Skip to main content
BBC NEWS / AFRICA
Graphics VersionBBC Sport Home
News Front Page | Africa | Americas | Asia-Pacific | Europe | Middle East | South Asia | UK | Business | Health | Science & Environment | Technology | Entertainment | Also in the news | Have Your Say |
Monday, 18 December 2006, 16:58 GMT

Botswana bushmen ruling accepted

Roy Sesana, leader of the First People of the Kalahari The government in Botswana has formally accepted last week's court judgement in favour of one of the world's oldest peoples - the Bushmen of the Kalahari.

The San people won a landmark case that they had been wrongly evicted from land roamed by them for thousands of years.

A statement from the president's office said the government accepted it acted illegally cutting their water supplies.

The Bushmen have said they will return to their desert homeland, four years after more than 1,000 were driven out.

The bushmen are the oldest people in Sub-Saharan Africa and the case was the longest and most expensive in Botswana's history.

'Dispiriting' camps

The San people brought their case forward after being moved to functional but bleak settlements outside the Kalahari game reserve, where a new way of life was imposed.

In pictures: The bushmen

Send your comments

Map of Botswana

The government argued that the bushmen did not belong to the Kalahari any more because their lifestyle had changed, and their presence interfered with conservation.

The reserve was a poverty trap that denied them access to health and education, it said, arguing that the bushmen were better off in the settlements, where they had clinics and schools along with better access to food and water.

They also denied allegations that the bushmen were driven out to make way for diamond mining.

The bushmen's lawyer contended that although there were facilities in the camps, there was little for them to do and they lived a dispiriting existence.




E-mail this to a friend
Related to this story:
In pictures: Botswana's bushmen (13 Dec 06 |  In Pictures )
Should ancestral land be protected? (13 Dec 06 |  Have Your Say )
Botswana's bushmen battle for land (12 Jul 04 |  Africa )
Row over Bushmen 'genocide' (06 Nov 05 |  Crossing Continents )
Bushmen mourn lost lifestyle (11 Jul 04 |  Africa )
Bitter dispute over bushmen lands (24 Nov 05 |  Africa )

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
Government of Botswana
Survival International
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites



SEARCH BBC NEWS: 

News Front Page | Africa | Americas | Asia-Pacific | Europe | Middle East | South Asia | UK | Business | Health | Science & Environment | Technology | Entertainment | Also in the news | Have Your Say |

NewsWatch | Notes | Contact us | About BBC News | Profiles | History

^ Back to top | BBC Sport Home | BBC Homepage | Contact us | Help | ©