WIMSA
Working Group for Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa

History of Wimsa

WIMSA was established in 1996 at the request of the San in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, to provide a platform for their communities to express their problems, needs and concerns.

A regional WIMSA office was established in Windhoek to facilitate processes for San groups in Angola, South Africa and Namibia, and to co-ordinate efforts around San issues for the entire southern African region. This office is run by a small team composed of two San trainees, a part-time mentor and a full-time co-ordinator. WIMSA's Botswana office (WIMSA/BOT) is based in D'Kar, near Ghanzi, and is tasked to assist San communities in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This office is run by a full-time San co-ordinator and a full-time field worker.

Although WIMSA is still a young NGO, it has been applauded by fellow development workers and academics for its role as the organisation representing the interests of all San in southern Africa.

WIMSA's key tasks are:

  • to advocate and lobby for San rights;
  • to support the network it helped to establish for information exchange among San communities and other concerned parties; and
  • to provide ongoing training and advice to San communities on administrative procedures, developmental issues, land tenure and tourism.

Practically all of the established community-based San organisations in the region were eager to become WIMSA member organisations within the first two years of WIMSA's inception. Scattered, very remote or very small San communities which have not yet constituted their own internal organisational structures have requested WIMSA to assist them to do so. WIMSA provides this capacity-building support either directly or by encouraging its regional support organisations to facilitate the process. The vast majority of the estimated 100 000 San of southern Africa have had some form of direct contact with WIMSA. Unfortunately the organisation has still not been able to make contact with the San communities in Angola due to the ongoing war there.

WIMSA is well known among local, regional and international NGOs which focus generally on national and community development, and more specifically on education and culture issues, human rights, land rights, and matters of concern to indigenous peoples. UN agencies, government bodies, media institutions, researchers, academics and other concerned individuals are increasingly approaching WIMSA for advice, information and various other forms of assistance, and co-operation in development.

Although to date it seems virtually impossible for the San to overcome their marginalisation, WIMSA has enabled them to make significant progress towards that end. WIMSA has continued to assist the San:

  • to acquire education and training, and has managed to broaden the minds of educationalists and state officials regarding San educational needs.
  • in their efforts to raise awareness of their rich cultural heritage among themselves and others.
  • communities and individuals whose human rights were being violated, as well as those in need of support for their own development initiatives.
  • to establish vitally important representative bodies: the Regional San Education and Language Committee and the Regional San Heritage and Culture Committee.

WIMSA has also helped to make it possible for representatives of almost all San communities in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia to keep one another informed of new developments in their communities, to exchange views and to advise one another. It has continued to support communities and individuals whose human rights were being violated, as well as those in need of support for their own development initiatives. WIMSA also facilitates the establish vitally important San representative bodies e.g. the Regional San Education and Language Committee and the Regional San Heritage and Culture Committee.

  
QUOTE

"An important development
in recent years has been
Bushman empowerment,
articulated most
emphatically through the
Working Group of
Indigenous Minorities in
Southern Africa
(WIMSA)."
Robert Gordon

 

QOUTE

"... it is about "Bushman empowerment" (Gordon 2000: 10). In this, WIMSA has accomplished a remarkable job in
facilitating communications between San groups and in enabling San to attend international workshops, and thereby establish links with other indigenous minorities."
Sian Sulivan