government persecution
Botswana Hassles the G/wi—and Offers Job Training
Alarming news about the brutal ways Botswana has been treating the G/wi and the other San peoples of the Kalahari sometimes seems to never end. One story last week indicated that government repressions have increased, but another report was much more positive. The good news first. The positive report was that the Botswana Police Service […]
New Threat to the San
President Ian Khama of Botswana announced last week that as of 2014 his government will no longer issue any hunting licenses. Some observers suspect that this is the latest government attack on the G/wi and the other minority San peoples of the Kalahari desert. The government responds that the measure is designed to protect the […]
Botswana Again Persecutes the San
The Botswana police forces are once again harassing the San in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), despite the fact that they have the legal right to live there. The San societies in the CKGR include the peaceful G/wi. Survival International reported last week that the Botswana police established a permanent camp close to the […]
G/wi React to Desert Life
Some of the G/wi who have returned to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve have mixed feelings about conditions in the bush, though they don’t miss the alcohol and violence of the resettlement communities they left behind to return to the desert. The residents of Molapo appreciate the quiet in the CKGR. According to Rebecca, who […]
Amish Men Begin Serving Jail Sentences
Three months after some Schwartzentruber Amish lost their case in the Kentucky Court of Appeals, they were sentenced to jail—for refusing to overlook their religious beliefs and mount orange triangles on their buggies. The story about a Graves County, Kentucky, judge putting people in jail for their religious convictions made international headlines. The issue began […]
San Situation in the News Again
The G/wi and the other San peoples of Botswana were back in court last week, pleading again for the right to reopen a borehole for water to serve their homes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The five judges of the Botswana Court of Appeals took most of the day to hear their lawyer, and […]
Botswana versus Survival International
The war of words between Survival International and the government of Botswana over the treatment of the G/wi has intensified recently, an unfortunate development for a society that has been characterized as highly peaceful. Survival, a London-based indigenous rights NGO, apparently found the way to really capture the attention of the government and the general […]
Survival International Campaigns for the G/wi
One of the major factors in building any peaceful society is the element of respect, an essential characteristic of traditional G/wi society but one which has been missing in recent negotiations about their future. The New York Times last Friday focused on that issue, at least briefly. The Times became the latest major news source […]
Botswana’s Contest with the G/wi
The war of words about the persecution of the San societies in Botswana grew ever hotter last week, though calls for compromise may yet prompt a peaceful resolution of the matter—in line with the heritage, at least, of the G/wi people. A hopeful reading of the news suggests the possibility that both sides of the […]
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 […]
