One Small Step for Botswana, One Giant Leap for Basarwa

Sometimes, all it takes is one seemingly small action to change the course of history. That one step, perhaps for Botswana, is President Boko's decision to allow the burying of Pitseng Gaoberekwe's body in his native homeland, the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). This comes after years of court tussles over Gaoberekwe's final resting place.

To say Basarwa have been persecuted in this country would not be making the statement solely for shock effect. It is, unfortunately, an ugly truth about a country which is considered the beacon of democracy and human rights in Africa and the world. From being kicked out of their ancestral homeland to make way for tourism, which they are yet to benefit from, to being discriminated solely based on their ethnicity, Basarwa have run the gauntlet in this country post-independence.

It is again not a controversial statement to say that since post-independence Botswana, no other group has been treated as discriminately as Basarwa.

Growing up, being told that "o tshwana Mosarwa" was considered a hurtful insult because we had been indoctrinated to think that Basarwa were still pre-historic people not worthy of adulation. It was common for them to be referred to "Masarwa" in the plural and "Lesarwa" in the singular. At first glance, this might appear to be just a difference of two letters and hence no big deal, but the way Setswana etymology is structured, the difference becomes more glaring. By replacing the "Ba" with "Ma" and "Mo" with "Le", one strips away the humanity of Basarwa, reducing them to a subhuman entity.

To strip the same people who ushered in the dawn of human civilisation of their humanity is an unfortunate irony. But it happened and we allowed it to happen. We even played an active role. All we can wish for now is salvation. And President Boko's move is only but the first step to that salvation.

As the day dawns on International Human Rights Day, and Pitseng Gaoberekwe is finally buried in his rightful homeland of Metsianong, CKGR, let us also hope that it will be a dawn of undoing all that was done wrong against Basarwa. Let us hope that it is the dawn of the nation of Botswana starting to fully recognise the human rights of Basarwa. Let us hope that this gesture is the beginning of more to come in undoing the wrongs we perpetuated against the originators of human civilisation.