Botswana

Voices of the San

Bjørn Førde
UNDP Resident Representative
On the Occasion of the launching of the book “Voices of the San”
Gaborone, 25 November 2004

Representatives of the San here present, Representatives of the Kuru Family of Organisations

Ladies and Gentlemen

I feel honoured and humbled to be with you this evening, to participate in the launching of the book “Voices of the San”, which is a dream come true and a major achievement.

I stand here as a representative of the United Nations, entrusted with the mandates given to the UN system. This is not the occasion to go into detail, but let me mention a few dimensions.

In its Decision 1992/255, the Economic and Social Council directed UNDP and other UN operational bodies and specialized agencies to respect the rights of indigenous peoples. The essential linkage between indigenous peoples’ rights and successful human development was further emphasized when the General Assembly, in its resolution 50/157, invited United Nations organizations to give increased priority and resources to improving the conditions of indigenous peoples, through the preparation of specific programmes of action for the implementation of the goals of the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People [1995-2004] with the theme of ‘Indigenous people: partnership in action’ – something we are also commemorating this evening.

The distinct legal status and rights of indigenous peoples have been recognized at each of the world conferences since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. A growing number of international legal instruments recognize indigenous peoples as a particularly important group for achieving sustainable development.

The International Labour Organisation, in particular, has been at the forefront of defending the social and economic rights of such groups as well as setting and implementing international standards to ensure the protection of their rights. The ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples from 1989 [No.169] states that indigenous peoples have the right to decide their own priorities for development and to exercise control over and participate in the process of development.

The Convention on Biological Diversity refers repeatedly to indigenous and local communities and their role in the conservation of biodiversity and the environment. Several conventions highlight the centrality of land, the protection and maintenance of local knowledge systems, and local decision-making to the enjoyment of indigenous peoples’ human rights and their right to development, and they provide legal tools for negotiation and dialogue at the national level.

A few years ago the UN established the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues [authorized by Economic and Social Council resolution 2000/22 28 July 2000]. It serves as an advisory body to the Council with a mandate to discuss issues relating to indigenous peoples, including economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. The Forum provides expert advice and recommendations to the Council as well as to UN specialized agencies, funds and programmes.

One reason I have followed the work of the Forum closely is because one of the 16 members is a close friend of mine, Mrs Ida Nicolaisen, a respected Danish anthropologist with a lifetime spent with pastoralist people in several parts of the world. She always reminds me that it is worthwhile to read the reports from their sessions. The most recent session took place in May this year, and you will find that the report is as much about development in general – and our understanding or conception of what development really involves – as it is about the rights of indigenous peoples in particular, or rather the problems encountered by indigenous peoples around the world in having their rights, their knowledge, their culture, their language, etc. recognized.

I first started working with indigenous issues at the beginning of the 1980’ies, when the watershed Martinez Cobo study, consisting of five volumes, were submitted from 1981 to 1984. This study by the Special Rapporteur, appointed in 1971 by the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, appealed eloquently to the international community to act decisively on behalf of indigenous peoples.

Ever since Martinez Cobo has often been cited for his description of indigenous people, an issue still being discussed in many countries. Let me just quote the following:

“Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems.”

This historical continuity, Martinez Cobo says, may consist of occupation of ancestral lands, common ancestry, common culture, language, or other relevant factors. On an individual basis, an indigenous person is one who identifies himself as belonging to such a group, and who is accepted by the group.

But despite common characteristics, there does not exist any single accepted definition of indigenous peoples that captures their diversity as peoples. Self-identification as indigenous or tribal is therefore usually regarded as a fundamental criterion for determining whether groups are indigenous or tribal, sometimes in combination with other variables such as “language spoken,” and “geographic location or concentration.”

More than anything, diversity is probably what we often think about when talking about indigenous peoples. They number anywhere from 300 to 500 million, in more than 70 countries, representing over 5000 languages and cultures.

Indigenous cultures comprise a heritage of diverse knowledge and ideas that is a resource for the whole world. As UNDP pursues sustainable human development, attention has increasingly been placed on indigenous peoples largely owing to their sustainable development practices. This has led to an interest in indigenous peoples’ ways of life, their cultures, sciences, land and resource management, governance, political and justice systems, knowledge and healing practices.

Recognition of indigenous peoples’ assets and traditional knowledge [such as terrestrial and marine ecosystems, naturally occurring medicines from plants and insects, cultivated plant varieties, and animal husbandry] can be helpful to national and international development. Furthermore, indigenous peoples’ continued existence [although not everywhere] is a testimony to the sustainability and viability of indigenous economic production systems, and social and governance practices that should be supported and enhanced, and most importantly, incorporated into mainstream development practices.

On a lighter note I still remember back in the 1980’ies, when my organization joined the ‘Rainforest Foundation Campaign’ organized by the rock singer Sting. We published his book about the Indian tribes in the Amazon, and when we launched the book Sting came to Copenhagen with a group of Indian chiefs, among them a Kaiapo chief. He had this peculiar lower lip that had the form and size of a desert plate. We were invited by the Managing Director of Carlsberg, the Danish brewery, who wanted to donate some money, to a typical Danish lunch in their board room. Danish lunch is where they serve all kinds of strange things in several layers on top of a piece of bread. Now, this was not the easiest thing for the chief to deal with, so he decided to go for the beer instead – and soon fell asleep!

Let me return to my friend from the Indigenous Peoples Forum: We once traveled together to Bangladesh and Bhutan, countries that both have to deal with indigenous issues, and sitting in a Buddhist monastery on the top of a mountain in the Himalayas, she reminded me of something we often forget: that this is a long process! All told, it took 80 years, almost the entire history of the League of Nations and the UN together, for indigenous voices to arrive on the podium of an official UN meeting.

Finally they are speaking their own voices – and tonight we are gathered to celebrate the launching of the “Voices of the San”.

Over the years, many books have been written about the San of Southern Africa, who are widely known as the Bushmen and frequently viewed as one entity. This is however the first book of its kind in Southern Africa. It is a form of autobiography of the First Peoples of this region - it is the first international publication in which the San of today step forward to tell their own story in their own words.

Covering eight language groups in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, young San interviewers went out into their communities and collected the thoughts and feelings, the knowledge and understanding, the dreams and fears, of their elders and their peers. The interviews they transcribed present the spirit of their communities and highlight the traditional differences and similarities between the groups, the shared history of suffering, and their desire and enthusiasm for life and most of all, freedom.

Voices of the San provides a glimpse into the hundreds of broad, open-ended discussions held amongst the San themselves. It begins with the story of this book and is then divided into four chapters covering the themes they themselves identified as reflecting their current existence:

• Hunters turned herders - the effects of contact and change
• Our past life was a great one - insight into their amazing traditional cultures
• They say the land is like this, this, this … - their close link with nature and the land
• Those who are ‘deep down’: the surge for survival - from a ‘traditional’ to a ‘modern’ economy.

Running alongside the theme chapters is a parallel text. This presents an overview of the written history of the San in this region, with their comments on that history; including information on the San communities in Angola, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

All of this is richly and beautifully, sometimes graphically, illustrated with over 300 photographs, contemporary artworks and drawings. The photographs are both historic and modern, including images from the Bleek and Lloyd Collection, the Denver Expedition of 1925 and the Duggan-Cronin Collection, as well as Paul Weinberg, Jürgen Schadeberg and the San organisations within the region.

In this final year of the UN’s Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Voices of the San joins the global movement of all First Peoples to make their voices heard. It is a vital contribution to the written history of this region; an exposé of traditional peoples’ struggle to live in the ‘modern’ world; a visual feast, but also a reckoning of the neglect we choose to believe is a thing of the past, but which is still a very real facet of the San peoples’ lives.

What further makes this book unique is the ownership and direction by the San, from its inception to the realisation of a dream, their own book. The proceeds of which will be used to continue their journey to self-representation.

I congratulate you! The Kuru Family of Organisations for having had the foresight and the stamina to engage in this original project. And first and last I congratulate the San people for recording this footprint - or to quote Mathidla House from Australia in a booklet produced by the Indigenous Peoples Forum:

“When you look behind you, you see the future in your footprints.”

Thank you!