"All the Bushmen who asks for a glass of water, will have a"
The Bushmen do not have a word for his people, the Khoikhoi give them the name "San" in the language which means "foreigner", but prefer to be chiamare “boscimani” , “uomini della boscaglia”, dall’olandese “boesman” e dall’inglese “bushman”, come li chiamavano i colonizzatori occidentali.
Vivono in tribù e come qualsiasi popolo hanno la loro cultura, in questo caso millenaria, semplice dal nostro punto di vista, ma degna di tutto il nostro rispetto. Si tratta di una cultura profondamente legata alla conoscenza dell’ambiente in cui vivono da ventiduemila anni, un territorio desertico nel quale però non manca selvaggina, frutta e altri doni della natura che possono essere raccolti dalle donne delle tribù. Il loro è un habitat in cui è davvero difficile living, desert, hot with strong winds during the day and cold at night which are protected by building fires and setting up booths.
But the main problem which must survive in hostile environment is the lack of water. Often, in the driest periods of the year, the search for water is really challenging task: the tribes must make do with the residue of muddy rivers, which suck water with straws made from a special wood up and using a feather Ostrich or fibers derived from the leaves to filter, snap into the straw. A truly amazing way. Only the perfect knowledge of the area and the beings that are part of it allows them to survive.
Their respect for nature, for the balance of nature, leads them not to consume ever more of what you need, not to waste anything of prey killed and not to collect more than necessary. The hunt for the San is to use arrows with the tip of the oily substances derived from poisonous plants in their territory and do not hunt no more than they actually need. This is harmony with nature that other people defend and preserve, which, however, have been unfairly stripped, as the aborigines in the bush and the Australian Sioux plains of North America.
The people of the Bushmen has so many myths and beliefs held by men, which they can find them by the elders in connection with an initiation rite. Elders have passed on the techniques of hunting and knowledge of plants, essential for survival. The men who are about to be started must learn everything on their land, which observed the habits and listening to the cries of the animals that live there and learn to imitate them.
Their mythology is tied to everyday activities, it is no wonder then that some of them are zoomorphic mythological entities, such as the mantis, divinity a wise addition to being the cause of the rain makes favorable hunting and protects the fruit. Mantis has created then the moon and the night on which the Bushmen relate their anxieties and fears, the moon is an evil deity, adverse, and the tribes trying not to look at night for fear that this will take away their prey that these will disappear because of him.
addition to the ceremonies of initiation into adulthood, marriage and funeral rites of many rituals are aimed at making the favorable hunting or looking for resources to feed the tribe, for example before you go to hunt an animal rather fast, they used to eat the flesh of an animal slow as to cast a spell against the prey, which it had to be influenced magic. Their rites are not addressed to the gods, prayers are not in order to receive something, because for the San deities such as the Mantis are simply institutions that have created the things that surround them.
These are broadly the culture, customs and traditions of the Bushmen, very simple from our point of view, from the standpoint of us Westerners to understand that we should find ourselves immersed in them, those immersed in the primordial atmosphere, found in those lands with the scorching sun and sand negli occhi durante il giorno, e il pallore spettrale della luna durante la notte fredda. Questa è la loro cultura e tradizione. Il presidente del Botswana ha definito il loro stile di vita “un’arcaica fantasia”.
A causa del cresciuto interesse per le loro terre da parte delle compagnie minerarie, questa cultura così legata alla natura sta scomparendo, le tradizioni boscimane stanno diventando lontani ricordi. Già dopo il colonialismo queste sono state quasi completamente distrutte: i San erano costretti a lasciare le loro terre alle quali ancora oggi sono profondamente legati, costretti a lavorare come schiavi o servi, torturati e privati della libertà di cacciare in quella che per millennia was the land of their ancestors. This is a painting that recurs in history. Before I mentioned the Aborigines, well, they have suffered the same fate, deprived of their lands no longer know where to go. Lost their identity survivors, those left to remember their culture, often found in alcohol a way to stem the growing depression or even suicide. Situation is quite similar to that of San of Botswana.
The Government of Botswana in the eighties he discovered a deposit of diamonds in the Bushmen's land, and has just sent someone to tell them that they were dislodge. Obviously people so tied to the land of their ancestors did not abandon their land with lightness and carefree because the white man wants the stones buried in their hills. Their land is everything to them, as it is for the Aborigines and how it was for the Sioux. Have been forcibly evicted, there have been clearing operations in which their homes were destroyed, have been deprived of their water wells, which were dismantled and cemented, were threatened and deported.
The Botswana government prevents them from reaching the well water to draw from before the eviction can not make their return home. Despite the favorable ruling on their return to ancestral lands obtained by the Bushmen, in 2010 the Supreme Court of Botswana has denied them access to the pit where it always took the water and allowed to hunt in those who had their lands. The St. appealed, according to some excellent chances of victory thanks to recognition by the United Nations, access to water as a human right.
while denying the bushmen the opportunity to reach the water, the government of Botswana has built in the reserve wells for watering the local wildlife and has enabled the company to open a center Wilderness Safari turistico nella riserva che prima era la loro terra. L’amministrattore delegato della wilderness safari ci ha tenuto a precisare che “Tutti i Boscimani che chiederanno un bicchiere d’acqua, potranno averne uno”.
Io non so se il ricorso presentato dai “San” avrà buon esito, anche se fosse, non so fino a che punto il governo del Botswana e le imprese minerarie cominceranno a considerare i Boscimani più che inquilini scomodi, più che un’ostacolo che impedisce loro di arrivare alle risorse minerarie, un ostacolo da abbattere brutalmente. E’ questo che è successo, sono stati trattati worse than the animals of the same subject, tortured, taken away by force without showing any respect for their culture and their tradition, drastically reducing their population. A San tribes dare not invade the hunting and the collection of another tribe to respect him and to avoid conflict, this is part of their culture and their traditions. Too bad that they had not the habits of those who have invaded their lands. Their history has led them to having to suffer untold misery because of the lack of respect for all that are shown by the West during colonialism and the Government of Botswana in recent years.
Questo succede ai deboli quando si trovano tra il più forte e il bottino che questo brama. Questo succede quando l’interesse economico diventa più importante della dignità e della sopravvivenza di un intero popolo. Nel periodo del colonialismo era all’ordine del giorno, ma oggi una tale ingiustizia non dev’essere consentita in alcun modo.
I casi analoghi a quello dei Boscimani sono molti. Ne è passata di acqua sotto i ponti del tempo del colonialismo ma non sembra aver lasciato nulla agli uomini che si sporgevano per guardarla scorrere.
Some useful links: P
Peace Reporter - Bushmen fight for life
www.survival.it you can find much more news about the Bushmen and many other peoples in need around the world, in addition to the initiatives and campaigning to help them.
The Botswana Bushmen first torture, then incriminate them - February 13, 2002
Survival Protestors target international fair in madrid
Survival Appeal "Boycott tourism in Botswana"
Wikileaks: U.S. Ambassador condemned the eviction of the Bushmen
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