San people servants on their own land

TENSIONS are mounting in the Tsumkwe West area.

Many San communities are dissatisfied with the traditional chief – who they claim allocates land and grazing rights “left, right and centre,” but not to the San people living there – and they want him removed. “It is our land since this area is an officially gazetted communal conservancy, but people living in towns like Grootfontein and Otjituuo get land and come here as weekend farmers,” a dissatisfied member of the San community told The Namibian last week.”We are cattle herders for other people’s livestock for very little pay in our own conservancy and don’t benefit from the land.Our Chief does not look after the interests of the San people.”Chief John Arnold, who became traditional chief for the !Kung Bushmen or San people in 1998, is not regarded as a true !Kung by the San, since one of his parents was Herero and a grandparent was German.It is also said that he became chief because of his Swapo membership.Arnold lives in the Omatako settlement, about 130 kilometres east of Grootfontein, close to the veterinary fence, which runs from north to south.The fence forms an artificial border between commercial farms and the eastern communal areas of the Otjozondjupa Region.Formerly known as Bushmanland and now called Tsumkwe West after Independence, Arnold’s jurisdiction is strictly speaking only for the !Kung San, but geographically it reaches close to Tsumkwe village, and borders on the cutline of the Kavango region and in the south it borders on the Omaheke Region.The area was gazetted as a communal conservancy under the name N#a Jaqna in 2003.The first game species – a donation from a nearby wildlife trust – were brought in last year to attract more tourists and another load of eland, kudu, gemsbok and wildebeest followed last month.Other San people who speak Xu, Mpungu and Ju/’hoansi in the area say Arnold is not their chief.Herero-speaking Namibians and communal cattle herders from the Kavango and the central north have brought in thousands of head of livestock from Omaheke, Oshakati and the Otjituuo area over the past few years.”I wonder how all that cattle could and can pass the veterinary gate without proper documentation,” a nearby commercial farmer told The Namibian last Friday.”It surely cannot go without bribery.”The Namibian encountered over two dozen “cattle post” signboards of as many different ‘owners’ along the short 22-kilometre stretch from the main road to the Omatako settlement.There is not enough grazing any more due to overstocking and only two boreholes to provide water for about 2 700 people and about the same number of domestic animals.Overgrazing is causing land degradation, as evidenced by the many poison-leaf plants growing there.”Virtually every household has recorded a carcass,” an official of the forestry office at nearby Kano Vlei said.The recent veld fires added to the devastation of large tracts of grazing.The Namibian met a man at Omatako who lives in Grootfontein and only gave his name as “Gadaffi”, who was granted land by Chief Arnold to graze livestock there.The Namibian was later told that “Gadaffi” was a Namibia Defence Force officer at the Grootfontein military base.His wife is a matron at the Omatako primary school hostel.He has in the meantime built a brick house at Omatako.According to Chief Arnold, who has a tiny office at Omatako, all different language groups in that area “live in harmony.””We need more boreholes and it is only the drought which has brought difficulties,” he said, playing down the tribal tensions and the dissatisfaction among the San communities under his jurisdiction.”It would be good to fence in grazing camps, that will solve livestock problems.”This is contrary to the management plan of the N#a Jaqna Conservancy agreed by its 1 200 members.”We never see the Chief, he only rocks up for the Conservancy’s annual general meeting,” said a local San resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”I don’t want to sound racist, but we of the San tribes don’t have positions in Government and teachers, nurses and other Government officials transferred here are logically of other ethnic groups.A few weeks after arrival they bring in livestock, or their relatives come and bring the animals.”Where do they get the permission? Only the traditional authority can do that, but with the consent of the community and it must be approved by the Communal Land Board.That Board is a farce!” Communities spoken to in five different settlements corroborated this statement.”Please don’t mention the names of the settlements, we are afraid of retaliation,” the San speakers urged this reporter.The Communal Land Board of the Otjozondjupa Region, under which the conservancy falls, has only sat once this year.By law, it should sit every two months, but “budgetary constraints” prevented further meetings, The Namibian found out.”We received several letters from various San communities asking us for advice how to legally remove Chief Arnold,” said Zeka Alberto, a lawyer at the Legal Assistance Assistance (LAC).”The !Kung Traditional Authority is the most disorganised and the weakest in the country,” he added.”One can however not refuse permission to occupy land for ethnic reasons, that would be against Namibia’s Constitution,” Alberto pointed out.”But members of the community can raise objections in terms of overgrazing, carrying capacity of the land and conservancy issues.”In earlier documents and reports on land issues, the LAC has repeatedly pointed out the “weakness and helplessness” of the Chief to handle the enormous influx of other language groups and their livestock encroaching the land of the San.”It is our land since this area is an officially gazetted communal conservancy, but people living in towns like Grootfontein and Otjituuo get land and come here as weekend farmers,” a dissatisfied member of the San community told The Namibian last week.”We are cattle herders for other people’s livestock for very little pay in our own conservancy and don’t benefit from the land.Our Chief does not look after the interests of the San people.”Chief John Arnold, who became traditional chief for the !Kung Bushmen or San people in 1998, is not regarded as a true !Kung by the San, since one of his parents was Herero and a grandparent was German.It is also said that he became chief because of his Swapo membership.Arnold lives in the Omatako settlement, about 130 kilometres east of Grootfontein, close to the veterinary fence, which runs from north to south.The fence forms an artificial border between commercial farms and the eastern communal areas of the Otjozondjupa Region.Formerly known as Bushmanland and now called Tsumkwe West after Independence, Arnold’s jurisdiction is strictly speaking only for the !Kung San, but geographically it reaches close to Tsumkwe village, and borders on the cutline of the Kavango region and in the south it borders on the Omaheke Region.The area was gazetted as a communal conservancy under the name N#a Jaqna in 2003.The first game species – a donation from a nearby wildlife trust – were brought in last year to attract more tourists and another load of eland, kudu, gemsbok and wildebeest followed last month.Other San people who speak Xu, Mpungu and Ju/’hoansi in the area say Arnold is not their chief.Herero-speaking Namibians and communal cattle herders from the Kavango and the central north have brought in thousands of head of livestock from Omaheke, Oshakati and the Otjituuo area over the past few years.”I wonder how all that cattle could and can pass the veterinary gate without proper documentation,” a nearby commercial farmer told The Namibian last Friday.”It surely cannot go without bribery.”The Namibian encountered over two dozen “cattle post” signboards of as many different ‘owners’ along the short 22-kilometre stretch from the main road to the Omatako settlement.There is not enough grazing any more due to overstocking and only two boreholes to provide water for about 2 700 people and about the same number of domestic animals.Overgrazing is causing land degradation, as evidenced by the many poison-leaf plants growing there.”Virtually every household has recorded a carcass,” an official of the forestry office at nearby Kano Vlei said.The recent veld fires added to the devastation of large tracts of grazing.The Namibian met a man at Omatako who lives in Grootfontein and only gave his name as “Gadaffi”, who was granted land by Chief Arnold to graze livestock there.The Namibian was later told that “Gadaffi” was a Namibia Defence Force officer at the Grootfontein military base.His wife is a matron at the Omatako primary school hostel.He has in the meantime built a brick house at Omatako.According to Chief Arnold, who has a tiny office at Omatako, all different language groups in that area “live in harmony.””We need more boreholes and it is only the drought which has brought difficulties,” he said, playing down the tribal tensions and the dissatisfaction among the San communities under his jurisdiction.”It would be good to fence in grazing camps, that will solve livestock problems.”This is contrary to the management plan of the N#a Jaqna Conservancy agreed by its 1 200 members.”We never see the Chief, he only rocks up for the Conservancy’s annual general meeting,” said a local San resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”I don’t want to sound racist, but we of the San tribes don’t have positions in Government and teachers, nurses and other Government officials transferred here are logically of other ethnic groups.A few weeks after arrival they bring in livestock, or their relatives come and bring the animals.”Where do they get the permission? Only the traditional authority can do that, but with the consent of the community and it must be approved by the Communal Land Board.That Board is a farce!” Communities spoken to in five different settlements corroborated this statement.”Please don’t mention the names of the settlements, we are afraid of retaliation,” the San speakers urged this reporter.The Communal Land Board of the Otjozondjupa Region, under which the conservancy falls, has only sat once this year.By law, it should sit every two months, but “budgetary constraints” prevented further meetings, The Namibian found out.”We received several letters from various San communities asking us for advice how to legally remove Chief Arnold,” said Zeka Alberto, a lawyer at the Legal Assistance Assistance (LAC).”The !Kung Traditional Authority is the most disorganised and the weakest in the country,” he added.”One can however not refuse permission to occupy land for ethnic reasons, that would be against Namibia’s Constitution,” Alberto pointed out.”But members of the community can raise objections in terms of overgrazing, carrying capacity of the land and conservancy issues.”In earlier documents and reports on land issues, the LAC has repeatedly pointed out the “weakness and helplessness” of the Chief to handle the enormous influx of other language groups and their livestock encroaching the land of the San.