The grievances of Indigenous people in South Africa and Namibia against Globalisation

The Plenary Session of the Working group on Indigenous People is the occasion for some eighty members of delegations to express their views and concerns about the relation between "Indigenous people and Globalisation". Among the numbers of the orators taking the floor, different members of the Khoe community were given the chance to speak about their situation. This community, like other tribal groups, has been suffering from invasion of their ancestral territories and has been denied their rights and controls of their lands.

Laurentius S. Davids, (of the Khoe Heritage and Cultural Development Organisation, Namibia and was a political activist for the past seven years) is fighting for the preservation of linguistic idioms. He claimed that "language and identity are intertwined. Using their own language would enable the Khoe to rapidly transfer knowledge and would enhance the acquisition of languages of wider communication." Mr. Davids specified that only 33% of the natives were able to access mother tongue education, a problem that further marginalizes the Khoe children.

Access to education is especially severe for the Khoe women who are the most excluded in the Namibian society. Lena Davids of the Huisen Women's Organisation recalled that "they (Khoe women) are impoverished, semi-literate, illiterate in most cases and jobless." This former nurse, who has been working for twenty-five years, recently created a group of five people who are trying to organize and gather more support to ameliorate this particular issue. "Much more needs to be done. There are policies but the implementation must be ameliorated, to make my own people aware."

Another Khoe woman (who is actively involved in a neighbour country) is Priscillia de Wet of the Chainoqua [pronounce "Rhainokwa"] Indigenous Peoples Organisation (whichis affiliated to the National Khoi-San Consultative Conference of South Africa). As a former secretary of this organisation, she focuses during her talks on commercial and economical backlashes of improper management of globalisation and tourism. She reminds us that "the government is controlling every aspect of these policies without any regulation. There is nothing in our Constitution that protects Indigenous Khoi-San Peoples Collective Intellectual Property Rights and 'indigenous knowledge' rights". According to Ms. Wet, this issue corresponds with a "second wave of dispossession." For instance, she discussed the case of the Kagga Kamma Resort in Western Cape: "Tourists come and see the flora and fauna and part of the fauna is the Bushmen people. Initially the people were thinking that they would have a fifty-fifty deal but at the end they have no return and no profit sharing, whereas the owners of the farms get millions."

Converging on their understanding of the problem, all the interviewees agreed on the importance of the Working Group sessions, which serve an opportunity to meet, exchange and build-up a network with other indigenous people of the world. Priscillia de Wet concluded by stating that she realized "that all of the problems we faced in South Africa are exactly the same than all over the world."

By : John Auran-Clapot and Jérôme Gygax

BACK