Institutional
Capacity-building

Besides capacity-building measures incorporated as a fundamental component of most WIMSA training activities, its Regional San Education Programme and its negotiations on intellectual property rights, the activities covered in this section of the report either paved the way for institutional capacity-building or enhanced existing capacities in San organisations and communities. In March 2003, for the first time since the organisation’s inception in 1996, WIMSA organised a trip for Khwe of South Africa and Namibia to visit their fellow Khwe in north-western Zambia, with the aim of conducting a preliminary assessment of the situation of the San in that area in terms of land, education, health and social issues. The historic first workshop involving San of Angola, South Africa and Namibia in 2001 was followed by intensive communication between WIMSA and the Lubango-based Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) which developed into a service organisation, Organização Cristã de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Comunitário (OCADEC), catering specifically to San communities. Meetings of the South African San Council, the biannual gatherings of the WIMSA Board of Trustees and the annual WIMSA General Assembly meetings are essential capacity-building mechanisms for the San of southern Africa.

Zambian San Communities

Following a decision of the WIMSA board, four Khwe men from Schmidtsdrift in the Northern Cape, South Africa, and four Khwe men from West Caprivi in Namibia visited Khwe communities in Kashesha and Kadewanka in south-western Zambia in March 2003. The fact that there is a Khwe name for the Kashesha area, i.e. Kawonga, implies that the Khwe San have lived there for a long time. The territories traditionally occupied by the San in Kashesha were Mururu, Woca and Dishi.

Of the approximately 200 Khwedam-speaking San in Kashesha and Kadewanka, 123 had recently returned to Angola. Of the remaining 77 community members, 70% are under 20 years of age. The elected community leader, Foroshe Shiwawa, had opted to remain in Zamibia rather than return with the majority of his community to Angola.

The visitors were informed that apart from the few community members employed by Lozi-speaking people as servants, none of the Khwe draw any income. For food the Khwe depend on home-grown garden produce and bush foods – though gathering is prohibited, as is hunting.
Despite primary education being compulsory in Zambia and most of the remaining community members being under 20 years old, not one Khwe child or youth attends school because their parents cannot afford the school fees of N$200 per annum. They are also unable to pay for transport to and treatment at the nearest clinic 60 km from Kashesha.

Besides having no access to school and health services, a major concern for the community, they also lack identity documents.
The Khwe visitors observed that their relatives are totally dominated by Lozi-speaking people who are wealthier, better educated, and who represent the Khwe at local government level. They had the impression, as stated in their report, that “no one listened to our brothers and sisters”.
The group that visited the Kashesha community on WIMSA’s behalf recommended human rights and capacity-building training as essential for empowering the community members to voice their concerns and ask for government support in the form of a school, clinic and borehole.

Members of the Khwedam-speaking San community
living in Kashesha in south-western Zambia.

Kashesha Khwe community leader Foroshe Shiwawa (second from left, second row,
as indicated) and WIMSA board member Zekka Shiwarra (next to Foroshe) with
a group of community members.

Angolan San Communities

In early 2000 pioneering efforts on behalf of Angolan San were initiated by the YMCA Angola with assistance from Trócaire Angola. Following the initial efforts to establish contact with Angolan San, Trócaire introduced the YMCA and some Angolan San representatives to the regional San umbrella body, WIMSA. In January 2002 a WIMSA workshop in Windhoek brought together representatives of !Xun and Khwe San communities in Angola, Namibia and South Africa, this being the first contact between these broader San communities since they were torn apart as from the mid 1970s.

Angolan San leader Armondo Muleka addressing the guests
at OCADEC’s official inauguration in Lubango in January 2003.

Inspired by the information on WIMSA’s work, workshop participants Benedito Quessongo and Daniel Gaspar, the YMCA Huila Province chapter representatives, took the initiative of establishing a service organisation catering specifically to the San in Angola. The Organização Cristã de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Comunitário13 (OCADEC) was founded in August 2002 and formally inaugurated in January 2003 in Lubango in Angola’s Huila Province. Its primary purpose is to locate and help San in Angola to secure their rights under Angolan law and develop themselves. OCADEC will work in partnership with national NGOs and UN agencies, Angolan churches, government organs, local and traditional authorities and private sector entities, and will continue working in close co-operation with Trócaire Angola and WIMSA.

In November 2002 the first Angolan San along with OCADEC representatives and an official of the Comité Provincila dos Direitos Humanos de Huíla, a provincial human rights organisation, participated in the WIMSA General Assembly. They reiterated their previous reports on the desperate situation of the San communities in south-western Angola whom they were representing. The communities are said to be facing a humanitarian crisis as they are living in severe poverty and are starving; they have no access even to local health and educational facilities; and they face the problems of fierce land-grabbing and denial of their distinct identity and culture. A number of Angolan San communities live with other ethnic groups in master-servant relationships (the San are the ‘servants’), thus the levels of dependency and dominance are high. It is assumed that other San groups, like millions of other Angolan citizens, have been displaced by the 25-year civil war that ended in April 2002.
The WIMSA General Assembly decided that an assessment should be carried out to establish the needs of San communities in Angola with a view to facilitating their self-organisation for the purpose of engaging with Angolan government organs and local, national, regional and international NGOs in establishing Angolan San community development projects and building their capacity.

Following the aforesaid decision, OCADEC, Trócaire Angola, Trócaire Ireland and WIMSA jointly worked out the terms of reference for the envisaged assessment. A team consisting of Angolan San representatives, an Angolan anthropologist, OCADEC development workers and an experienced WIMSA consultant will conduct an assessment of the situation of the San communities in Namibe, Huíla and Cunene Provinces in south-western Angola in June and July 2003.

A San child of the Mupa community of Huíla in his hut.

A grandmother and grandchild of the San community of Sendi in Huíla Province.

A child of the San community of Sendi.

San Councils

One long-term WIMSA aim is to put in place national San councils and eventually a Regional San
Council to oversee San development. To date only the South African San Council has been established.

“... to advance the rights of South African San communities on local, national and regional levels … and to co-ordinate development plans, programmes and awareness campaigns with San communities, NGOs, researchers and government departments.”

– The main objectives of the South African San
Council as stated in its constitution.

The South African San Council acts as that country’s chapter of WIMSA. The councillors have set up committees on development, heritage, finance and media. In the period under review the South African San Council focused mainly on intellectual property rights. A number of meetings were held with representatives of the CSIR and other stakeholders in Hoodia-related issues. The council travelled twice acoss the country to the Didima Rock Art Centre in the Drakensberg Mountains in KwaZulu/Natal to negotiate on San involvement in that project.

Table 5: South African San Council Office-bearers

The council received training organised by the South African San Institute (SASI) in the areas of rights advocacy and constitutional rights. The training on the latter particularly enabled the council to negotiate language rights with relevant stakeholders, and to make the various “Khoisan”14 bodies aware that the San are able to speak for themselves but would like to co-operate with Khoi peoples in South Africa.

The majority of the South African San Council office-bearers participated in the WIMSA General Assembly in November 2002. Their report to the General Assembly highlighted the aforesaid activities and the council’s request for its own office.

“We believe once there are San Councils throughout the whole southern Africa, the San of southern Africa could then become one”.

– Concluding remark in the report of the South African San Council
to the WIMSA General Assembly in November 2002.

The WIMSA General Assembly in November 2002 agreed that WIMSA should assist the San communities in Namibia and Botswana in appointing their national San councils as soon as possible. Since then the WIMSA team has consulted stakeholders to draw up terms of reference for the councillors that will serve as a guideline for the San communities in appointing councillors later in 2003.

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