wi, escaped a possible penalty of up to five years in prison. According to a report by Innocent Tshukudu published on August […]
A San Complains about Rotten Treatment
Jumanda Gakelebone, a prominent G/wi advocate of the rights of the persecuted San minority in Botswana, has described the injustices his people have suffered to Britain’s Prince Charles. His arguments, advocating fair treatment for the former hunting and gathering people of the Kalahari Desert, were covered by a feature story in the Guardian on April […]
