“This is our victory, the victory of our people. It’s a tribute to all the Bushmen who have died for the cause. The land is ours, finally, and our rights have been recognised, so we’re going to celebrate for a long time”. Jumanda Gakelebone, the Bushman activist who has spent the last four years fighting to get back the land snatched away by the Botswana government, was in great form when PeaceReporter telephoned him. Yesterday the historic verdict brought an end to the longest dispute in the country’s judicial history.
 
Sentence. The verdict of the court in Lobatse (which wasn’t unanimous) found that the government programme that began in 2002 to expel the Bushmen from their Kalahari reserve was unconstitutional, with the result that the oldest population in sub-Saharan Africa now has the right to return to their reserve and abandon the housing centres outside the reserve where they’ve been living for the last four years. According to Gakelebone, they’re not even bothered by the fact that the court decided the government isn’t responsible for providing the Bushmen with assistance  inside the Kalahari: “This is nothing in comparison to yesterday’s victory”, Jumanda said. “It’s just one of the many other questions we have to clear up. But I’d just like to remind everyone that even before the expulsion our community was perfectly self-sufficient. We had our own structures and we intend to go back and rebuild them. We’re not expecting anything from Gaborne”.
 
Bushmen. The Kalahari Bushmen, who nowadays number only a thousand or so, are the last descendents of a community of hunters that have been living in Botswana for twenty thousand years. The arrival of the Bantu from central Africa and then the colonialists was a great shock for the hunter community of the Kalahari, which was destined to die out or become assimilated. Today around 100,000 Bushmen live in Botswana and Namibia, but only around a thousand of them continue to follow the old traditions. The last, decisive blow for this ancient community appeared to be the decision taken by the government in 2002 to expel them from the reserve because their way of life was a threat to the ecosystem and to the fauna on the reserve, although the Bushmen have always denied this accusation, claiming that the government really wanted to get control of their land because of the rich diamond deposits found in the area.
 
Celebrations. The Botswana government has six weeks to decide if it intends to launch an appeal, although as yet it has not made any announcement. But according to Jumanda this eventuality doesn’t really worry the Bushmen: “For the time being we just want to celebrate this historic moment. We’re not in the least interested in an appeal because nobody can ignore our rights to this land any more”. On the eve of the verdict the court’s decision was seen as an historically important test, also on an international level, since it would establish precedent about whether or not governments could legally remove communities from their own land. The Bushmen are hoping that the sentence can also help other indigenous peoples who are fighting for their rights all over the world. “You’ll have to excuse me now”, Jumanda laughed, “because we’ve got lots to do to organise the celebrations. Our brothers from Namibia are coming along as well”.