Hardbattle’s hosts were comfortable with the way he carried himself as a guest at gatherings of linguists, anthropologists and documentation experts who attended seminars of the Basarwa project based at the University of Botswana. He spoke English, knew one or a few of several dialects of the Sesarwa languages and understood the world of modern science.
Shortly before his death, Hardbattle was engaged in the kind of aerial photography that would give evidence of the settlement patterns of the “first people of the Kgalagadi” in Botswana.
As real history would have it, the Basarwa were not only the first people of the Kgalagadi. They were the first people of Botswana. New history also documents the resistance of the Khoisan peoples to Dutch colonisation on the shores of the Cape Province and in the hinterlands. This proves that the Basarwa were the first people of southern Africa.
Since the Basarwa did not draw maps on paper, it was necessary that Hardbattle and his right hand man, Roy Sesana, should seek evidence that would prove to the Batswana scholars and the government that there was a system to the way that Sarwa ancestors lived in Botswana. Contrary to popular myth, fuelled by the Dutch colonialists and European anthropologists, the Basarwa or “Bushmen” - as they are contemptuously called - were not nomads, or wandering bands of hunter-gatherers without any sense of territoriality.
There was plenty of evidence that the Basarwa sought sustenance from nature in patterns directed by the womenfolk and dictated by the seasons, Hardbattle and Sesana argued.
Hardbattle’s research demonstrated that there was evidence of chiefdoms in the villages where the Basarwa established permanent dwellings. This was evident even in the extremities of the desert country in the northwestern parts of Botswana, where they were pushed by belligerent “brown people” who spoke Setswana.
The first of their lot were the Bakgalagadi, who are despised by the more Anglicised Tswana tribes.
According to a study done for the government in 1998 by the Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA), poverty is deepest in the northwest region of the country. Poverty is most widespread in the Central District, which is the largest of the administrative territories of the country. Many of the Basarwa are also found there.
Folklore suggests that the royalty and aristocracy of the Bangwato of the Central District intermingled with the Basarwa. “Mosarwa ke Mosarwa motshegare fela, eseng bosigo (Basarwa are Basarwa during the day, but not at night),” the Bangwato say.
Sesana fits the more conventional anthropological description of the bushman with thin eyes, wide nostrils and high, protruding cheekbones. His coarse manner embarrasses the most well intentioned of the captains of civil society. There is no finishing school in Molapo where Sesana’s national identity card locates him. He does not fit the mould of a Bill Clinton or Botswana’s first president, Seretse Khama. His manner only fits his cause.
Sesana states the problem of the Basarwa without hesitation: “Land. Land makes the person who he is. Land is the first building block of one’s culture. It is what he does with land that defines his identity. It connects him to his past...to the ancestors”.
“The person who is developed is the one who builds on the wealth of knowledge accumulated from his parents and his ancestors from the thousands of years that we have lived on this earth.”
Sesana speaks as a servant of his cause. He is mindful of the derisive attitude of his detractors towards his person and his cause.
“Ke ntse ke sena dipurapura jaana, Basarwa ba ntlhophile gore ke ba buelele. Ke lawyara e e senag dipurapura (Even as I have no gowns to show that I am a lawyer, the Basarwa have elected me to speak for them),” muses Sesana.
He has only his mind and comrades in struggle to keep a record of events. It irritates him.
He speaks about the court case in which he charges government with forced relocation of Basarwa away from their ancestral land, now designated as a game reserve by the government. The government has cut off services to the Basarwa residing inside the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR).
What is the date of the case, he is asked: “First they said it was the fifth of July. Then I heard mention of the 12th. I will have to hear what my colleagues say”.
Dates do not appear to be among Sesana’s immediate priorities.
Who is actually the mover of this case, he is asked. “Ke nna Roy Sesana le bagolwane ba me. (It is I, Roy Sesana, and my elders)”.
He responds sharply to allegations that he is acting on orders from Survival International, a British based non-governmental organisation that campaigns for the rights of indigenous peoples. “This is why they brought us to Gaborone under the pretext of reopening talks with the government over the situation in Old Xade. They keep talking about Stephen Cory. I told them, ‘Hey, Cory is not the problem of the Basarwa. The problem of the Basarwa is that they have been pushed out of the fat areas of Botswana. And now they are being pushed out of the place where they found refuge. They are being told to leave and go to places where they will certainly perish together with their culture’.
“Cory and Survival only enter the picture as friends of last resort. How humble can one be? I met President Masire in America when he was still President. I put the case of the Basarwa to him. He said he would discuss the case with us back in Botswana. When we returned he said we should speak to his successor, Festus Mogae, to whom he should have passed records of our past meetings.
“Mogae directed us to (Minister of Local government and Lands) Margaret Nasha who was discourteous. She spoke more about my mating habits than about the issue I put to her about the problem of the Basarwa. Finally she told me that she had made a final decision and she would not change it. The CKGR was a game reserve and the Basarwa had to move”.
According to Sesana, much time had been spent with officials at the Department of Wildlife. “Re ne re torowa dimmepe, re ba supetsa mafatshe a Basarwa gore ba tle ba bone gore re ka dumalana eng (We drew maps that indicated the lands of the Basarwa so that we might agree on how to proceed).
“Then we spent time in meetings with the Botswana Christian Council, Ditshwanelo, BOCONGO and others to find a way forward. We do not know what happened to them and to the talks with Wildlife until we were ambushed at the Civicus meeting where they also reappeared.
“So I have spent time in all the departments of the government starting with Masire. I have even spoken to Vice President Ian Khama who should have the record left by his father Seretse. He had said that the Basarwa should have a borehole drilled where they lived at Old Xade. He further directed that a school and a clinic should be built. Unfortunately, the first borehole yielded undrinkable water.
“As soon as Seretse died around 1980 and Masire took over, the plans to bring development to the Basarwa where they lived died with him. I thought Khama would have the records from his father and from Mogae. He also directed me to Nasha. You already know that story.
“So we were informed about Survival. Having been deserted by the people who promised help, we had no choice but to appeal to people who could at least listen. And they are helping. They hear from us. They do not tell us anything. We told them the same story that I am telling you. Maybe the outside world will come to our rescue, God willing”.
Survival is not the only empathetic partner, Sesana reveals. The Basarwa of South Africa and Namibia are in solidarity, through a non-governmental southern African coalition. So are the Sami of Norway.
Nevertheless, God’s will appears to be Sesana’s last hope. Asked what he expects of the outcome of the legal case against the government, he responds: “One cannot put all his faith in the institutions of his oppressor. Even as we go to court, our ultimate faith lies with God.
“Even when a man hunts an animal, it is God who decides whether he shall make the kill, or fail.”
