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Survival International6 Charterhouse BuildingsLondon EC1M 7ETUnited Kingdom
T (+44) (0)20 7687 8700F (+44) (0)20 7687 8701info@survival-international.orgwww.survival-international.org
contents
• Survival fact sheet
• Variety magazine advert – appeal to Leonardo DiCaprio
• The Bushmen’s letter to Leonardo DiCaprio
• www.iwant2gohome.org postcard
• Extracts from a statement by one of Botswana’s opposition parties,
the Botswana National Front
We help tribal peoples defend their lives, protect their lands and determine their own futures.
For more information please contact Miriam Ross
on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or [email protected]
BUSHMEN APPEAL TO
LEONARDO DICAPRIO
press file
BUSHMENTHE FACTS
WHO ARE THE BUSHMEN?
The Gana and Gwi are Bushman tribes who are descended from the earliest inhabitants
of southern Africa. They were probably the last Bushmen living largely self sufficiently
until they were forcibly evicted from their land in 1997 and 2002. Men hunt antelopes
with spears or bow and arrows, and women gather wild tubers and fruits. They speak
a click language and are famous for their music making and healing dances.
WHERE DO THEY LIVE?
The Gana and Gwi Bushmen are from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) in
Botswana. They lived here for thousands of years. Their intimate knowledge of the
animals and plants enabled them to survive in this arid region.
HOW MANY ARE THERE?
The Gana and Gwi number between 3,000 – 5,000. There are 100,000 Bushmen in
southern Africa, half of whom live in Botswana.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
The government of Botswana forcibly evicted most of the Bushmen from the reserve
in 1997 and 2002. Now they live in resettlement camps nearby, where alcoholism and
HIV/AIDS are rife. They are struggling to survive on meagre government food rations.
Hunting, a vital source of protein, has been banned. Bushmen who hunt are routinely
arrested, persecuted and tortured. They face trial in court and huge fines or long
prison sentences.
The Gana and GwiBushmen’s story so far
1961CKGR created as a homeland for the Gana and Gwi Bushmen, to enable them to
maintain their hunter-gatherer way of life. Extending over 52,000 sq kms, it is one
of Africa’s biggest game reserves and larger than Switzerland.
1975
Survival begins to work with Bushmen in Botswana, funding health and education projects.
Early 1980s
Diamonds discovered in CKGR at Gope, a Bushman community. De Beers evaluates
the find. To date De Beers still retains its concession at Gope and has told Survival it
plans to mine there in the foreseeable future.
October 1986
Botswana government announces decision to remove all Bushmen from CKGR.
1993
Bushmen establish First People of the Kalahari, a Bushman-run advocacy organisation,
which lobbies for their rights.
1997 & 2002
Botswana government evicts most Bushmen from CKGR. Dozens refuse to leave despite
the fact officials cut off their water. Bushmen ask Survival to campaign internationally for
their land rights.
1
December 1999
Actor Colin Firth records appeal on BBC TV for Survival’s Bushman projects.
October 2002
De Beers writes to Survival to say that it will not have a policy on indigenous peoples’
rights as this ‘would head straight down a path to apartheid’.
November 2002
Survival supporters protest outside opening of De Beers’s first store in London causing
celebrities to stay away from the party.
March 2003
British model Erin O’ Connor says she will never work for De Beers.
May 2004
Somali supermodel Iman quits as ‘face’ of De Beers citing concerns about eviction
of Bushmen and activities of De Beers in CKGR.
July 2004
Bushmen take government to court for the right to return to their land in CKGR. 10%
of Bushman applicants in court case have since died.
June 2005
Survival supporters, including Gloria Steinem, protest outside opening of De Beers’s
New York store, urging Lindsay Lohan to boycott De Beers.
July 2005
British model Lily Cole says she will not work for De Beers again.
2
July 2005
Actress Julie Christie joins Survival supporters in protest outside London’s Natural
History Museum’s ‘Diamonds’ exhibition sponsored by De Beers.
July 2005
BBC TV’s flagship current affairs programme Newsnight broadcasts long piece on
the Bushmen and their struggle to return to their homes in CKGR.
September 2005
Bushman NGO, First People of the Kalahari wins Right Livelihood Award,
also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize for ‘resolute resistance against eviction
from their ancestral lands, and for upholding the right to their traditional way of life’.
November 2005
Nobel Prize laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, records video appeal to
government of Botswana, stating that ‘it cannot be that the only way to achieve
progress is to remove a culture like the San [Bushmen] from their ancestral lands
and drive their traditions away.’
June 2006
Survival supporters in France protest outside Christies’s Paris auction house when it
auctions diamond jewellery by De Beers.
September 2006
Lawyers submit concluding arguments in Bushman court case, Botswana’s longest
running and most costly court case.
December 13, 2006
Judgment on court case will be given in Botswana’s High Court on 13 December.
3
APPEAL TOLeonardo DiCaprioWe are Bushmen from the Kalahari desert in Botswana.
After diamonds were found on our land we were evicted by theBotswana government. Those diamonds are a curse for us. Whenone day they dig them up, our people will be dead.
Now we live in relocation camps. We are dying in the camps andwe are full of pain. We see alcoholism, TB, HIV/AIDS – things wedid not have before. We want to return to our homes, to the land ofour ancestors.
We have our own organisation, First People of the Kalahari. We were even given an alternative Nobel prize last year forstanding up to the government.
Please help us, Sir. We know you are a famous and respected man,and that if you speak up for us many people will listen. We hopeyou will use your film The Blood Diamond to let people know thatwe too are victims of diamonds, and we just want to go home.
Yours sincerely,
Kgeikani Kweni The First People of the Kalahari
This advert was paid for by Survival International.
PO Box 173, Ghanzi, Botswana
Dear Mr DiCaprio,
My people the Gana and Gwi Bushmen were evicted from the Central Kalahari GameReserve by the Botswana government. This is the land where we were born, whereour ancestors are buried. We lived there since the beginning of time. Now we aredying in the government relocation camps. We are full of pain. We have no past orfuture. We see drinking, fighting, HIV/AIDS – things we didn’t have before. We justwant to go home.
We are now crying to you to help us.
Friends have told us that you are in a film, ‘The Blood Diamond’, which shows howbadly diamonds can hurt. We know this. When we were chased off our land, officialstold us it was because of the diamond finds. De Beers has a concession all over one ofour communities but hasn’t started mining. De Beers says we weren’t even therebefore it arrived. This is a great lie. Its boss here said it was good to evict us. Theyalso say that the UN law on tribal peoples shouldn’t apply in Africa. They havemillions of dollars, but why should they make the law? Isn’t it for us all?
Those diamonds are just a curse. When one day they dig them up and sell them, ourpeople will be dead.
People paid by De Beers claim to speak for us. That’s a lie too. We are men andwomen and we can speak straight from our own thoughts. We people of the Reservehave our own organisation, First People of the Kalahari.
We were given an alternative Nobel prize (Right Livelihood Award) last year forstanding up to the government. We now have real friends across the world and theyare helping us take the government to court to try and make them give our lands back.They have helped us make a website to show our faces and our talk(iwant2gohome.org). The government and De Beers attack our friends like yappingdogs.
Please help us, Sir. We know you are a famous and respected man, and that if youspeak up for us many people will listen. We just want to go home, and hunt andgather and live in peace like we have always done. The government says we don’t
hunt any more. This is yet another lie. I ask, ‘Why do they arrest and beat us when wehunt the antelope who has always given us our strength?’
We have asked our friends at Survival International to put our words to you in amagazine (Variety). My people hope that everyone will hear our words and see ourpain, and help us go home.
We do not have leaders in the way your people do. We are free in our words andhearts, but I, Roy Sesana, am asked by our people to be spokesman. I cannot read orwrite, so I have asked friends to write for me and they will read your letter. Thegovernment arrested and beat me, but my words are not just from me alone and theycannot be thrashed out of me. They cannot beat the truth away. The roar of the lioncannot be held in prison. Please come and visit our house so we can show you howmuch the Kalahari is our home and the place of our ancestors and how much we needour land.
We are crying to you to help us.
Your friend,
Roy SesanaFirst People of the Kalahari
Iwant2gohome.org
We are the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve,
Botswana. Together with our children, we number around
1,000 people. The government has forced us off our ancestral
land, and now we live in resettlement camps. Since being
relocated we have problems we never knew before: drinking,
violence, HIV/AIDS. Many of us are dying in the camps. When
we try to hunt or gather we are arrested and put in prison. The
government calls this development. We just want to go home.
Please help us.
www.Iwant2gohome.orgKgeikani Kweni(First People of the Kalahari)PO Box [email protected]
To:
Extracts from a statement by Dr Elmon M. Tafa of opposition party theBotswana National Front, published in the Botswana newspaperMmegi, 23 August 2006
‘BNF speaks on CKGR’
• ‘[The Botswana National Front] condemns in the strongest of termsthe colonial-style forced relocation of Basarwa [Bushmen] of theCKGR.’
• ‘The BNF rejects the government's simplistic view that indigenouspeoples like Basarwa have only two options - either to remain lockedup in an ancient lifestyle in the game reserves and perish 'like thedodo' or relocate to remote places like New Xade and succumb toassimilation into the cultures of dominant ethnic groups.
• ‘In our view, development is not just economic, social and politicalbut also cultural. It must respect the cultural identities of the people.Development, however well meaning, is not something that can bedone to the people or imposed on them against their will.
• ‘We therefore call upon the government to immediately andunconditionally allow Basarwa to return to their homeland or CKGRwhere their ancestors are buried because their cultures, economies andidentities are inextricably intertwined with their traditional lands andresources.’
Read the statement in full at:http://www.mmegi.bw/2006/August/Wednesday23/557937830555.html
![LEONARDO DICAPRIO Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (/d ɨˈ kæpri.o ʊ /; born November 11, 1974)[1] is an American actor and film producer. He has been nominated](https://img.pdfslide.us/doc/110x75/56649eff5503460f94c13d42/leonardo-dicaprio-leonardo-wilhelm-dicaprio-d-kaeprio-born-november.jpg)
