Hunting ban: rich tourists welcome, tribal people starve Excerpt; It may sound like an April fools joke, but sadly Botswana´s treatment of its indigenous Bushmen is no laughing matter. The African state recently passed a law banning hunting- unless you are a wealthy foreigner looking for a trophy kill. President Khama´s blanket prohibition on subsistence hunting has devastated the tribal people from Botswana´s Central Kalahari Game Reserve, who have used spears, bows and arrows to feed their families for millennia. But while members of this threatened people are being arrested, beaten, jailed and even murdered for flouting the law, tourists paying up to $8,000 are exempt from the ban and can continue hunting zebras and giraffes on one of the country´s many private ranches. The depth of meaning that hunting has for tribal peoples like the Bushmen cannot be underestimated. Bushman leader Roy Sesana explains its significance: “I grew up as a hunter. All our boys and men were hunters. Hunting is going and talking to the animals. You don’t steal. You go and ask. You set a trap or go with bow and spear. It can take days. You track the antelope. He knows you are there, he knows he has to give you strength. But he runs and you have to run. As you run, you become like him. It can last hours and exhaust you both. You talk to him and look into his eyes. And then he knows he must give you his strength so your children can live”.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 11:42:35 +0000
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