Exploring the land dispossession and criminalisation of the Basarwa peoples' livelihoods in Botswana: A narrative through the lens of the Basarwa peoples

Abstract

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve(CKGR) and the Basarwa(the San or Bushmen) have been a locus of protracted struggles over land, resource rights, and citizenship. Despite the long history of the Basarwa peoples as the inhabitants of the CKGR, the government of Botswana reinforced their relocations to new resettlement areas. This study aimed to explore the Basarwa peoples’ experiences and perceptions of the land dispossessions and resettlements. In-depth face-to-face interviews using semi-structured questions with thirty-six(36) participants from three resettlement communities were administered and through data explication themes emerged. Key findings reveal that despite the opening of a diamond mine in the game reserve and a booming tourism industry, the development/modernisation promises which were offered by the government to enforce relocations were far from being realised. The study argues that such fosters the diminishing of the Basarwa selfhood in ways that (re)dismember¹ them from the human family through engaging with concepts of belonging, autochthony, othering, enclosures and cultural genocide.