Books and Reviews
Review of Tears for My Land
2010-07-20 12:29:30
A review of Tears for My Land: A Social History of the Kua of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Tc’amnqoo, Kuela Kiema, Mmegi Publishing House: Gaborone, 2010.
This is a profound and moving book written by a young Kua man born and raised in Tc’amnqoo, the vernacular name for Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) and who, against great odds, succeeded in school and recently obtained a BA from University of Namibia. Kua is the term in Kiema’s language for the people known more widely as Bushmen, San, or Basarwa. At the outset, Kiema explores the issue of nomenclature and rightly emphasizes that names embed power relations. While there is no one term by which all Kua peoples identify themselves, those that have been imposed upon them are all derogatory and further stigmatize Kua peoples. Botswana, too, he argues is an arbitrary name and represents Tswana tribal hegemony over the many non-Tswana peoples who reside in the country.
Tears for My Land is a seamless combination of CKGR social history and an autobiography of a fascinating life. The subjective dimension has the effect of enriching the narrative more than biasing it. Kiema’s life experiences, his viewpoints and his brutal honesty about his own role, those of others, the internal conflicts amongst the Kua of the CKGR, and the workings and conflicts of other agencies engaged with them in the struggle for Kua rights makes for an informative and reflective history.
Kiema wishes to restore both dignity and history to the Kua people; the two are inseparable for him. He grew up a proud person with a deep respect and love for the music, folklore and the culture of his people, despite the humiliation he and other Kua experienced continually. He offers first hand accounts of the discrimination and violence that he and others experienced at school, at the hands of wildlife officers and many others. He details numerous ill-conceived and failed development initiatives that have been launched for, not by, the Kua. Much of the Kua’s hardship, he explains, results from their lack of entitlement to land, which stems from and is reinforced by the perception of them as nomads and pristine hunter-gatherers, outside of history. Such condescending views contributed to the ease with which the Kua were removed from the CKGR and to the ambiguous outcomes of the 2002-6 court case to recover their land.
Kiema shatters the romantic myth of the Kua as pristine hunter-gatherers, without land and history. He argues that Kua have long maintained distinct territories, ones that they may have shared with others but through orderly rules (with respect to academic literature the issue of distinct territories is contested). Prior to the CKGR’s creation in1961, many Kua residents sought employment, practiced agriculture, kept domestic animals and hunted with horses and guns. He provides accounts of Kua resistance against nineteenth century Amandebele raids, the history of servitude his parents and grandparents endured by having to work for Bakgalagadi in neighbouring villages, and the legacy of tribute payments the Kua were forced to render to Tswana chiefs. While many Kua may still wish to hunt and gather, they also want jobs, not hand outs, and rights to develop a tourism industry in the CKGR. If diamond mines were to be developed in the CKGR, instead of opposing them, Kiema would welcome them along with the assurance that the Kua could benefit from the mines in terms of associated entrepreneurial activities, employment and possibly a share of the profits.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in Kua peoples, indigenous issues, Botswana, and more specifically to those interested in the groundbreaking and controversial CKGR case that, while settled in court, remains unsettled on the ground. It could be used in secondary school and undergraduate courses. I congratulate Kiema for writing the book and the UB Tromso program for providing him with critical support.
By Professor Jacqueline Solway, International Developments Studies/Anthropology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario CANADA
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