how can the courts of a 'democratic' country in afrikab not support the right to water on ancentral land, for the boesman first nation people of the kalahari central game reserve? I mean, reeeeally? What is the leadership of that country thinking? What are they feeling?
To literally thirst people half to death, to terrorize them with wantom physical and psychological violence... Like denying them water while making ample water regularly available to animals, while the indigenous people are prevented from accessing water, having even water that they purchase and cart across long distances, thrown out in front of their eyes and into the scortching Kalahari sand... Forcing them to move off ancestral land, for dubious reasons not least as punishment for not choosing botswana style modernity that's steeped in the nationalistic and the patriotic. The lack of respect for freedom of choice and for the notion of first people's rights, is shockingly callous.
Its reported that a diamond mining project had been ok'ed, recently. It is reported that the self-same ancestral lands hold diamond deposits... We can figure. Margin for deception is grass thin. These actions and those to follow, will reveal much about the GOB. If they get it wrong, in this case, they commit an unforgivable crime against humanity for which generations of Africans, will hold generations of Botswanians accountable.
It is time for respect, trust, goodwill and life-making decisions, devoid of the greed that gives texture to the Botswana economy and its supposed dynamism. Is that still possible given the grave measures to date to drive the Boesman to extinction? The GOBs actions in the immediate future will tell. The court ruling brings a glimmer of hope, a silver lining, a drop in the desert, that maybe, just maybe, the spirit of Africa will lead our thinking and feeling.
I can believe in that. I am hopeful. I remain enraged. The Boesman remain thirsty.
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