News

10 January 2008
Khomani San IKS and Land Project

When the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park was proclaimed during the 1930’s, the livelihoods and freedom of movement of some of South Africa’s last remaining first peoples, Bushmen as they call themselves, were curtailed and the people were eventually dispossessed of their land. In 1995 the Khomani San lodged a claim for the restitution of 400,000 ha of land in the Park and after years of negotiation and verification, the claim was finally settled on 21st March 1999.  Six Kalahari farms (approximately 36,000 ha) were transferred to the community together with some 25,000 ha within the now Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (to be managed as a Contractual National Park), as well as cultural and symbolic rights to the rest of the 400,000 ha claimed.

In the first years after the land claim was settled, little development occurred with growing social decay and disintegration, lack of real support from government, divisions within the community, and no significant improvement in the welfare of most community members being the order of the day.  A concerted effort by key role players, together with strategic technical intervention is now turning this situation around. However, due to a lack of resources and capacity, as well as the remote location of the community, further support to the community is still urgently required.

The Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Land Project, funded by the Ford Foundation’s Indigenous Peoples Fund, through the ASL Foundation, is focusing on the rebuilding of the communities cultural identity, reestablishing the people’s connection with their ancestral land in the Park, facilitating the transmission of indigenous knowledge between generations and the maintenance of IKS, and building organisational capacity in order that the San may effectively manage and benefit from their land in and adjacent to the Park.  This is specifically done through:

•        the provision of technical assistance to and institutional capacity building of the Park and Traditional Committees in order that they may become empowered members of the Park’s Joint     Management Board, better equipping them to carry out their mandate, achieve effective co-management of the Park, exercise their cultural and symbolic rights, and develop a cultural centre to serve as a safe repository for artefacts and research;

•    the training and certification of a core group of trackers, guides and community rangers that can work in the Park and on the traditional farms, making use of cybertrackers for monitoring and research purposes, and guiding tourists to the area;

•    creating links with other indigenous peoples organisations regionally and globally and attendance at suitable local or international forums by elected community representatives;

•    rebuilding/reviving cultural, community and individual identities through focused workshops and exchange visits with other San and indigenous communities in similar situations or with insight and indigenous knowledge to share;

•    visits to and workshops in the Park by elders and youths for the revival and transmission of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), including tracking, traditional bow-hunting, medicinal plant collection and use, dancing and other cultural activities.

As one of the ASL’s pilot programmes in South Africa, further technical assistance is also being received by the Khomani San with respect to the strategic assessment of tourism opportunities in the area and the identification of suitable private sector partnerships for tourism development.

For more information on this project please contact the Project manager, Phillpa Holden Cell: 083 774 5374 or E-Mail: phillipa@hixnet.co.za