BOTSWANA: The Kalahari Bushmen
December 2002 1916
Bushman and women entertaining tourist Music 01:59:24
Byrne: This is the acceptable face of the bushmen in Botswana. Dances for tourists on a mission project -- a tame, faint echo of a wilder life they are no longer permitted to lead. 02:09
View of bushland For more than 30,000 years, they survived where no-one else could, in the very heart of the Kalahari desert. They proudly hunted wildebeest, giraffe and eland. Took pride in their independence. 02:23
Bushman and women entertaining tourist Now, these last descendants of the hunter-gatherers who once roamed all southern Africa are being moved from their land. All in the name of progress 02:39
Molale Molale: You cannot beyond the space age time be talking of stone age. 02:50
Bush hut Byrne: Its the old, sad story of culture clash and tribal dispossession. Which at this very last moment, has taken an unexpected turn. 02:59
Bushman and women entertaining tourist Creatures of the Kalahari, be warned. The Bushmen are fighting back. 03:09
Music
Hut being dismantled Byrne: The crisis came last February, when the Botswana government ruled that humans and bushmen could no longer share the desert. The bushmen must go. 03:21
Margaret Margaret: Once this relocation is over the remaining services will be terminated. 03:32
Byrne: Local Government Minister Margaret Nasha didnt go into details at her press conference. 03:41
Hut being dismantled But behind the scenes whole villages were dismantled mobile health clinics closed Bushmen families scrambled to fill water cans for the last time as bores were sealed, tanks removed and drums full of water emptied onto the sand. Not force, the Government insists but persuasion to leave. 03:44
Molale Molale: We have not forced anybody. 04:10
Byrne: Eric Molale is permanent head of Local Government. 04:12
Byrne and Molale Byrne: You dont think cutting off water supplies in the middle of the desert adds up to force?Molale: No.Byrne: In essence, youre doing this for their good?Molale: For their good and for the good of this nation. 04:16
Villages being dismantled Music 04:31
Byrne: There are other, more sinister theories of a diamond strike, of a tourism push. Hard to know the truth film crews whove tried have been harassed and had their equipment seized. 04:34
4WD vehicle - Byrne: So we decided to tour the Kalahari without Government company, to meet for ourselves those whove chosen to resist. 04:52
Central Kalahari Game Reserve Byrne: Is the road pretty much like this all the way?Jamie: No, this is good. 05:02
Byrne: The Central Kalahari Game Reserve was set up in 1961 by the departing British colonialists, specifically to provide refuge for the Bushmen. 05:06
Most of Botswanas 50,000 Bushmen did move. Into modern settlements. By 1997 only 2000 Bushmen or Basarwa, -- remained hunting and gathering in the Kalahari; this year, the Government decided to move the diehards out. 05:19
Jamie: Theres no one up there. Byrne: No, I get the feeling if you get bogged you stay bogged. 05:36
Kalahari dawn Music 05:42
Byrne: Our first Kalahari dawn finds the remains of the village of Gugama, maybe a dozen members of one extended family, coming to life. 05:52
Ghoni and her family And here we find Ghoni, the one family member whos been to school in the capital, Gaborone, and speaks English. 06:04
Ghoni: Bashelwego... Byrne: And he is your?Ghoni: My brother thats my sister. 06:12
Byrne: Gugama is dry. No water for even a cup of coffee as visitors, were happy to share. 06:31
Ghoni and Byrne Byrne: Why have you stayed?Ghoni: They dont want to move because this is where they belong and where their grandfathers stayed since they was born. Byrne: So they will stay here forever?Ghoni: Yes. 06:43
Byrne: Fear of the new Government settlements, is apparent in cautionary tales of what happens to those who move. 07:09
Byrne: In new Xade, Xade -- (Ghoni prompts the click, laugh) -- what is life like there? Ghoni: Their life is difficult because the people who moved some of them have ate the dogs because of hunger. 07:16
Jamie: Id like to show everybody .Byrne: Jamie Workman, whos studying the water wars of Southern Africa, has visited the village twice before. 07:48
Jamie with villagers Jamie: Your story is very powerful to the rest of the world 07:59
Byrne: Theyve never seen anything like it a computer, pictures of themselves. 08:04
Villagers digging for food But what they do know, these Gugama villagers, is how to survive in a thirsty, apparently barren environment 08:11
Villager Villager: It is a very good kind of life because you dont have to ask for food if you feel hungry you just go off gathering to feed yourself. 08:25
Villagers digging for food Byrne: While women gather, men traditionally hunt. But the government has now imposed strict limits, even though game numbers in the reserve are increasing. 08:40
Man hunting Villager: Its really a shame. Its difficult to have enough for the family. If the man went hunting he brought the meat and I brought the roots and we had enough. 08:51
Village Byrne: Now there is never enough. Gugamas health service too has gone. There is much coughing and illness. We wonder as we say goodbye whether this waterless village can survive. 09:04
Music 09:25
Mothomelo Byrne: Another few hours on the track, we find a dead village Mothomelo -- once home to 150 Bushmen, and source of water to 500 people in the region. Our guide Jumanda shows us where a borehole had been drilled, for the Bushmen, by a diamond company. 09:32
Jumanda Jumanda: This was cut and sealed. The pump itself was somewhere here.Byrne: Whats it like for you to come here now in a place that had so many of your people, now empty?Jumanda: Im happy to be home, the sad thing is that no ones at home. 09:52
Byrne: No water, no village. Mothomelo is only one of half a dozen settlements which lost their water supplies. 10:11
Molale and Byrne Byrne: You dont think it would have been a generous act to continue to provide water for that community? 10:19
MolaleSuper fades up Eric Molale Head of Local Government Molale: It would have been a generous act to do that, but the ultimate intention and objective is to get people to somewhere where they can live and get those things that can help them to be self-sustaining in the future. 10:26
Bush Byrne: Accustomed to world approval, the Government of Botswana has been shocked by the response to what it sees as a benign policy of assimilation. Both the European Union and the United Nations have lodged formal protests. 10:45
Molale and Byrne Molale: It is not worth all the trouble, simply because the accusation of racism are unfounded.Byrne: But what about the stories of tipping over water tanks, of threatening to bring in the army, of taking away their radios?Molale: Unfounded, untrue, and nonsensical. I pity the few Basarwa who have been dragged by the nose to come to believe that there are people elsewhere out of the country who have their welfare at heart. And I pray for the day that they will come to see reason, what the government is doing for them. 11:01
Metsiamanong Byrne: So we travelled on to a living village -- Metsiamanong -- wondering if it really is possible to turn back the clock, to make people whove learned dependence, self-sufficient again. 11:44
Byrne: This seems a much happier place. 12:08
Byrne: Again, no water -- but ripe melons, dripping with juice. 12:10
Byrne: How many families are there here? Jumanda: I think right now theres about four, five families. 12:15
Inside hut Singing 12:22
Byrne: The government claims just six people live here, all old. We found a few dozen, including young girls, a sure sign of life. 12:34
Donkeys And another sign -- donkeys laden with bags of roots. When cut, they release precious moisture. It seems there is water in the desert. 12:52
Sunset at Metsiamanong Sunset at Metsiamanong and an age-old ritual, the passing on of a grandfathers knowledge. 13:09
Grandfather and Moaghi Jumanda: The grandfather was explaining to Moaghi which direction they take when they go on the hunt. 13:19
Jumanda and which paths they have to go on and theyre thinking which animals they can find. 13:28
Byrne Byrne: Why have you decided to stay here rather than go to a resettlement place? 13:39
Moaghi: Moaghi: There is no other place that I know, so I refuse to go because this land is mine. 13:47
Byrne Byrne: How old are you? 13:59
Moaghi Moaghi: 14 years old. 14:00
Byrne: Have you killed your first animal? 14:03
Moaghi and Byrne Moaghi: Yes.Byrne: And what animal was that?Moaghi: Gemsbok and the second time, eland. 14:07
Byrne: What does that mean to you as a Bushman? 14:15
Moaghi: If you kill your first antelope then that shows you are a man that can feed a family. 14:17
Moaghi wife with child Byrne: In fact Moaghi already has a wife and child. And hes probably older than 14 -- age being a flexible concept for a Bushman. 14:26
Wisdom is not something you count, but something you learn - and share around the campfire.
Villagers around the camp fire
village patriarch. Byrne: Villagers say the pressure has continued here since February. Just yesterday, eight carloads of officials had come demanding they relocate, and threatening to take away the village patriarch. 14:49
Were taken to meet him -- Gaoberekwe. They say he is 130 years old whatever, he is near his end. 15:03
Gaoberekwe Gaoberekwe: I dont want to go, to be taken to the hospital in the helicopter. Im staying here and I want to die here and my children have to bury me next to my father. 15:12
Byrne: This morning, Gaoberekewe tells his great grandson, our guide Jumanda, he must struggle harder for his people here. 15:26
Gaoberekwe :The international pressure has to be stronger to help us - because you can see the Government has tossed us away. 15:34
Road to Molapo Byrne: For Jumanda it is a painful and he believes final farewell. But as we head north, to the abandoned village of Molapo, signs of a more hopeful future. 15:47
Jumanda: Yeah, there they go
Byrne: These people have come back? 16:04
Jumanda: yeah, these are the guys who have come back.
Molapo Byrne: In this deserted landscape two figures appear. Jumanda: Im really glad to see my people coming back home. 16:07
Byrne: Its soon clear they are rebels. Men who were relocated in February but have now returned, having smuggled in water in defiance of the Government officials. 16:14
Rebel villagers of Molapo Byrne: How does it feel to be home? 16:24
Rebel villagers: Im very glad to be home. Even though there are only two of us I feel there are many people around me. 16:25
Byrne: And, they say, a dozen more families are on the way.
Byrne: Do you think theyll chase you away? 16:38
Rebel villagers: They can come and threaten me, but I refuse to go. 16:41
4WD on road to Xade Music
Byrne: So we head for the place these men have left behind -- New Xade. And, just as they predicted, here comes the freedom ride. 16:53
Byrne villagers returning home Its about a five hour drive on from Molapo, where we met the first two whod returned and here they are, the rest of the village that will be. 17:04
Forced removal or not, clearly this return is voluntary, and joyful. 17:18
Music
New Xade Byrne: Were driving into New Xade, the settlement centre that weve heard so many stories about. This is the tuck shop. And were coming up soon to the clinic. Thats the clinic right there. It doesnt feel quite as bleak as some of the stories that weve heard. But whatever else it is, its nothing like the traditional way of life as lived by the Bushmen. 17:37
Roy Sesana Byrne: And its here we meet the leader of the rebels. Roy Sesana, who with his fellow elders set up The First People of the Kalahari five years ago. 18:19
Sesana and Byrne Byrne: Weve seen a group of Bushmen heading back to Molapo, their old village. Is this a new tactic from the leadership? 18:31
Sesana: This shows the Bushmen were really forced to move. The Government lawyers say its me who was claiming that. So now we are showing that Im talking on behalf of the Bushmen who were forced. 18:39
Byrne: How does it make you feel to know those families are going back, whatever the government says?Sesana: I feel happy and proud. 18:55
Villagers going back to their homes Music 19:06
Byrne: The future of the Kalahari Bushmen depends now on a challenge to the relocations before the supreme court of Botswana. A win could, quite literally, rewrite history at least the long chapter relating to the dispossession of First Peoples. A loss? Well, the Governments plans are well advanced. 19:14
Molale and Byrne Molale: There are those who are interested in modern day houses Byrne: The era of bricks and backyards is just around the corner. 19:38
Molale: Other than cattle rearing there are these backyard gardens.
Byrne: Theres no room for sadness in that?Molale: No, let us forget the excitement of preservation of people to live in Stone Age. We never go back to the Stone Age era, so why do we want to preserve people and leave them in that? 19:51
People in the fields Byrne: Once they were nomads, roaming the vastness of southern Africa. Now they live in villages and rear goats, separating the kids from their mothers each night, to preserve the milk. 20:16
Sesana: I Roy Sesana, say right now, we are serious - 20:30
Sesana and we want to go back and live traditionally. 20:39
Singing 20:41
The Bushmen dancing Byrne: The Bushmen have already made many changes and adaptations. And, they swear, they can do it again.Sesana: We are human beings who have minds. We have to think for ourselves. The Government doesnt have to think for us. 20:49
Botswana Bushmen (aka KALAHARI BUSHMEN)Reporter: Jennifer ByrneCamera: Ron FoleyEditor: Judy NorgateProducer: Mick ODonnell 21:17
December 2002 1916
Bushman and women entertaining tourist Music 01:59:24
Byrne: This is the acceptable face of the bushmen in Botswana. Dances for tourists on a mission project -- a tame, faint echo of a wilder life they are no longer permitted to lead. 02:09
View of bushland For more than 30,000 years, they survived where no-one else could, in the very heart of the Kalahari desert. They proudly hunted wildebeest, giraffe and eland. Took pride in their independence. 02:23
Bushman and women entertaining tourist Now, these last descendants of the hunter-gatherers who once roamed all southern Africa are being moved from their land. All in the name of progress 02:39
Molale Molale: You cannot beyond the space age time be talking of stone age. 02:50
Bush hut Byrne: Its the old, sad story of culture clash and tribal dispossession. Which at this very last moment, has taken an unexpected turn. 02:59
Bushman and women entertaining tourist Creatures of the Kalahari, be warned. The Bushmen are fighting back. 03:09
Music
Hut being dismantled Byrne: The crisis came last February, when the Botswana government ruled that humans and bushmen could no longer share the desert. The bushmen must go. 03:21
Margaret Margaret: Once this relocation is over the remaining services will be terminated. 03:32
Byrne: Local Government Minister Margaret Nasha didnt go into details at her press conference. 03:41
Hut being dismantled But behind the scenes whole villages were dismantled mobile health clinics closed Bushmen families scrambled to fill water cans for the last time as bores were sealed, tanks removed and drums full of water emptied onto the sand. Not force, the Government insists but persuasion to leave. 03:44
Molale Molale: We have not forced anybody. 04:10
Byrne: Eric Molale is permanent head of Local Government. 04:12
Byrne and Molale Byrne: You dont think cutting off water supplies in the middle of the desert adds up to force?Molale: No.Byrne: In essence, youre doing this for their good?Molale: For their good and for the good of this nation. 04:16
Villages being dismantled Music 04:31
Byrne: There are other, more sinister theories of a diamond strike, of a tourism push. Hard to know the truth film crews whove tried have been harassed and had their equipment seized. 04:34
4WD vehicle - Byrne: So we decided to tour the Kalahari without Government company, to meet for ourselves those whove chosen to resist. 04:52
Central Kalahari Game Reserve Byrne: Is the road pretty much like this all the way?Jamie: No, this is good. 05:02
Byrne: The Central Kalahari Game Reserve was set up in 1961 by the departing British colonialists, specifically to provide refuge for the Bushmen. 05:06
Most of Botswanas 50,000 Bushmen did move. Into modern settlements. By 1997 only 2000 Bushmen or Basarwa, -- remained hunting and gathering in the Kalahari; this year, the Government decided to move the diehards out. 05:19
Jamie: Theres no one up there. Byrne: No, I get the feeling if you get bogged you stay bogged. 05:36
Kalahari dawn Music 05:42
Byrne: Our first Kalahari dawn finds the remains of the village of Gugama, maybe a dozen members of one extended family, coming to life. 05:52
Ghoni and her family And here we find Ghoni, the one family member whos been to school in the capital, Gaborone, and speaks English. 06:04
Ghoni: Bashelwego... Byrne: And he is your?Ghoni: My brother thats my sister. 06:12
Byrne: Gugama is dry. No water for even a cup of coffee as visitors, were happy to share. 06:31
Ghoni and Byrne Byrne: Why have you stayed?Ghoni: They dont want to move because this is where they belong and where their grandfathers stayed since they was born. Byrne: So they will stay here forever?Ghoni: Yes. 06:43
Byrne: Fear of the new Government settlements, is apparent in cautionary tales of what happens to those who move. 07:09
Byrne: In new Xade, Xade -- (Ghoni prompts the click, laugh) -- what is life like there? Ghoni: Their life is difficult because the people who moved some of them have ate the dogs because of hunger. 07:16
Jamie: Id like to show everybody .Byrne: Jamie Workman, whos studying the water wars of Southern Africa, has visited the village twice before. 07:48
Jamie with villagers Jamie: Your story is very powerful to the rest of the world 07:59
Byrne: Theyve never seen anything like it a computer, pictures of themselves. 08:04
Villagers digging for food But what they do know, these Gugama villagers, is how to survive in a thirsty, apparently barren environment 08:11
Villager Villager: It is a very good kind of life because you dont have to ask for food if you feel hungry you just go off gathering to feed yourself. 08:25
Villagers digging for food Byrne: While women gather, men traditionally hunt. But the government has now imposed strict limits, even though game numbers in the reserve are increasing. 08:40
Man hunting Villager: Its really a shame. Its difficult to have enough for the family. If the man went hunting he brought the meat and I brought the roots and we had enough. 08:51
Village Byrne: Now there is never enough. Gugamas health service too has gone. There is much coughing and illness. We wonder as we say goodbye whether this waterless village can survive. 09:04
Music 09:25
Mothomelo Byrne: Another few hours on the track, we find a dead village Mothomelo -- once home to 150 Bushmen, and source of water to 500 people in the region. Our guide Jumanda shows us where a borehole had been drilled, for the Bushmen, by a diamond company. 09:32
Jumanda Jumanda: This was cut and sealed. The pump itself was somewhere here.Byrne: Whats it like for you to come here now in a place that had so many of your people, now empty?Jumanda: Im happy to be home, the sad thing is that no ones at home. 09:52
Byrne: No water, no village. Mothomelo is only one of half a dozen settlements which lost their water supplies. 10:11
Molale and Byrne Byrne: You dont think it would have been a generous act to continue to provide water for that community? 10:19
MolaleSuper fades up Eric Molale Head of Local Government Molale: It would have been a generous act to do that, but the ultimate intention and objective is to get people to somewhere where they can live and get those things that can help them to be self-sustaining in the future. 10:26
Bush Byrne: Accustomed to world approval, the Government of Botswana has been shocked by the response to what it sees as a benign policy of assimilation. Both the European Union and the United Nations have lodged formal protests. 10:45
Molale and Byrne Molale: It is not worth all the trouble, simply because the accusation of racism are unfounded.Byrne: But what about the stories of tipping over water tanks, of threatening to bring in the army, of taking away their radios?Molale: Unfounded, untrue, and nonsensical. I pity the few Basarwa who have been dragged by the nose to come to believe that there are people elsewhere out of the country who have their welfare at heart. And I pray for the day that they will come to see reason, what the government is doing for them. 11:01
Metsiamanong Byrne: So we travelled on to a living village -- Metsiamanong -- wondering if it really is possible to turn back the clock, to make people whove learned dependence, self-sufficient again. 11:44
Byrne: This seems a much happier place. 12:08
Byrne: Again, no water -- but ripe melons, dripping with juice. 12:10
Byrne: How many families are there here? Jumanda: I think right now theres about four, five families. 12:15
Inside hut Singing 12:22
Byrne: The government claims just six people live here, all old. We found a few dozen, including young girls, a sure sign of life. 12:34
Donkeys And another sign -- donkeys laden with bags of roots. When cut, they release precious moisture. It seems there is water in the desert. 12:52
Sunset at Metsiamanong Sunset at Metsiamanong and an age-old ritual, the passing on of a grandfathers knowledge. 13:09
Grandfather and Moaghi Jumanda: The grandfather was explaining to Moaghi which direction they take when they go on the hunt. 13:19
Jumanda and which paths they have to go on and theyre thinking which animals they can find. 13:28
Byrne Byrne: Why have you decided to stay here rather than go to a resettlement place? 13:39
Moaghi: Moaghi: There is no other place that I know, so I refuse to go because this land is mine. 13:47
Byrne Byrne: How old are you? 13:59
Moaghi Moaghi: 14 years old. 14:00
Byrne: Have you killed your first animal? 14:03
Moaghi and Byrne Moaghi: Yes.Byrne: And what animal was that?Moaghi: Gemsbok and the second time, eland. 14:07
Byrne: What does that mean to you as a Bushman? 14:15
Moaghi: If you kill your first antelope then that shows you are a man that can feed a family. 14:17
Moaghi wife with child Byrne: In fact Moaghi already has a wife and child. And hes probably older than 14 -- age being a flexible concept for a Bushman. 14:26
Wisdom is not something you count, but something you learn - and share around the campfire.
Villagers around the camp fire
village patriarch. Byrne: Villagers say the pressure has continued here since February. Just yesterday, eight carloads of officials had come demanding they relocate, and threatening to take away the village patriarch. 14:49
Were taken to meet him -- Gaoberekwe. They say he is 130 years old whatever, he is near his end. 15:03
Gaoberekwe Gaoberekwe: I dont want to go, to be taken to the hospital in the helicopter. Im staying here and I want to die here and my children have to bury me next to my father. 15:12
Byrne: This morning, Gaoberekewe tells his great grandson, our guide Jumanda, he must struggle harder for his people here. 15:26
Gaoberekwe :The international pressure has to be stronger to help us - because you can see the Government has tossed us away. 15:34
Road to Molapo Byrne: For Jumanda it is a painful and he believes final farewell. But as we head north, to the abandoned village of Molapo, signs of a more hopeful future. 15:47
Jumanda: Yeah, there they go
Byrne: These people have come back? 16:04
Jumanda: yeah, these are the guys who have come back.
Molapo Byrne: In this deserted landscape two figures appear. Jumanda: Im really glad to see my people coming back home. 16:07
Byrne: Its soon clear they are rebels. Men who were relocated in February but have now returned, having smuggled in water in defiance of the Government officials. 16:14
Rebel villagers of Molapo Byrne: How does it feel to be home? 16:24
Rebel villagers: Im very glad to be home. Even though there are only two of us I feel there are many people around me. 16:25
Byrne: And, they say, a dozen more families are on the way.
Byrne: Do you think theyll chase you away? 16:38
Rebel villagers: They can come and threaten me, but I refuse to go. 16:41
4WD on road to Xade Music
Byrne: So we head for the place these men have left behind -- New Xade. And, just as they predicted, here comes the freedom ride. 16:53
Byrne villagers returning home Its about a five hour drive on from Molapo, where we met the first two whod returned and here they are, the rest of the village that will be. 17:04
Forced removal or not, clearly this return is voluntary, and joyful. 17:18
Music
New Xade Byrne: Were driving into New Xade, the settlement centre that weve heard so many stories about. This is the tuck shop. And were coming up soon to the clinic. Thats the clinic right there. It doesnt feel quite as bleak as some of the stories that weve heard. But whatever else it is, its nothing like the traditional way of life as lived by the Bushmen. 17:37
Roy Sesana Byrne: And its here we meet the leader of the rebels. Roy Sesana, who with his fellow elders set up The First People of the Kalahari five years ago. 18:19
Sesana and Byrne Byrne: Weve seen a group of Bushmen heading back to Molapo, their old village. Is this a new tactic from the leadership? 18:31
Sesana: This shows the Bushmen were really forced to move. The Government lawyers say its me who was claiming that. So now we are showing that Im talking on behalf of the Bushmen who were forced. 18:39
Byrne: How does it make you feel to know those families are going back, whatever the government says?Sesana: I feel happy and proud. 18:55
Villagers going back to their homes Music 19:06
Byrne: The future of the Kalahari Bushmen depends now on a challenge to the relocations before the supreme court of Botswana. A win could, quite literally, rewrite history at least the long chapter relating to the dispossession of First Peoples. A loss? Well, the Governments plans are well advanced. 19:14
Molale and Byrne Molale: There are those who are interested in modern day houses Byrne: The era of bricks and backyards is just around the corner. 19:38
Molale: Other than cattle rearing there are these backyard gardens.
Byrne: Theres no room for sadness in that?Molale: No, let us forget the excitement of preservation of people to live in Stone Age. We never go back to the Stone Age era, so why do we want to preserve people and leave them in that? 19:51
People in the fields Byrne: Once they were nomads, roaming the vastness of southern Africa. Now they live in villages and rear goats, separating the kids from their mothers each night, to preserve the milk. 20:16
Sesana: I Roy Sesana, say right now, we are serious - 20:30
Sesana and we want to go back and live traditionally. 20:39
Singing 20:41
The Bushmen dancing Byrne: The Bushmen have already made many changes and adaptations. And, they swear, they can do it again.Sesana: We are human beings who have minds. We have to think for ourselves. The Government doesnt have to think for us. 20:49
Botswana Bushmen (aka KALAHARI BUSHMEN)Reporter: Jennifer ByrneCamera: Ron FoleyEditor: Judy NorgateProducer: Mick ODonnell 21:17