An Interministerial Committee tasked with examining the situation of Basarwa in Botswana has recently heard how those living in the North West District are still sidelined and continue to face significant challenges related to land rights, poverty, displacement from their ancestral lands and ongoing struggle to preserve their cultural identity.
The committee assigned by President Duma Boko to find sustainable solutions to long-standing human rights concerns of Basarwa recently held a leadership consultative forum in Maun to engage on the matter with key stakeholders.
A report on development profile of the Rural Area Development Programme (RADP) in the North West District presented by Principal District Officer Development, Oritjiua Setekia highlighted some of the challenges faced by Basarwa in Mababe, Khwai, Somelo and Phuduhudu settlements.
The report also presented to the committee some recommendations and economic opportunities that may be taken into consideration in the bid to respect the rights, culture and dignity of Basarwa while also improving their livelihood.
According to Setekia, the geographic and population context shows significant growth of Basarwa in those areas when comparing it with the 2011 and 2022 population census.
Setekia advised that as government plans to better the lives of this marginalised minority ethnic group it should not leave behind their spiritual aspect. She said the planning should also take into considerations that the tribe is attached to their original areas such as Savuti, Moremi Game Reserve, Nxai Pan and the Khoemacau region where they want to visit to revive connections with their ancestors.
“Basarwa mostly believe in their ancestral lands and that the spirit of their forefathers is the one that can work for them especially looking at community and spiritual development,” the officer emphasised.
She added that the group in the North West District have expressed their wish to regularly perform traditional practices just like those in other regions. However, they indicated that such practices can only be done if government can support them and provide wild animals to use during their spiritual engagements.
The officer added that the communities are also sidelined on issues of local spatial development planning which is only centred around urban areas despite them being also affected.
“We have realised that we don’t do grassroots planning broadly and engage them thoroughly. This has sidelined them looking at issues of poverty and destitution as we tend to think of what may work for them when in actual fact it doesn’t,” she said adding that critical issues identified in NDP8 shows that poverty is still prevalent in these settlements.
Setekia added that the status of Mababe and Phuduhudu being categorised as partial state land has also disadvantaged the nomadic community in terms of land rights. The district has therefore made a request for the two areas to be turned into tribal land for the benefit of the communities that originate from there.
“Basarwa by nature are nomadic people, they move from one area to the other on reason that they want that other area to regenerate, then if we report that they have relocated forever this results in them not having land use security.”
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture, Kabelo Ebineng emphasized that the aim of these countrywide consultative forums is to understand what can be done to improve the lives of Basarwa for their rights to be treated equally, noting that they are more struggling as compared to other communities.
However, Maun West Member of Parliament, Carter Hikuama is of the view that there is need to review the constitution as whole instead of trying to start addressing human rights concerns of an individual tribe such as Basarwa.
According to him, what it all boils down to is the foundation of the country noting that the constitution and other laws of the country doesn’t respect tribal equality as it fuels tribalism. “Thats where we should focus as a matter of emergency before starting with Basarwa or any other tribe, we should amend our constitution to respect tribal equality,” he emphasised.
