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                                         Pula: Botswana Journal of African Studies vo1.16, nO.2 (2002)
   Book Review
   The Inconvenient Indigenous: Remote Area Development in Botswana, Donor
   Assistance and the First People of the Kalahari, by Sidsel Saugestad. Uppsala,
   Sweden: The Nordic Africa Institute, 266 pages. ISBN 91-7106-475-3. [Swedish
   Crowns 220, or Pula 90 on sale from the Basarwa Research Administrator's Office,
   University of Botswana, Gaborone, phone 355 5034].
   Copies of the doctoral thesis on which this book is based have been circulating in Southern
  Africa since 1998, but in limited supply and one hundred pages longer. It is therefore most
  welcome that the study has now been published and is available in an edited form, with
  changes that bring it up-to-date to 2001, with an index and many excellent colour
  photographs and plates. The three additional years covered have not contained events that
  have challenged or altered the basic approach and conclusions drawn by the author.
     The extra time has allowed for more in depth discussion of issues such as community
  ownership, the events surrounding the removals from Xade in the Central Kalahari Game
  Reserve (CKGR), and so on. While this study does not cover developments in the CKGR
  during 2002 and the continued controversial removal, there is clear evidence, most recently
  from the research of Arthur Albertson, that the CKGR could support up to 4,000 Basarwa
  and their goats and donkeys, Botswana continues to fail to recognize primordial land and
  hunting rights, and does not comprehend the legitimate concerns of those outside Botswana
  over these issues. The author presents the international issues most thoroughly and
  competently.
    Sidsel Saugestad is a social anthropologist who has been working on and off in Botswana
  for over a decade. This book is based on her thesis at the University of Tromso in northern
 Norway. She was resident in Botswana in 1992 and 1993 carrying out her research. She has
 taught at the University of Tromso for over 20 years. There research on indigenous peoples
 is a priority as Tromso is caught up in issues related to the Saami ethnic minority (formerly
 known as the 'Laplanders'. In 1986 she studied Maori-Pakeha (whites) relationships in
 New Zealand. Her academic career began with a masters dissertation on Northern Ireland.
    Dr Saugestad is an astute observer of the situation in Southern Africa. Her involvement in
 majority-minority relations in Europe, Asia and Africa allows her to comprehend the
 dynamics of what is happening in Botswana from a unique perspective. Though her 'bias'
 may seem to be with the cause of minority peoples, she also has a keen awareness and
 comprehension of the majority perspective. Her treatise is balanced; not one sided. It is her
 skill of being able to recognize the many facets of a complex situation that make this
 volume most worthwhile.
    This is a complicated, multifaceted, inter-disciplinary study. As the title reflects, it is
 concerned with nation-building, rural development, the role of aid donors and the
 perspective of the 'First Peoples' or the San! Basarwal Bushman of Botswana. But this
 study goes beyond these confines, as it is cross-cultural and comparative. It explores
 concepts of ethnicity, ethnic relations and ethnic incorporation with great care. It also
 places changes in Botswana in the context of major international trends; the development of
 indigenous organizations worldwide, their links, and the establishment of pan-First Peoples'
 organizations.
    Botswana's refusal to recognize the UN Year of the Indigenous Peoples [the Minister
justified this by saying; "We are all indigenous"], and Botswana's failure to ratify a number


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of key international conventions [ILO Convention 169; the UN Covenants on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights; Civil and Political Rights] signed by over 134 nations, is
explained in a clear manner. She says "though contemporary legal thinking on the position
of indigenous peoples in democratic states is not binding for Botswana in any formal sense,
global trends have provided a conceptual framework and a moral standard that are not
easily ignored".
    Dr Saugestad presents the 'call for positive' discrimination (affirmative action) for
minorities in a very articulate manner. She explains clearly the development of new
perspectives and codes by the United Nations and the International Labour Organization
that have altered the world situation. Contrary to 'received truth' in Botswana, no country
can continue to claim immunity for international concern over their policies by crying that
it is an 'internal affair' only. The world community has established clear guidelines for the
recognition and treatment of indigenous peoples. How long a country can continue to flout
these new international standards is a different issue.
    In this study there is also are-assessment of the Remote Areas Development Programme.
Its relationship to perceptions of what constitutes 'rural development', and the problems of
land rights, wildlife management and 'settlement are considered. The involvement of
foreign donors (especially NORAD) is evaluated and subtle changes in objectives analyzed.
Her anthropological studies cover adaptation, social and economic change, the shifting
sands of relationships between the Bantu and San peoples, and problems of constructs,
classification and discourse from an historical perspective.
    A unifying theme that runs through the book is the impact of the Botswana Society's
 1992 symposium on 'Sustainable Rural Development' as a trans formative experience: for
her, for the San/Basarwa/Bushmen, for those 'working with' minority peoples and the
nation of Botswana. An impressive Naro elder, Komtsha Komtsha, Chairperson of the Kuru
Development Trust, spoke in Naro (translated by the late John Hardbattle) to the gathering
about his life experiences and the meaning of his slogan 'for land, culture and a dignified
livelihood' .
    In this volume there are capsule profiles of the Kuru Development Trust, the First People
of the Kalahari, WIMSA (The Working Group of Indigenous Minorities), summaries of
major international meetings, and a discussion of the controversy over the Central Kalahari
Game Reserve.
    Is it really 'inconvenient Indigenous' or the imposition of an 'inconvenient state' on First
Peoples? In Papua New Guinea, with 856 languages (and 'Tribes') for four million people,
a constant refrain from local groups was that; "we were independent before we were
colonized" (by the British and Germans). "Independence was not achieved in 1975, we had
 it before colonialism and then lost it".
    This is a very thorough and thoughtful book that deserves reading. It will serve as a major
 resource for a long time for the many people interested in these issues. Let us hope that the
 major bookstores in Southern Africa choose to carry it.
                                                                          Sheldon G. Weeks
                                                                                     Gaborone