The people’s place became the animals’ place

Abstract

Sixty-year-old Maruta Diyonga gave this interview from his home in the small settlement of Kaputura in Botswana’s Okavango Panhandle. He belonged to one of many groups of San in Botswana who had been removed from lands to which they had a long-term attachment but which had been redesignated as commercial farms, cattle ranches, and wildlife management and reserve areas. As a result of removal and exclusion from their traditional lands, they found themselves, according to Maruta, without a voice, dependent on others, living in poorly serviced settlements with neither the training to take up employment, nor the possibility of pursuing important aspects of their previous way of life.

We have lost our land, the ruling of it, leadership, a generous life, culture and traditional healing systems, which was our whole lifestyle. Now our lives are dependent on the other tribes. The government stopped us from moving around, but they do not give us the power to improve the Khwe communities’ life like the other tribes do, through what they are receiving from the government … We are the last, the last ones in a bad life, not like the other tribes here in Botswana.

—Maruta Diyonga