It is exactly two years back that visitors of the International Tourism Fair in Spain were confronted with protestors from the British organisation Survival International (SI) calling for a boycott of tourism to Botswana. A Survival spokesperson who attended the protest said: “Anyone who cares about human rights should not travel to Botswana. If they do, they should be aware that they are supporting a government which profits from destroying the last hunting Bushmen in southern Africa”. Survival International also called for a boycott of Botswana diamonds and referred to our president as ‘racist’.

See: The BBC, Reuters & Survival International's Media Terrorism on their Readers, on the Yanomami people and Venezuela, Axis of Logic

Last week, SI was at it again, talking about ‘renewed government repression’. According to SI, ‘three Bushman children were arrested by paramilitary police in Botswana’ and ‘wildlife scouts beat up and confiscated fruit and berries from one Bushman, Amogelang Segootsane’. Don’t take my word for it, visit their website. Apart from the fact that Mr. Segootsane’s name doesn’t sound very ‘Bushman’, the picture featuring on SI’s website also strongly suggests that he is not a Mosarwa. Strangely, SI seems to insist on using the term ‘Bushman’, which is rather outdated and colonial to my taste.

SI occupies itself with the wellbeing of what they call ‘tribal peoples’ in more than 60 countries around the world. When you browse a bit further on their website, it becomes clear that the tribal peoples they are interested in fall into three geographical categories: the Americas, Africa and Asia/Australasia. Conveniently, the only tribal peoples they mention as staying in a western country are the Innu in Canada and the Aboriginals in Australia.

As far as SI is concerned, all other threatened tribal peoples stay in South America, Africa and Asia. Not a word about the numerous indigenous peoples in the USA, who have been quite brutally decimated and marginalised. Not a word about the Sami in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. And indeed, not a word about the mass expulsions of the nomadic Roma people from France and other European countries. The focus seems to be on former European colonies. After all it’s much easier and more convenient to focus on or create problems halfway across the globe, than to look at and solve those at home, isn’t it? And it’s much easier to get funding from the public for this as well. There is a lot of money going around in the ‘human rights and aid industry’. Donate now, Visa or Paypal will do. Nigerian writer Abdul-Raheem called it the ‘pornography of poverty’.

In the western world and media, Africa is more often than not portrayed as the ‘dark’ or ‘lost’ continent, a homogenous murky cesspool of war and civil war, failed states, disease and starvation, tribalism and genocide, leaders clinging to power and coups d’état. The only positive aspect of Africa we see in the western media is its wildlife. In Europe, it appears, it is fashionable and politically correct to criticise former colonies and to romanticise ‘tribal people’ as a form of wildlife: the ‘noble savage’ of seventeenth century literature - primitive man as part of the natural environment. For this reason, the Basarwa should be left to live the lives their ancestors did.

Stephen Corry, Founder & Director of Survival International, Mountain Climber, Ski Tourer, Academic Dropout, living well in England.

SI director Stephen Corry complains that the Basarwa’s goats and donkeys are stopped from entering the CKGR. Well Mr. Corry, goats and donkey’s are not part of your sentimentalist ‘noble savage’ Bushman traditional way of life, nor are the boreholes in the CKGR. And I have more news for you - the only time the Basarwa use a fire drill these days is when they perform for tourists. In daily life they cheat and light a match, just like you and me. Roy Sesana is more often than not dressed like your next-door neighbour, without all the traditional headgear, and drives a BMW X5 when he picks his children from their private schools. Nothing wrong with that, but please quit portraying the Basarwa as something they no longer are.

Things change Mr. Corry, like it or not. A hundred years ago, all people in Botswana could hunt freely. This is no longer possible. We know the British have long ago destroyed the last habitats of their own, now extinct game but we are lucky enough to be able to set some areas aside for conservation. The CKGR is one of those areas.

You say that ‘conservation has long been the excuse used to terrorise the Bushmen into leaving their desert home’, but do you know something? Just like you make a comfortable living out of organising boycotts, protests and demonstrations for people half a world away from you, we have to make a living as well and tourism is one of our sources of income. So are diamonds. You may call them ‘blood diamonds’ as much as you like but we use the income from our mineral and other resources to pay our bills. Minerals are important to us. And yes, if there would be rich mineral deposits inside the CKGR, they would eventually obviously be extracted to contribute to the further development of this country. Don’t western countries do the same? Isn’t British Petroleum exploring and drilling for oil and natural gas all around the world?

Times and circumstances change and people change with them. It has been like that since time immemorial. Botswana is no exception. So while Mr. Corry raises funds by talking about the ‘atrocious human rights record’ of our President and the harassment by our ‘paramilitary police’, Botswana will continue to adapt to changing conditions and pursue development for its people, all its people. I am not saying that everything is hunky-dory, that there are no issues regarding the Basarwa that need to be looked into and resolved. But at the same time, I do not believe Botswana, its people, its government and its president need a western, conceited, former colonies-biased and paternalistic NGO half a world away to tell us how to take care of our business, our country and our people. Those days have long gone.

(photo and related comment added by Axis of Logic)

Source: Mmegiblogs