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.

a
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.

Networking with Support Organisations

In 2002/03 WIMSA welcomed with gratitude two new support organisations, namely the Irish Catholic Agency for World Development (Trócaire) of Angola and Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC) of Namibia. Both organisations have assisted WIMSA with advice and logistics. Trócaire was able to raise funds from its headquarters for the planned assessment of the situation of the San in Angola, and in conjunction with WIMSA and TOCaDI, IRDNC organised a number of workshops for Khwedam-speaking San.

At WIMSA’s request Namibia’s Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) supported the !Kung Traditional Authority in its investigation of controversial land occupations in Tsumkwe West by providing a legal practitioner to consult with !Kung community members and collect affidavits in the area. The San much appreciated the LAC-run paralegal training workshops for San community members, which they regarded as crucial for assistance with difficult issues to be rendered effectively by San for San.

Ditshwanelo, the Botswana Centre for Human Rights, continued keeping WIMSA and the other stakeholders abreast of developments concerning the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) in Botswana and also convened regular meetings of the CKGR support coalition of which WIMSA is a member.

Table 9: WIMSA Support Organisations

Hazel Hudson of the San/Basarwa Research and Capacity Building Programme of the University of Botswana assisted WIMSA particularly effectively in arranging for the programme to support two San Public Relations Officers Course students financially. Though WIMSA, thanks to the Bernard van Leer Foundation, has funded the salaries of the new and former Education Liaison Officers in the programme, the work of this officer is focused in general on education-related matters in Botswana and thus he/she is responsible to the San/Basarwa Research and Capacity Building Programme and the Letloa Education and Culture Advisor.

The South African San Institute (SASI) based in Cape Town continued supporting the three San communities in South Africa, namely the !Xun and Khwe of Schmidtsdrift near Kimberley and the ‡Khomani of the southern Kalahari in the Northern Cape Province. WIMSA Co-ordinator Axel Thoma is a member of the SASI Board of Trustees and WIMSA is therefore deeply involved in SASI’s work.

Kalahari Peoples Fund (KPF) Co-ordinator Megan Biesele, based in the USA, visited WIMSA in July 2002. Members of the WIMSA team informed her about the organisation’s activities and Megan made the team members aware of the difficulties in raising funds in the USA after 11 September 2001, which have forced the KPF to stop supporting San students in Namibia financially.

Fortunately WIMSA’s support organisation in Milan, Italy, namely Heritage, is prepared to engage in fundraising for San students, an undertaking to be administered by WIMSA’s Regional San Education Programme. Heritage President Silvana Olivo has already provided funds to enable the Namibian San students to purchase much-needed carrying bags for their study books. The 2001 WIMSA General Assembly mandated her to raise awareness on San affairs in Italy.

Networking with NGOs

WIMSA continued networking with numerous NGOs at national, regional and international levels. Only the NGOs with which WIMSA remained in contact throughout the period under review are mentioned in this section.

The practice of calling regular liaison meetings with the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia (NNDFN) was continued. These meetings focused on the NNDFN’s plan to extend its area of operation into Tsumkwe District West. In April 2002 NNDFN Director Hosabe |Honeb was given an opportunity to elaborate on the plan in addressing the San participants in a “Free to Grow” workshop. In July 2002 the NNDFN and WIMSA co-facilitated a consultative meeting with the Ju|’hoansi Traditional Authority (TA) of Tsumkwe East, the !Kung TA of Tsumkwe West and members of the N‡a Jaqna Conservancy Committee in Tsumkwe in north-eastern Namibia. The discussions focused on the actual implementation of the long-awaited N‡a Jaqna conservancy and the division of tasks between WIMSA and the NNDFN in Tsumkwe West. In this meeting and ensuing liaison meetings it was resolved that the NNDFN should concentrate on capacity-building measures and WIMSA should continue to address human rights and land rights and support educational activities in the district. Both organisations plan to assist the Nyae Nyae and N‡a Jaqna Conservancies in their effort to set up a joint tourism project and draft a combined tourism policy. The NNDFN is currently drafting a detailed support plan for the San communities in Tsumkwe East and West.

Loose contact between the Rössing Foundation and WIMSA has evolved into close collaboration on issues relating to art and craft production in San communities and the regional NGO craft network (see pp. 43-44). Rössing Foundation Programme Manager Karin le Roux and WIMSA exchanged views and advice on the policy for costing and pricing Ekoka San Art Project art and textiles, on fair trade concepts for San crafts, and on possible support for craft production in Tsumkwe West.

In May 2002 Joram |Useb of WIMSA accompanied representatives of the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN) in conducting an assessment of food security in San communities in West Caprivi and Tsumkwe District. CCN Secretary-General Nangula Kathindi and WIMSA representatives also met a few times to discuss Namibian San land issues and development in Namibian San communities in general.

In conjunction with HIVOS Southern Africa, Namibia’s Forum for the Future invited WIMSA to participate in a “Gender Mainstreaming” training workshop facilitated by the Gender Training and Research Programme at the University of Namibia. Victoria Geingos participated on WIMSA’s behalf, and shared her newly acquired understanding of terms such as ‘gender management system’, ‘gender mainstreaming’ and ‘gender equity’ with her fellow PRO students at TUCSIN.

WIMSA and other stakeholders stood by the Namibian Non-Governmental Organisations’ Forum (NANGOF) during a period of financial difficulty. WIMSA participated in an extraordinary NANGOF meeting in May 2002 in which the crisis was discussed openly. The same meeting established sectoral working groups on training and capacity-building, human rights and democracy, policy and advocacy, rural and urban development, and natural resources and environment. Since its ensuing restructuring process NANGOF has become active again, but has decided to adopt a new approach in that the forum members rather than a secretariat will henceforth drive the forum activities.

The co-operation between the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC) and WIMSA in the reporting period focused mainly on the San alliance with the Batwa people of Rwanda and Hadzabe people of Tanzania proposed by Hans Petter Hergum, NCA Senior Advisor for Southern Africa. His recommendations to NCA in his paper titled “The Batwa and the Hadzabe: An NCA Assessment (Occasional Paper Number 4/02)”, stress the following reason for proposing this alliance:

“The hunter gatherers of Africa have much in common, like belonging to Africa, a similar history of oppression, hunting and gathering, [and geographical proximity]. All this makes the potential bond far greater than with other indigenous people like the Saami of Europe or Aboriginals of Australia.”

A discussion involving all stakeholders led to a suggestion for a workshop in which Batwa, Hadzabe and San involved in organisational development can meet to share experiences relating to indigenous knowledge and the role of cultural resources in indigenous communities. This workshop is expected to be held before the end of 2003.

WIMSA’s networking with the Germany-based organisation Unternehmen Buschmänner revolved around the latter’s possible support for San students in Namibia. Extensive communication between Unternehmen Buschmänner Chairperson Carlo von Opel and WIMSA Regional Education Advisor Yvonne Pickering resulted in the organisation providing substantial funding for San students at the Windhoek College of Education. Unternehmen Buschmänner has also made its own members aware of San needs, and it is hoped that more funds can be raised, particularly for San girl students.

The UK-based Minority Rights Group (MRG) continued informing WIMSA of training opportunities and new policies relevant to indigenous minorities. At the MRG’s request the WIMSA team commented in detail on a draft report titled “Minorities in Independent Namibia” by James Suzman, the final version of which MRG published in December 2002. The MRG also plans to place former WIMSA Chairperson David Naude’s Khwedam translation of the “Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities” on its website.

Networking with Governments

In the period under review WIMSA networked with government departments including, among others, South Africa’s Western Cape Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Western Cape Department of Economic Development, Agriculture and Tourism and Northern Cape Department of Education, and with government officials in Botswana through the University of Botswana, but the focus was mainly on networking with Namibian government entities.

WIMSA kept the Office of the Ombudswoman informed on San affairs in Namibia, particularly on the controversial land occupations in Tsumkwe District West. Ombudswoman Bience Gawanas-Minney personally visited troubled San communities in Namibia, and encouraged the San during the WIMSA General Assembly in November 2002 to unite and stand up for their rights.

At the request of the San communities of Tsumkwe West, WIMSA networked at different levels with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) to encourage and urge the MET to finalise the process of granting the long-waited N‡a Jaqna Conservancy. WIMSA team members participated in workshops on land degradation, biodiversity and bio-prospecting organised by the MET, which provided excellent networking opportunities.
WIMSA continued informing Namibia’s Intersectoral Task Force on Educationally Marginalised Children (ITFEMC) and National Institute for Educational Development (NIED), which both resort under the Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture (MBESC), of developments in the Regional San Education Programme, and of educational problems reported by San community members and/or school principals catering to San learners. The relevant ITFEMC and NIED representatives, and the Minister, Deputy Minister and Permanent Secretary of Basic Education, Sport and Culture, all readily assisted either WIMSA or a San community directly wherever possible.

The Namibian Minister of Women Affairs and Child Welfare honoured WIMSA by way of addressing the General Assembly in November 2002. At her ministry’s invitation a WIMSA representative, in this case Co-ordinator Axel Thoma, attended an orientation workshop for regional leaders focusing on the GRN/UNICEF Integrated Early Childhood Development Programme, which provided an opportunity to network with delegates interested in the plight of the San of the region.

The Co-ordinator’s Counterpart, Joram |Useb, also took the opportunity to network widely at the National Indigenous Fruit Workshop convened by Namibia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development (MAWRD). The Agricultural Biodiversity Working Group, of which WIMSA is a member, provided another opportunity for effective networking. The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development, Paul Smith, was always willing to advise WIMSA and other San representatives even when an appointment was requested at short notice.

Networking with UN Agencies

The UN Global Environment Facility (GEF) was established in 1991, one year before the Rio Earth Summit, to support developing countries by funding projects and programmes aimed at protecting the global environment. The GEF is the designated financial mechanism to support major UN environment-related conventions and treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and Convention for Combating Drought and Desertification. The GEF ’s Small Grants Programme (SGP) was established in Namibia in 2002. The WIMSA Co-ordinator was selected at the GEF/SGP National Steering Committee Member Election Meeting and later appointed by the UNDP Resident Representative as one of the 10 committee members for a two-year period. Since then the committee has reviewed the GEF/SGP Namibia country programme strategy and a number of community-based environmental projects to determine if they should be financially supported.

With regard to San early childhood development, San education in general and the Omaheke San Education Project, contact was kept up with UNICEF education consultant Silke Felton and her successor, James Diedericks. UNICEF was empathetic about the OST all-San board’s inability to state with certainty the cause of financial irregularities in the Omaheke San Education Project. The stakeholders recognised that the board was not at fault, and UNICEF offered to resume its support to the project once all queries had been answered satisfactorily.

Contact with Elke Zimprich Mazive of the UNESCO Windhoek Office was revitalised after WIMSA’s receipt of the UNESCO publication titled New Horizons for the San: Participatory Action Research with San Communities in Northern Namibia. Following a round-table discussion convened by WIMSA with representatives of the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, National Planning Commission, Rössing Foundation and UNESCO on development work with San communities in the Ohangwena Region in northern Namibia, UNESCO and WIMSA agreed to advise each other regarding the establishment of a San-owned organisation for the region.

Networking with Donors

WIMSA enjoyed continuous frank and constructive working relationships with its donors throughout the reporting period, particularly with the representatives mentioned in this section.

Bernard van Leer Foundation programme specialists for Africa Tanja van de Linde and Astrid Honeyman visited Namibia in May 2002. WIMSA Co-ordinator Axel Thoma accompanied them on a trip to the predominantly San communities of Corridors 13 and 17 in the Omaheke Region. Discussions with the Omaheke San Trust (OST) team revolved around early childhood development (ECD) and the Omaheke San Education Project. Astrid returned to Namibia in February 2003 to participate in a round-table discussion convened for her by WIMSA with representatives of UNICEF and the OST. The meeting focused on the Regional San Education Programme, the Omaheke San Education Project, San orphans and San ECD. Astrid also held discussions with WIMSA’s new Regional Education Advisor, Yvonne Pickering, and thereafter proceeded to Botswana to meet with Yvonne’s predecessor, Willemien le Roux.

The Netherlands-based Global Ministries’ Executive Officer for Southern Africa, Sjoerd Hagsma, convened meetings with the OST and WIMSA in November 2002 to discuss the need for paralegal training for committed San community members, and for establishing paralegal units for which Global Ministries has pledged funds.

The WIMSA General Assembly in November 2002 provided an excellent platform for NORAD and NCA representatives to network with individual San delegates and representatives of WIMSA support organisations. Hans Petter Hergum of NCA has been a key stakeholder in the effort to bring about co-operation between the Hadzabe people of Rwanda, the Batwa of Tanzania and the San of southern Africa. The NCA Southern Africa Office in Gaborone has played an active role in the CKGR support coalition. To evaluate its own contribution to strengthening the work of WIMSA and its other partners, NCA put out its “NCA Southern Africa Partner Evaluation Questionnaire” which WIMSA duly completed.

The newly appointed Terre des hommes (Tdh) project officer for South Africa and Namibia, Judith Mthombeni, visited Namibia in February 2003 to familiarise herself with the current situation of San communities in Namibia and acquire first-hand information about the San in other countries of the region. She organised a “Tdh Country Partners Meeting” in Johannesburg in March 2003, which the WIMSA Co-ordinator attended. Two key agenda items were the discussion paper titled “For an Earth of Humanity: Development Policy Positions of Terre des hommes Germany”, and the partners’ networking, lobbying and advocacy activities at all levels in South Africa and Namibia.

EED representatives visited WIMSA and the OST in February and March 2003. Edgar Brüser, Michael Tourneé and members of the WIMSA team held constructive discussions on San capacity-building, the current situation of San communities, WIMSA programmes and financial procedures. Oliver Märtin of EED accompanied OST Co-ordinator Ian Agnew to the Sonneblom/Donkerbos project in the Omaheke to familiarise himself with a San community. After this project visit he and the WIMSA Co-ordinator held discussions on developments in different San communities around southern Africa.

Throughout the reporting period WIMSA kept in contact with the Embassy of Finland in Namibia, which is interested in the work of OST, an organisation it supporting financially, and in the achievements, setbacks and aspirations of the San of the whole southern African region.

FOOTNOTES:
30 F.F. Prins (Natal Museum), “The Secret of the Southeastern Seaboard: A Preliminary Report” (undated mimeo).
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid..

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