Botswana Guardian
Weekend Post Xtra
TheMidweek Sun
30 July
Madelyn Evans
To an outsider’s eye, the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana’s Northwest District appears as a lush reserve, teeming with wildlife and offering a beautiful safari experience for tourists. However, the Game Reserve carries a darker history—one deeply intertwined with the indigenous struggle to reclaim their ancestral home. For generations, the San and Bayei communities lived in quiet harmony with nature in the land they called home—Khuti ya ga Mathiba, now known as Chief’s Island, located within the Moremi Game Reserve. However, in the mid-20th century their peaceful existence was abruptly shattered when these communities were forcibly removed during the establishment of the Moremi Game Reserve. Some were pushed into makeshift camps; others drifted into unfamiliar urban centers. Both communities have faced historical displacement and dispossession in the region, particularly with their legal, political, and social struggle to defend and reclaim land they never chose to leave behind. The story of the San and Bayei communities is one of profound struggle—for justice, for recognition of historical injustices faced by indigenous peoples, and ultimately, for the right to reclaim their ancestral land.
The San are one of the oldest known populations in southern Africa, with a long history of hunter-gatherer lifestyles. The San are the most direct descendants of the late Stone Age and their beliefs centre around the concept that everything is part of the same web of nature and all have an equal right to existence, including animals and humans alike. Their cultural and spiritual traditions are intimately tied to the land and its ecosystems. Many members of the San population are largely dependent on welfare in the form of food aid or poorly paid jobs, lack the skills necessary to compete in the evolving political economy, and face discrimination at the hands of others. These issues of dependency and marginalisation are present among San communities in Botswana, Angola, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe because of social exclusion, social exploitation, and a routine disrespect and violation of their human rights. Due to a range of factors, including land dispossession, pressures from colonialism, and ongoing displacement, many San communities no longer maintain their traditional nomadic way of life. In Angola, for example, reduced access to land and natural resources, along with limited land rights, has led to the erosion of the former San hunter-gatherer lifestyle and livelihood, resulting in many Angolan San living in a precarious state of servitude and dependency with their Bantu neighbours. Courts such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have recognized the linkages between a denial of indigenous rights to ancestral lands as a threat to physical survival, cultural identity, and legal standing. (See, e.g., Case of the Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay). The Case of the Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous Community, the Case of the Yakye Axa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay, and other decisions from courts across various jurisdictions support the notion that many indigenous peoples possess land rights that are either unrecognized or inadequately enforced by states.
The Bayei have faced similar struggles to the San communities with historical displacement and dispossession. The Bayei are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Southern Africa region, native to the Okavango Delta, and have lived in the areas of Moremi Game Reserve and Chief’s Island for centuries. Historically, the Bayei people were known for their skills in fishing and navigating the waterways of the Okavango Delta, indicating the importance of the land to their livelihoods. For both the San and Bayei peoples, the creation of the Moremi Game Reserve between 1963 and 1980 tore through the fabric of their communities, uprooting families, severing ties to ancestral land, and leaving lasting scars on their way of life. Beyond the dispossession and forced removal from their ancestral land, Chief’s Island is also home to the burial sites of the San and Bayei’s ancestors. For many traditional and indigenous African communities, land is more than mere territory—it is a source of spiritual security, and the grave serves as a vital connection to the ancestors. Land containing graves is considered sacred, a belief that lies at the heart of many indigenous African groups.
Beyond the loss of their spiritual and cultural connection to the land, the San and Bayei communities have also suffered the loss of income and access to resources derived from land that is rightfully theirs. Chief Island was given to Chief Moremi Tawana as an inheritance which enabled him to build a safari camp, and as a result, he now operates Tawana Camp, where eight rooms cost between USD 1,700 and USD 3,600 per night. If the inheritance had been given to the San and Bayei communities instead of Chief Tawana, they could have entered into a concession with a developer to establish a safari camp that would benefit their community. As it stands, the San and Bayei people remain in camps, while Chief Tawana continues to economically benefit from their land.
On 23rd September 2022, when the Lands Tribunal affirmed that the San and Bayei communities possessed the necessary legal standing, it was not merely a legal formality—it was a moment of validation, officially acknowledging that their voices deserved to be heard. That crucial recognition carried through to the High Court, which on 26th April 2024 dismissed the Tawana Land Board’s appeal and overturned its decision to grant Chief Moremi the disputed land. This ruling represents not only a legal victory but also a meaningful step toward justice by affirming the San and Bayei communities’ enduring connection to Chief’s Island, their rightful home and ancestral heritage.