THE KHOI SAN

THE KHOI (SAN) CONSULTED AROUND FIREPLACE, NOT AT KGOTLA

If you ever attend kgotla meetings, try thinking back to when you witnessed high attendance by San people, especially when such meetings discussed issues they care deeply about. On second thought, don’t do that because such mental exercise would be futile.

The most obvious reason the San (who self-identify as Khoi) don’t attend kgotla meetings is that over centuries, society has created a tribal caste system that renders them virtually voiceless as a cultural group. And all too often, what they say falls on deaf ears. There is a less obvious, less known reason which is stated in the MA thesis of a Norwegian woman who studied one aspect of modern-day Khoi life in the Okavango Delta panhandle. Naturally, she had to hire the services of an interpreter who familiarised her with how Botswana works.

“The interpreter told me that the system with a village kgotla, which is a public meeting place, usually lead by a chief (a kgosi), is a traditional Tswana system, and thus not part of the San people’s leadership tradition. However, today, all villages in Botswana organise their community according to this system,” writes Margrethe Haug in her Master of Social Anthropology thesis for the University of Tromsø that is titled “Indigenous People, Tourism and Development? The San People’s Involvement in Community-Based Tourism.”

While the Khwe have been culturally cast adrift by strong socio-political currents, they retain vivid memories of how proper consultation looks like. A Xakao woman, Thokomelang Ngaka, illuminated this point for us by providing a historico-cultural context for consultation.

“Although it is not the case in this era, each clan had its own leader, who was an elderly person, who provided guidance and protected people,” says Ngaka who is //Anikhwe – the // sign denotes a click sound. “If it’s the hunting season, all the men would be consulted in a gathering at the fireplace.”

The consultation would take the form of drawing up an elaborate hunting expedition plan, which plan would follow an earlier scouting expedition by “a few elders.” After inspecting the hunting area, the scouts returned home and provided feedback to the clan leader. It is only after the fireside consultation (kgotla meeting in Setswana culture), that permission to hunt would be granted.

“The same goes for gathering - which is basically done by woman,” Ngaka adds.

This is a topic for another day but what she asserts also makes clear the fact that excellent conservation practices (protection of wildlife and promotion of biodiversity) were baked into Khwe socio-political leadership.

She makes another point with regard to how present-day San women relate to the kgotla: “Traditional San women cannot deliberate their concerns in a kgotla as it is not their norm. Only a few of us can do that but it also depends on your literacy level,” says Ngaka, who is the Deputy Coordinator of the Trust for Okavango and Development Initiatives (ToCaDi). “That’s why you find that even though we are consulted, most of us don’t raise our concerns.”

While the Khwe are a mostly egalitarian society, they also share a cultural norm found in patriarchial societies. Ngaka explains that “in our tradition, women cannot easily disagree with men – it’s respect.”

So, with the fireside having lost its socio-political role and the kgotla system being acultural, what is the best way to consult the Khwe, especially under circumstances that give women a voice? Ngaka says that the best way is to convene separate focus groups for men, women and youth.