International
Co-operation

In the period under review WIMSA received numerous invitations to participate in international conferences, consultative meetings, seminars and workshops. While the San are pleased that their expertise on San and other indigenous cultures, current affairs and development issues are in high demand internationally, they also find this demand a heavy burden as only a few San possess the organisational, administrative, linguistic and representational skills required for participation in such gatherings. To ease this burden WIMSA decided to identify suitable San resource persons across southern Africa by means of an inventory stipulating the skills required for participation and issues that tend to be focal on the agendas of international fora, but leaving blank spaces next to each skill and issue for suitable people’s names to be filled in. Individual San and representatives of a few San organisations added their names to the list, according to which a total of 32 San from Namibia, Botswana and South Africa would be able to participate actively in English in these fora and present papers on San issues to them. WIMSA has encouraged its member and support organisations to build capacity, develop writing skills and enhance English language skills among those San interested in representing the San of the whole region at international level.

Some regional and international gatherings on indigenous issues in which San participated in the reporting period have already been mentioned in this report, i.e. the workshop titled “Following Footsteps” (p. 32), the 12th International Oral History Conference (p. 35), the International Partners Consultation on Children and HIV/AIDS (p. 57) and the “Indigenous Rights in Commonwealth Africa” meeting (p. 67). This section covers only those gatherings not yet mentioned.

UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Ahighlight for WIMSA representative Joram |Useb was his participation in the inaugural session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues held at UN headquarters in New York in May 2002. The UN High Commission on Human Rights accepted and sponsored Joram’s application to attend the session as an observer.

The establishment of a permanent forum focused on indigenous issues – a concept first introduced at the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights in 1993 – became one of the chief objectives of indigenous people’s fora in marking the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People (1995-2004). On the recommendation of the Commission on Human Rights, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted a resolution establishing the Permanent Forum in July 2000. The mandate of this forum is to advise and make recommendations to ECOSOC relating to economic and social development, culture, human rights, the environment, education and health. In addition to advising ECOSOC, the forum has been asked to raise awareness, promote the integration and co-ordination of activities relating to indigenous issues within the UN system, and prepare and disseminate information on indigenous matters. Representatives of indigenous people’s organisations, other NGOs, UN bodies and governments were invited to participate as observers in this historic inaugural event. All participants had an opportunity to deliver a statement to the 16 forum members, all of whom are independent experts – eight nominated by their government and eight appointed by the ECOSOC President following formal consultation with governments on the basis of consultation with indigenous people’s organisations. All members serve for three years with the possibility of re-election for an additional year.

In his statement Joram conveyed the San’s serious concern about the impact of the Namibian Government’s (presumably erstwhile) plan to relocate approximately 21 000 refugees from a camp in northern Namibia to a part of the country occupied by 4 500 !Kung San. He also informed the participants about the involuntary relocation of the G|ui and G||ana from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve effected by the government of Botswana.

In his report on the first session of the Permanent Forum Joram states that the session had provided excellent opportunities for networking, advocacy and disseminating information on San aspirations, achievements and problems, and for learning more about other indigenous peoples and the American way of life after 11 September 2001.

“ I certainly would like to attend the 2nd session of the Permanent Forum as in my personal opinion it seems more effective than the session of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva.”

– WIMSA Representative Joram |Useb in his report to WIMSA on the
inaugural session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Biopiracy Summit

Victoria Geingos and Mathambo Ngakaeaja represented WIMSA at the Second South-South Biopiracy Summit titled “Biopiracy – Ten Years Post-Rio” hosted by Biowatch South Africa in Johannesburg in August 2002. This two-day workshop was held a few days prior to the World Summit on Sustainable Development also held in Johannesburg. The Biopiracy Summit participants, hailing from Africa, South America, Asia and the USA, discussed intellectual property rights, indigenous knowledge, access and benefit-sharing issues. Victoria and Mathambo presented a short paper titled “Traditional Knowledge of the San of Southern Africa: Hoodia gordonii.

“Some participants were against the CSIR patent whereas others understood why the San had agreed on it and were interested in what procedures they had followed. Participants wanted to know how San communities are protecting their intellectual property, and Mathambo informed them about the “Media and Research Contract of the San of Southern Africa”.

– WIMSA representative Victoria Geingos in her report to WIMSA on the summit, summing up the participants’ response to the paper she wrote and presented there jointly with fellow representative Mathambo Ngakaeaja.

Victoria concludes in her report that the summit gave the participants an opportunity to learn about the San perspective on intellectual property rights, and herself and Mathambo an opportunity to learn a great deal about the patenting of life forms and trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS).

Genome Research Initiative

Joram |Useb represented WIMSA at the “Workshop on the Origins of Humanity and the Diffusion of Human Populations in Africa” hosted by the Africa Human Genome Initiative in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in September 2002 . The workshop provided a platform for dialogue between scientists and social scientists.

The following extract from SASI consultant Nigel Crawhall’s report on the workshop sums up the issue at hand as well as Joram’s own views on the issue:

“... genome research will become very important in health care and the promotion of good health in the coming years by tracking down hereditary diseases, and genetically battling acquired conditions. … Prior informed consent is a difficult principal to manage, and as genes affect whole communities, and particularly the families of the individual tested, there is an argument for group authorisations above and beyond individual consent. A central principle is that the individual should not sign over the rights to the genetic information ... he/she should retain ownership and control when and where this material is going to be used. … The Khoe-San blood type is very special on the planet, as it is the original strain and quite different from Black and Caucasian blood types which are more like each other.”

Joram and other San participating in this workshop learnt that several San groups have already been tested and international experts plan to get hold of !Xun and Ju|’hoansi material. Joram gave his input during the thematic session on “Nomenclature of People”. When the issue of the distinction between ‘Khoe’ and ‘San’ was raised, Joram made it clear to the participants that the San do not consider themselves to be ‘Khoisan’, and where a collective term is required, such as for blood types, it should be ‘Khoe-San’ in recognition of the San people’s distinctiveness. His contribution was well received by the scientific community.

Indigenous People’s Film Festival

Moronga Tanago of TOCaDI in Botswana repre-sented WIMSA at the Indigenous People’s Film Festival organised by First People of Finland in Turka, Finland, in October 2002. Film-makers from Estonia, Russia and South Africa presented their films on the Saami and San peoples respectively to an audience composed of a small number of indigenous people from Europe, Latin America and Africa, and members of the local Turka community. The festival discussions focused on the ethics involved in producing documentaries on indigenous peoples.

From left: James Herslov, Olga Kornienko, Moronga Tanago, Liivo Niglas and Jovko Aaltonen at the film festival.

From left: Spanish interpreter Tiina Saaresranta, Juan Santos Rodriguez-Peru, Martin Scheinin, Juha Hiltunen, Moronga Tanago and Liivo Niglas.

In their discussions and interviews with Moronga the delegates were most keen to know about the contemporary lifestyle of the San. Moronga also updated them on developments with the CKGR issue which the majority of them had read about.

“The festival was very interesting because I learnt there that a person is able to make simple films, e.g. on HIV/AIDS. With simple films we could raise awareness amongst San people.”

– WIMSA representative Moronga Tanago summarising his learning
experience in his report to WIMSA on the festival.

Consultative Meeting on
African Indigenous Populations

WIMSA representatives Mathambo Ngakaeaja and Joram |Useb participated in the Consultative Meeting of the African Commission’s Working Group on Indigenous Populations organised by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Nairobi, Kenya, in January 2003. The letter of invitation conveys the purpose of this meeting as follows:

“... to draw indigenous peoples/communities from Africa and experts on Indigenous issues from Africa as well as other regions of the world to discuss a Conceptual Framework Paper drawn by Members of the African Commission Working Group, gather input and debate on indigenous matters in Africa and discuss the recommendations to be made to the African Commission. The Working Group believes that your expertise in the area of rights of indigenous communities is invaluable and would be of great benefit to the work of the Working Group of the African Commission.”

Joram |Useb (left) and Mathambo Ngakaeaja during
the Consultative Meeting on African Indigenous Populations.

During the meeting the participants familiarised themselves with the content of the “Conceptual Framework Paper”, and Mathambo and Joram gave input on issues including “who is indigenous in Africa” and the situation of African indigenous communities today from the perspective of the San. Along with other delegates they stressed the urgency of calling for interventions to be made by African governments, the international public and human rights bodies to bring about:

• security of land tenure for indigenous peoples in Africa;
• an improvement of basic services to indigenous communities in Africa; and
• sensitisation of mainstream African populations to the equality of all citizens and the right of all indigenous African peoples to develop themselves and to determine their own pace and forms of development.

The WIMSA representatives hope that at least one of them will to be able to participate in the next session of the African Commission’s Working Group on Indigenous Populations to be held in Niamey, Niger, in May 2003, where the “Conceptual Framework Paper” is expected to be finalised.

“Effective Engagement with Indigenous Peoples”

Victoria Geingos of WIMSA participated as a resource person in a “Workshop on Effective Engagement with Indigenous Peoples” held in Vancouver, Canada, in March 2003, as part of a project developed by First Peoples Worldwide, a WIMSA support organisation, in partnership with the Canadian oganisation named Business for Social Responsibility. The project aims to train company personnel from the extractive industries (e.g. oil/gas, mining, logging) in building more effective relationships with indigenous communities. The purpose of this particular workshop was to provide constructive and practical guidance to company personnel. As one of several participating indigenous people with different and complementary experiences of indigenous people’s development, Victoria was expected to contribute hands-on knowledge and guidance to the workshop.

The workshop was perceived as an introduction to issues of common concern to indigenous peoples and the applicable industrialists, including land rights, community development, informed prior consent, capacity-building, joint decision-making processes and cultural activities, which should be viewed and treated as parts of a larger whole rather than as separate and unrelated issues, as they too often are. The workshop theme was “Journey towards Gaining a Social Licence”, and one key element of it was a range of exercises aimed at making the company representatives aware of indigenous people being full decision-makers in their own right.

Victoria Geingos presenting Hai||om cultural resource maps at the “Workshop on Effective Engagement with Indigenous Peoples”.

Group work during the “Workshop on Effective Engagement with Indigenous Peoples”.

In the “Impacts on Indigenous Cultures” session, Victoria presented San cultural resource maps depicting, among other things, wildlife and bush foods once hunted and gathered on the Hai||om ancestral land, now Etosha National Park. She also explained how the Hai||om were dispossessed of their land. She stressed the importance of the WIMSA Regional Oral Testimony Collection Project which had provided valuable information for the development of the maps.
The participants appreciated Victoria’s passionate presentation and her sharing of some personal stories about images in the maps. Her presentation prompted many questions and a recommendation that other indigenous groups should follow the San example and record their oral history.

Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Development

Joram |Useb was invited by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Foreign Affairs Office of the Home Rule Government of Greenland to participate in the “Workshop on Partnership on Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Development” held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in March 2003. The letter of invitation states:

“... the Government of Denmark and the Home Rule Government of Greenland, together with representatives of indigenous organisations, like-minded countries, institutions and organisations initiated a ‘Partnership on Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Development – Capacity-building for dialogue’ in connection with the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002. To get the Partnership off the ground, the Danish Government [is organising this workshop].”

The three-fold purpose of the partnership served as the basis of the workshop deliberations, this purpose being:

• to promote knowledge on indigenous peoples’ rights and priorities within development agencies and national governments;
• to exchange experiences of good practice; and
• to enhance the capacity of indigenous peoples to influence national policy- and decision-making on sustainable development.

Joram and 19 other participants from Europe, Africa, the USA, South America and Asia constituted one of the three working groups tasked to discuss support to indigenous peoples’ organisations that influence key policy proposals at the global level. This working group tackled questions including the following, as quoted from the background materials supplied to the working groups by the organisers:

• What is already there?
• What is lacking?
• What threats and challenges to indigenous peoples are posed by international agreements and mechanisms?
• What is the role of indigenous peoples in deciding on projects, and in implementing and evaluating those projects?
• What are the representation and capacity challenges for indigenous peoples?

Though Joram found his participation very worthwhile, the workshop had demonstrated to him the difficulty of drawing 60 participants in one direction. He appreciated the opportunity to strengthen WIMSA’s relationship with representatives of the World Bank, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.

Networking

Networking at local, regional and international levels is one key aspect of WIMSA’s work. In the period under review the regional WIMSA team, the WIMSA Botswana team in D’Kar and the WIMSA board members stayed in close contact with all WIMSA member organisations through a number of regional events, direct contact with individual member organisations and indirect contact via WIMSA support organisations including IRDNC in Namibia, Trócaire in Angola, SASI in South Africa and Letloa in Botswana. WIMSA also continued networking with various NGOs, ministries, education institutions, academics, human rights societies, UN agencies, the media, and of course, WIMSA’s donors.

A number of the aforementioned bodies have already been referred to in previous sections of this report and will not be mentioned again in this section.

Networking with Member Organisations

Four San organisations applied for and were granted WIMSA membership in the reporting period: the ‡Heku Community Trust, the Tsoa and Kua Cultural Association, and the Kanako Development Club, all in Botswana; Organização Cristã de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Comunitário (OCADEC) in Angola; and the KwaZulu/Natal San Development Trust in South Africa. Two groups among Namibia’s Hai||om communities are still in the process of forming their own organisations. The group based in the town of Outjo near the the Etosha National Park and the planned ||Naisa !Anis San Development Trust requested and are receiving advice from WIMSA in the process of establishing their community trust.

WIMSA Botswana established a close relationship with the Tsoa and Kua Cultural Association and the Kanako Development Club in Botswana, and representatives of the former were elected onto the WIMSA Botswana board in March 2003. The Trust for Okavango and Development Initiatives (TOCaDI) catered to the ‡Heku Community Trust and other San and non-San CBOs operating in the Ngamiland District of Botswana. The regional WIMSA kept up close contact with the Kuru Family of Organisations, particularly with TOCaDI, the Kuru D’Kar Trust, Gantsi Craft and Letloa.

Since the WIMSA General Assembly in November 2002 when OCADEC officially joined WIMSA, there has been extensive e-mail contact between the WIMSA team and OCADEC’s representatives Daniel Gaspar and Benedito Quessongo to co-ordinate plans for the assessment of the situation of the Khwe and !Xun San communities in Angola to be conducted in June and July 2003.

In October 2002 KwaZulu/Natal San Development Trust Chairperson Makhowane Ernest Hlalanathi applied for WIMSA membership which was granted. Disagreements among the leaders of the various KwaZulu/Natal San groups rendered those groups unable to appoint delegates to the WIMSA General Assembly in November 2002.

A preliminary report by anthropologist Frans Prins provides the following background information about the San of the eastern seaboard of South Africa:

“The San have been the sole occupants of the eastern seaboard of South Africa (i.e. Mapumalanga Province, [KwaZulu/Natal Province], Eastern Cape Province, Lesotho and Swaziland) for more than 20 000 years. … The San’s mastery of the land made a dramatic turnabout when the first Bantu-speaking agropastoralists and Khoe pastoralists arrived in South Africa around 1 800 years ago. ... The San of the eastern seaboard had thus been in contact with other groups for almost 2 000 years. Such interaction included conflict but also trading relations, the employment of the San as ritual functionaries by other groups, livestock raiding partnerships, as well as intermarriage. … The encroachment of their last remaining hunting territories by European colonists and their African surrogates spelled the end of a way of life for these independent San groups. … Most scholars believe that the south eastern San became extinct by the end of the 19th century.

hose who were not killed by colonial reprisals assimilated into the societies of their Bantu-speaking neighbours (both Sotho and Xhosa).”30

In the same report the writer notes that since 1986 a few researchers have become aware of San descendants “who have literally gone underground during the last 100 years or so. Due to the political climate of the time they hid their ethnic identities and pretended to be either coloured and/ or Bantu.”31

San of KwaZulu/Natal in a discussion with
anthropologist Frans Prins who has worked with the
San of South Africa’s eastern seaboard for many years.

Frans Prins, who has worked with the San of the eastern seaboard for many years and who established, in conjunction with Isolde Mellet, a support organisation for them, namely the San Foundation, also conveys the following information in his report:

“... with the possible exception of two individuals it also appears that their original language has become extinct. However, most of these San people do regard rock art as an integral part of their cultural heritage and identity.”32

To date approximately 650 San descendants have been located in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu/Natal and Mapumalanga Provinces. The KwaZulu/Natal San Development Trust in tandem with the South African San Council and WIMSA played a significant role in the negotiations with the Didima Rock Art Centre in the Drakensberg Mountains in KwaZulu/Natal.

Representatives of the KwaZulu/Natal San Development Trust will be invited to attend the 2003 WIMSA General Assembly to inform the other San of the region of their members’ current situation, aspirations and plans.

As the regional WIMSA is based in Namibia, where a national support organisation catering to San has not yet been established, the Namibian San generally refer their development-related requests to the regional WIMSA. Only the San of the Omaheke Region enjoy the services of their own umbrella organisation, namely the Omaheke San Trust (OST), a WIMSA member organisation.

Though OST activities came to a near standstill due to financial irregularities discovered in the second quarter of 2002, a number of organisational and staff changes in the organisation has enabled the revitalisation of its services. Under the guidance of its new Co-ordinator, Ian Agnew, the OST has expanded its network, lobbying capacity and projects implementation. Despite the OST having evolved into a more autonomous organisation, the exchange of views, discussions of concepts and mutual assistance that always prevalied between the OST and WIMSA has recently intensified and resulted in an excellent co-operation. In future this co-operation will be continued in respect of cultural, educational, developmental and HIV/AIDS-related activities.

OST Co-ordinator Ian Agnew (right) and WIMSA
Co-ordinator Axel Thoma in one of their regular meetings,
this time at the WIMSA office in Windhoek.

Table 8: WIMSA Member Organisations

WIMSA continued supporting Hai||om community facilitator Elfriede Gaeses with advice, though she spent only the breaks of 4-6 weeks between San Public Relations Officers Course terms in her community. Due to disagreements among the various Hai||om factions, Elfriede lost her office in Outjo which she had managed to secure rent free from the Outjo Municipality. Hai||om paralegal volunteer Kleofas Geingob was planning to reclaim the office and requested WIMSA to re-equip it. WIMSA intends to fulfil this request in the near future, and hopes that Elfriede’s fellow Hai||om will not seek to prevent her from sharing the office with Kleofas. WIMSA has agreed to provide advisory support to the envisaged Etosha, ||Naisa !Anis and Outjo Trusts of the Hai||om communities.

Besides arranging for the “Free To Grow” workshop for the Tsumkwe District West !Kung Traditional Authority (TA) members (see p. 17), and for two consultancies to assist the !Kung TA in its investigation of controversial land allocations in Tsumkwe West (p. 64), WIMSA continued networking with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) regarding the planned N‡a Jaqna Conservancy in Tsumkwe West. WIMSA also continued its support for the Omatako Valley Rest Camp in Tsumkwe West by way of giving advice and providing funds for improvements to the campsite. WIMSA has contributed NCA funding to market research on craft products and the target market as well as research on the availability of resources needed for product development in Tsumkwe West and East conducted by the Rössing Foundation. At the campsite committee members’ request, WIMSA will assist them in revitalising the camp’s grocery shop, expanding the craft shop and constructing game lookout posts during 2003.

Contacts established by WIMSA and the Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS) at the University of Namibia with San in the Ohangwena Region of Namibia were revitalised when members of the Ekoka San Art Project set up with assistance from the Rössing Foundation visited the WIMSA office to discuss their community’s needs and WIMSA’s mandate.

Members of the Ekoka San Art Project and representatives of
the Ekoka San community in discussions with WIMSA team members.

Following the release of UNESCO’s publication titled New Horizons for the San by Dhyani Berger and Elke Zimprich Mazive, which presents the findings of a participatory action research undertaking among San communities in the Ohangwena Region in northern Namibia, WIMSA invited representatives of ministries and NGOs working with San in that region to participate in a round-table discussion on San development there. In the meeting information and experiences were shared and possible development interventions discussed.

It is envisaged that after further extensive discussion with the San communities in the Ohangwena Region, UNESCO, WIMSA and other organisations will co-operate to assist them to set up their own umbrella organisation, initially for their own region only but ultimately for the Ohangwena, Oshikoto, Oshana and Omusati Regions as a single entity.
Since members of the San Project Committee in West Kavango were unable to participate in the WIMSA General Assembly in 2002, Joram |Useb of WIMSA visited the project in December 2002. The committee members informed him that they had renamed the project “Mukekete San Project” after their village. He reported back that WIMSA’s support to the project in the form of oxen and ploughing equipment had been put to good use, and sorghum seed from the previous harvest had already been planted. The community agreed with Joram that they had attained a level of self-sustainability (they balance their diet with bush food) and additional material support from WIMSA was thus no longer needed.

Besides visiting San communities the WIMSA team members received numerous San individuals and/or groups of community representatives at the WIMSA office. Those unfamiliar with Windhoek requested logistical and material help, while others needed advice on implementing plans, filing complaints or obtaining documents and information. The team was able to assist in most matters.

FOOTNOTES:
29 R. Pakleppa, “Report on investigations of controversial land allocations in Tsumkwe District West, Namibia, between 16 June and 4 July 2002”, WIMSA, Windhoek.

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