Central Kalahari Game Reserve
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Botswana’s Abuses of the G/wi [journal article review]
The destruction of the peaceful G/wi society is supposedly the fault of a British NGO, Survival International (SI), rather than the government of Botswana, which was only trying to help them when it forcibly removed them from their homes, argues one scholar. Botswana’s government may have acted in a heavy-handed manner, she writes, but SI […]
G/wi Finally Start to Go Home
This past weekend, a group of 40 San people finally returned to their homes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, despite hassles two weeks ago from Botswana government officials. Police at one of the resettlement camps, where the G/wi and G//ana have been living for several years, attempted to dissuade them from returning to the […]
San Win Major Court Case
Botswana’s High Court announced its decision on December 13: the government must allow the G/wi and G//ana San people the right to return to their traditional homes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Evicting the San from their land was “unlawful and unconstitutional,” the court ruled. Furthermore, the people must have the right to gather […]
