Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations

116 The Ju/’hoan in Namibia
Map 7.1
The Ju/’hoansi’s Ancestral Territory (shaded area)
Zambe zi River
ANGOLA
ZAMBIA
CAPRIVI STRIP
Chum/kwe
Tsumeb
Grootfontein
NAMIBIA
Dobe
/Xai/xai
/Du/da
ZIMBABWE
Francistown
Gobabis
BOTSWANA
Limpopo River
Gaborone
SOUTH AFRICA
Source: Biesele 1990
Populations of buffalo, roan antelope, lion,
giraffe, and other species are low, while those of
elephant, hyena, and leopard are high.
The nearby Khaudum Game Reserve, a wilderness
area of 3,841 square kilometers (1,380
square miles), is a central element of the ecosystem.
With no fence between the park and surrounding
land, animals—including lion and
elephant—leave the reserve in the winter in
search of food and water. Now that the Ju/’hoan
keep livestock, they are no longer tolerant of
lions; and elephants, too, have become enemies,
destroying crops and water points. Veterinary
fences in the south and west, and the border
fence with Botswana in the east, have significantly
reduced the area over which wildlife can
roam. Animals such as elands and giraffes have
died after finding their migration routes barred.
2.2 People and Culture
In 1970 the colonial government of South Africa
divided Namibia into several regions, reserving
the more productive areas for whites and designating
less productive areas as homelands for
black Africans. The Ju/’hoan lost 40,000 square
kilometers of ancestral territory to other ethnic
groups, and the government designated another
portion to the aforementioned Khaudum Game
Reserve. The remaining land became
Bushmanland, an ethnic homeland for the
Ju/’hoan, and the “Real People” were left with
only 14 percent of the territory they held prior to
1950, and only one permanent water hole.
As part of this process, many Ju/’hoan moved to
the small administrative center of Tsumkwe,
which had a school, a clinic, a few jobs, a jail,
and a liquor store. The Ju/’hoan social system
nearly collapsed. Many families became
dependent on a few people working for the
administration or the South African army.
Alcoholism, disease, malnutrition, prostitution,
and a high rate of infant mortality became widespread.
By the late 1970s, Tsumkwe was a rural
slum. The Ju/’hoan referred to it as “the place
of death” (Biesele 1990).
The South African Bantu administration and then
the Department of Governmental Affairs governed
the Nyae Nyae area until independence in
1990, when the homelands formally ceased to
exist. In fact, however, these areas are still