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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Botswana: are the San/Bushmen entitled to occupy their ancestral lands? Essay on exotic pastiche
Author:Radipati, Bongi D.D.
Year:1998
Periodical:L'Afrique politique
Pages:245-254
Language:English
Geographic term:Botswana
Subjects:San
resettlement
customary law
land law
Abstract:While it is widely recognized that the San (Bushmen) are the longest-term inhabitants of certain parts of southern Africa, such as Botswana and Namibia, they continue to be dispossessed of their land, discriminated and marginalized in Botswana. To explain this situation the author stresses the fact that the liberal constitutional order of Botswana expresses the values of individuality and not of community. The author argues that while legal recognition and protection of San individual rights is in place, this is insufficient to permit them to exist as a community with recognized community values. In particular, the law fails to account for the meaning and significance that the San ascribe to their ancestral lands. At present, through what the government of Botswana calls policies of persuasion, hundreds of San residing in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve are being encouraged (perhaps compelled) to relocate to new settlements outside the game reserve. The government should invigorate the San way of life by developing the law so that it more effectively protects and fosters the San as full citizens, both as communities and as individuals. Notes, ref., sum. in English and French (p. 14).
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