Education and
Training

The WIMSA General Assembly, San traditional and community leaders and individual members of San communities region-wide urged for the continuation of the WIMSA training programmes and regional education programme. It is considered to be of utmost importance that WIMSA offers on-the-job training for San at its regional office in Windhoek, theme-centred workshops for San traditional authorities and artisan training courses at the !Khwa ttu San Culture and Education Centre in South Africa, and that it supports San early childhood development and helps build the capacities of San youth through tertiary and other forms of further education.

On-the-job Training

Each year WIMSA hosts an on-the-job training course for two to four young San, covering adminis-trative procedures and developmental issues. WIMSA Mentor Magdalena Brörmann designs the course and conducts the training in two phases of three to six months each, in accordance with the individual trainee’s ability and level of formal education.

WIMSA trainees Tressel Katembo, a Khwe man working for the !Xun and Khwe Communal Property Association (CPA) at Platfontein, Northern Cape, South Africa, and Victoria Geingos, a Namibian Hai||om community activist, completed the first phase of their training in March 2002. Victoria was accepted for the second phase beginning in May 2002, and Tommy Busakhwe, a ‡Khomani man from the Gordonia District, Northern Cape, was selected to take up the second WIMSA trainee post as from July 2002.
Additional care was required in planning for their training to ensure that it met the needs of the new trainee as well as the expectations of the second-phase trainee who was concurrently involved in the San Public Relations Officers Course (PR course) run by TUCSIN in Windhoek.

Victoria utilised the three breaks of 6-8 weeks between PR course terms to improve the skills she acquired in the first training phase, and simultaneously, as part of the second phase, she learnt how to write reports, and how to plan and do the research for, produce and deliver speeches and presentations at international meetings/workshops. At the end of the second phase a professional librarian introduced her to the Inmagic computer databasing system WIMSA will use to produce a digital catalogue of the sections of its library containing documents and videos on San, other indigenous peoples and education. Victoria will maintain the library database for as long as she continues working for WIMSA at the office.

WIMSA trainee Victoria Geingos receiving computer
database training from librarian Cora Bezuidenhout

The new trainee, Tommy Busakhwe, was very keen to acquire administrative skills but equally so to learn about WIMSA’s history, role and activities, having been misinformed by some members of his ‡Khomani community that the organisation’s sole task is to raise funds for its member organisations. He expressed relief that the training, which included his participation in management meetings, had given him significant insight into WIMSA’s operations and programme budgets, which he now felt able to share with his community members.

Because Tommy was a fast learner, the Mentor was able to expand the first-phase training beyond the usual components including office and telephone reception, time management, taking and typing up minutes and a few other basic tasks, to include attending to WIMSA correspondence, learning information-gathering techniques and simple report-writing, analysing donor requirements and discussing human rights. This meant changing the course format from one of theoretical sessions in the morning and practical assignments in the afternoon to allowing the trainees to work on their own, e.g. in drafting replies to letters and e-mails which they then discussed with the Mentor or another team member, and encouraging them to participate frequently in meetings at the office on a wide range of issues. In one management meeting, having gained some experience through this form of training, Victoria and Tommy expressed appreciation for the Mentor’s trust in their ability to take on this independence in their work, and for always being ready to advise them, encourage them to obtain more information, answer their queries and assist them in setting priorities.

“One thing that was good for me is that I was given an opportunity to talk openly and voice my personal opinion. It was an excellent experience.”
– On-the-job trainee Tommy Busakhwe referring to
the training during his farewell speech to WIMSA.

WIMSA Mentor Magdalena Brörmann presenting
a certificate to trainee Tommy Busakhwe.

In January 2003 Tommy swapped trainee positions with Baba Festus, a ‡Khomani woman from Upington, Northern Cape, who had just completed a training phase at the !Khwa ttu San Culture and Education Centre. Tommy was very keen to experience day-to-day business at the centre as he hoped to be involved in his community’s planning for tourism projects. WIMSA was requested to accept Baba as a trainee for the period January to March 2003 so that she could experience WIMSA’s day-to-day business, which experience she and !Khwa ttu Co-ordinator Michael Daiber considered to be of critical importance as Baba would be employed as a Tourism Officer once she had acquired the necessary skills. Soon after Baba commenced with her training, the Mentor was able to resume the above-mentioned training method.

During her training Baba became aware of the lack of San resource persons having the organisational, administrative, linguistic and representational skills required for participation in international events. At the same time she heard about the Khoe and San 2003 International Conference to take place in Gaborone, Botswana, focusing on tourism and other themes, and promptly volunteered to learn how to write an abstract for a paper to present there, and if this was accepted, to produce the paper with assistance from Magdalena and Michael. In the process of producing her abstract, titled “Enough! Stop exploitation of San and start respecting our own ideas for tourism!”, Baba familiarised herself with the wide variety of books and reports in the WIMSA library, took a liking to reading, developed a research method she finds most suitable for herself and came to understand what skills are needed to write a paper. She also had the opportunity to participate with other San representatives from around southern Africa in a workshop on displays to be housed in the Interpretive Centre of the Didima Rock Art Centre in the Drakensberg, KwaZulu/Natal Province, South Africa.

Trainees Tommy Busakhwe and Baba Festus
discussing time management.

Baba filing documents in the WIMSA library.

Leadership training

In September 2001 Namibian San traditional leaders gathered at the WIMSA office for a two-day workshop to determine their future training needs. Acting on their recommendations that training should be responsive to specific needs of specific communities and address human rights, specific laws and rights and leadership skills, WIMSA invited suitable professionals to conduct a series of workshops for the leaders.
In April 2002 the first seven-day “Workshop on Leadership” for 20 San traditional and community leaders (10 women, 10 men) from Nyae Nyae (Tsumkwe District East), Tsumkwe District West and the Omaheke Region was conducted in Windhoek by Danie Botha, Director of Free to Grow, a Namibian NGO that provides life-skills and personal growth training.

The workshop incorporated a session on land-related laws and rights facilitated by Windhoek advocate Andrew Corbett. His discussion of laws such as the Nature Conservation Amendment Act and Communal Land Reform Bill provoked keen interest and animated discussion among the leaders, particularly with regard to opportunities presented and responsibilities demanded by these laws. At the end of this session the participants recommended as potentially highly beneficial the provision of legal education to San traditional and community leaders that draws on San community case studies.
At the end of the workshop the participants and facilitator agreed that the overall workshop goal, being to initiate a process of confidence-building based on personal growth and empowerment, had been achieved. The leaders felt that the exercise of identifying their biggest problems (unemployment, lack of money, problems with friends) and sources of strength (family, religion, self-development efforts), and then reflecting on the reasons for their problems and working out plans of action to address them, had led to important insights, as had their discussions on such issues as self-image, self-improvement, assertiveness, relationships, communication, conflict-handling and unity.

Participants in the Workshop on Leadership
performing a role-play titled “Free to Talk”.

Adv. Andrew Corbett facilitating a session on
land-related laws and rights in the
Workshop on Leadership.

“This course pointed out to us where we are guilty.
We saw it with our own eyes and could not shy away from it.”

“I learnt that communication is really a two-way process.
I always only had my own direction before.”

“I feel much stronger not to be manipulated by other
people who look stronger, like the government.”

“We have come from different places and shared the
feeling of our hearts. This proved to me that the San
community can work together.”

– San participants in the Workshop on Leadership as quoted in reports on the workshop.

Participants in the Workshop on Leadership
perform a role-play titled “Communicating with
our authoritarian chief”.

‘Woman power’ exercised in the balloon tread
competition held during the Workshop on Leadership
session on conflict-handling.

It was apparent that in their development efforts the participants aspire primarily to ensuring that their children inherit a meaningful future and not the present collective San situation of desperation. To accomplish this, it is necessary for the leaders, elders and adults to leave behind knowledge of San tradition and history in the form of information materials and books, music, art and crafts, and to create opportunities for San education and training, exposure to other groups, employment and self-employment, ownership of assets and resources left behind by elders, so as to develop in young San a sense of equality, social enrichment, self-acceptance, self-confidence and pride in their own culture and heritage.

An assessment of the impact of the workshop on !Kung community leaders in June 2002 revealed that they had found the experience deeply enriching on a personal level.

“I learnt not to be afraid. I learnt to believe in myself and to know that I am a human being like everyone else. No one is above us. I learnt that I do not have to accept a bad thing that may be said about me.”
– Member of the !Kung Traditional Authority on his personal experience of the workshop.

In the assessment it was observed that after the workshop the !Kung Traditional Authority councillors had acted fearlessly and with resolve against the perceived corruption of their chief whom they had directly challenged and criticised. Also it was observed that in Tsumkwe West community meetings, leaders now took care that arguments were heard, and that they themselves sustained their arguments and were not distracted from the issues at hand. Such behavioural change in leaders who participated is testimony to the effectiveness of this leadership training.

All participants interviewed in the assessment expressed their interest in a follow-up workshop. Consequently, a “Workshop on Organisational Development” was offered for !Kung and Ju|’hoansi San from Tsumkwe West and Nyae Nyae respectively in Mangetti Dune, Tsumkwe West, in October 2002. The workshop was attended by 17 men and 4 women, and facilitated by Danie Botha, Director of Free to Grow, and WIMSA consultant Richard Pakleppa. The workshop objective was to strengthen the functioning of the Ju|’hoansi and !Kung Traditional Authorities (TAs) – these being the only San TAs thus far officially recognised by the Namibian Government.

One main aim of the workshop was to explore practically relevant leadership issues with specific regard to internal divisions in the !Kung TA and threats to land rights in Tsumkwe West. After an initial day of looking at the members of the !Kung TA as individuals, the focus shifted to looking at them as a collective TA. Opposing models of power were discussed in concrete terms, with the difference between autocratic models – well known to San who experienced the colonial era – and democratic models illustrated and analysed, and participants giving strong examples of oppression under apartheid. Through additional experiential processes the participants explored the reasons for the persistence of fear, distrust, resentment, lack of respect, lack of confidence, negativity and defeatism among members of the !Kung TA.

During the discussion a participant stated that an oppressive style of leadership had developed within the !Kung TA, and that this was a key cause of the internal conflicts and weaknesses. In response, two !Kung TA members threatened to resign. At this point the facilitators suggested that the participants continue on their own, and they rejoined the workshop only after the participants had decided to refrain from threatening to resign in favour of drawing up rules to serve as the basis of their co-operation in future. By a show of hands the motion to work together as one body within a framework of an agreed set of rules was unanimously adopted as a formal decision of the workshop. Participants regarded this as the key achievement of the workshop.
In a meeting on 12 October 2002 following the workshop the members of the !Kung TA drew up and unanimously adopted the following document.

!Kung Traditional Authority (TA) Rules

1. Many people shall make decisions. In all important matters the decision of the majority shall be respected. To make important decisions at least 10 out of 14 TA members must be present.
2. Those members who do not support the decision of the majority are still duty bound to respect the majority decision in deed, word and spirit.
3. TA members who do not adhere to majority decisions of the TA will be investigated by the TA, after which a warning shall be given. The number of warnings given to such a TA member before she/he is removed from office shall be determined by the TA according to the specific case.
4. TA members who insult other members by using offensive and hurtful language shall be investigated by the TA. Thereafter an appropriate punishment will be determined.
5. The chief and all councillors are duty bound to share all important information with each other.
6. Members of the TA who do not share important information with each other shall be investigated by the TA. Thereafter warnings will be issued. Thereafter the TA shall determine steps to be taken against such members.
7. If there is deep dissatisfaction with the chief or any other councillor such TA members can be removed from office and replaced with new members. The steps that will be followed in such a case are:
   n The communities which elected the TA member in question must be consulted with the request to remove the member from office.
   n If the community agrees that this is necessary then the TA must approach the Minister of Regional and Local Government and Housing with the request to suspend the member in question and to arrange for an election.
8. The TA will meet four times per year. Further the chief and the senior councillors have the right to call meetings on any important matter. Meetings shall be held alternately in Omatako and Mangetti Dune.
9. All TA meetings shall be minuted. Minutes shall contain a record of all relevant discussion points and decisions reached. The TA secretary is duty bound to circulate minutes in advance of every meeting. TA meetings will consult the minutes of all previous meetings.
10. The TA accepts WIMSA’s offer to make available funds for convening TA members for the period up to March 2003.

The workshop had a concrete and positive outcome, but meanwhile it has become apparent that economically and socially more powerful people from other ethnic groups have intimidated or corrupted !Kung community leaders in Tsumkwe West. Therefore, further strengthening of the !Kung TA is needed.

Community Paralegal Training

To meet the request of the Namibian traditional leaders to provide training in law, legal processes and ways to invoke constitutional rights to defend people whose rights are abused, the Windhoek-based Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) agreed to extend its community paralegal training programme to San communities in Namibia.

The paralegal training is provided in two phases. The introductory phase, consisting of two five-day workshops, focuses on legal knowledge, traditional law and advice-giving skills. The first and second workshops were run in February and March 2003 by Senorita Gases, LAC Community Paralegal Co-ordinator, for a total of 33 community leaders from the six broader Namibian San communities.(1)

This training programme was developed by the LAC and WIMSA in close collaboration. It covers general issues and aspects of law ranging from the definition of ‘paralegal’ to the role of the National Paralegal Association, the structure of the Namibian Government, the Namibian Constitution, human rights, common and customary law, labour law and criminal law, as well as specific issues including farm labourers’ rights, children’s rights, women’s rights and associated legislation such as the Married Persons Equality Act, domestic violence, AIDS and the law, and how to write a will. Several participants found farm labourers’ rights and women’s rights to be the most interesting aspects of the training, not having known prior to it that farm labourers do have rights and that the common law treats men and women as equals.

While writing this report WIMSA received the first statements of trainee paralegals based in Tsumkwe West and Outjo concerning their investigation into financial irregularities in the !Kung TA, evictions of San farm labourers, and their facilitation of the efforts of many San in outlying rural areas to obtain their identity documents.

The second phase of the community paralegal training will be run in mid 2003. This phase consists of advanced training in practical problem-solving, and in establishing and managing structures through which to provide a legal advisory service to the community.

Training at !Khwa ttu

A San adult literacy class in progress at the !Khwa ttu San
Education and Culture Centre near Cape Town, South Africa.

The !Khwa ttu San Culture and Education Centre is a WIMSA project. The centre is located on an 850 - hectare farm in the Yzerfontein area, 70 kilometres north of Cape Town in South Africa, on a significant and growing West Coast tourist route. Since 1999 when anthropologist Irene Staehelin bought the farm for the project, San trainees have been invited to live and work there in order to be involved in restoring the land and developing the premises into a tourist attraction – these goals necessitating a wide range of activities.

From April 2002 to March 2003 six men and four women from the !Khwe, !Xun and ‡Khomani communities in South Africa were trained in a variety of skills. Most trainees were involved in the alien tree-clearing and veld restoration programme which entails controlled burning of dead plant material and replanting indigenous vegetation in large areas of the farm’s former wheat fields. Another group of six South African San trainees was involved mainly in building activities. Each Monday and Wednesday the trainees could participate in either an adult literacy session or a home or office management session depending on their individual interests, needs and formal education level.

From January to March 2003 the trainees were involved in the initial phase of a !Khwa ttu cultural tourism training programme. This was a planning and construction phase focused on identifying the areas most suitable for setting up campsites, bush camps, hiking trails and viewpoints without doing any environmental damage, and doing the basic groundwork, including installing a supply of fresh water for hikers, constructing waterholes, building a wall around the reservoir to control soil erosion, and clearing the areas identified for the campsites, hiking trails, etc. The trainees were involved in the planning and the groundwork.

Another ‡Khomani community member, Andries Thys, attended a six-month training course in “Cater Care” at the Bergsicht Training Centre in Stellenbosch near Cape Town. Through this course trainees acquire catering, hospitality, communication and general tourism skills. The trainee and !Khwa ttu Co-ordinator Michael Daiber viewed this course as “very valuable as it has allowed for practical and theoretical experience to work with all aspects of the hospitality industry”.

In March 2003 Michael sent an invitation to various San organisations and their support organisations around the region to attend an Entrepreneurial Learnership Course in Arts and Crafts which should lead to a registered National Qualification Framework Level 4 qualification. Michael was able to obtain funds for 20 San from around the region to attend this course.

In future the newly built training facilities at !Khwa ttu will be used extensively to train San community development facilitators from across the region in specific areas, such as the development and use of a ‘memory box’. It is hoped that interested Khwe-speaking San from West Caprivi in Namibia and San from Botswana will undergo tourism training at !Khwa ttu in 2003.

San trainees building a waterhole for game on the !Khwa ttu farm.

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