SLAUGHTERED by colonists, ruthlessly oppressed by South Africa’s apartheid regime and marginalised under the country’s young democracy, South Africa’s indigenous people, once derisively known as Bushmen and Hottentots, say they have had enough.
The leaders of almost all the country’s major indigenous groups gathered at a conference that ended Sunday to demand redress for past wrongs, the return of their stolen land and official recognition as South Africa’s first indigenous nation.
“The people are fed up,” said Abraham Andrew Stockenstrom le Fleur II, paramount chief of the Griqua National Conference, one of 36 indigenous peoples’ organisations at the gathering.
Under colonialism and apartheid the Khoisan were made to feel ashamed of their heritage. Many rejected their past and assimilated into South Africa’s mixed-race communities.
An estimated 1 million of South Africa’s 45 million people are thought to have some Khoisan ancestry, but few maintain allegiance to their roots and still speak the ancient languages. Only a handful of communities in remote rural areas continue to live a traditional existence.
A group of three San men wearing animal skins stood out starkly among the rest of the conference delegates attired in western clothing.
Since the end of apartheid and the country’s first all-race elections in 1994, the government has given the Khoisan people limited recognition and begun several projects to preserve their culture and uplift economically impoverished communities.
Deputy President Jacob Zuma told the conference there was evidence of a growing sense of pride among people of Khoisan descent – pride which was systematically eroded under colonialism and apartheid. “You have taken charge of your own heritage and your own destiny,” he said.
But some argue little of substance has changed.
The Khoisan at the conference demanded constitutional recognition of their identity, legal protection for their culture and promises that their languages – some of which are in danger of dying out – will be taught in schools.
Many Khoisan remain angry that current land restitution laws only apply to property seized after 1913, long after the theft of Khoisan land had begun. A resolution passed at the conference urged the government to address the issue of Khoisan land stolen since 1652.
“Our people still suffer terribly,” said Dr. William Langeveldt, one of the conference speakers. “Without access to our ancestral land, we have to work for a boss … we are dependent on other people.”