The BBC's flagship news programme Newsnight has broadcast an in-depth investigation into the Botswana government's expulsion of the Bushmen from their ancestral land. (Click here to view)
Interviewed by the BBC, President Mogae says, 'We will not allow them [the Bushmen] to hunt in the Park' [Central Kalahari Game Reserve], directly contradicting previous statements that the Bushmen could hunt in the Reserve as long as they used 'traditional weapons'.
'Let them call us primitive. Let them call us Stone Age people. Our way of life suits us. We have seen their development, and we don't like it,' said Daleathwe Phetadipuo, a Bushman woman.
'They just came and grabbed people and pulled down the huts. They said my children had to go to school in the new settlements. My children were shouting and screaming as they took them away. I begged the government to let my children come back and live with me,' said another woman, Gakeorore Moeti.
'We've been beaten, tortured and taken to court for hunting eland. Why? Why can't we hunt in our own land like we have for thousands of years?' said one Bushman man. Another, Chika Moeti, now living in a relocation camp, added, 'Really I want to go to my mother's village, my homeland, because actually all these bars, and all these 'facilities', I think they are nothing in my life. What I value is my dignity; my land is my dignity.'
The report can be viewed for 24 hours here.
BBC's Newsnight investigates the Bushmen's expulsion
July 25, 2005
Related news articles
- Bushmen anger as beloved elder refused burial in Botswana game reserve - Mon April 25, 2022
- Kalahari Bushmen appeal to Dalai Lama - Fri August 11, 2017
- Twentieth anniversary of eviction from Kalahari highlights Bushmen plight - Fri May 05, 2017
- Botswana defies its courts on historic anniversary - Tue December 13, 2016
Most recent
- Global protests mark int’l day of action to #SaveHasdeo - Mon May 09, 2022
- Bushmen anger as beloved elder refused burial in Botswana game reserve - Mon April 25, 2022
- Venezuela and Brazil: Violence and destruction escalate in the Yanomami territory - Tue April 19, 2022
- India: massive coal mining expansion in tribal forests green-lighted - Wed April 13, 2022