Roy Sesana

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roy Sesana (born around 1950 in Molapo, Botswana) is an Bushman activist who works together with the First People of the Kalahari for the rights of his tribe.

Sesana lives in New Xade in the central Kalahari and works as a traditional medicine man. He moved to South Africa for a couple of years, but returned to his people in 1971 in order to live together with them in the desert. In 1991, he co-founded the First People of Kalahari (FPK) together with John Hardbattle, which intensively promotes the traditional way of life, protecting the nature. In 1997, a small group of Bushmen still living in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve were resettled to the new built town of New Xade. The government claimed that this was a result of a mutual understanding that the continued presence of the group within the reserve was in conflict with the preservation of the game reserve. The government also claimed that it could not provide the group with basic infrastructure and services while they were within the reserve for the same reasons. While initially almost all of the residents agreed to relocate and accepted monetary compensation and resetlement assistance, a small group, led by Roy Sesana and his First People of the Kalahari refused and later encouraged more to renege and seek to return to the reserve, citing difficult conditions in the new settlement, the unfamiliar way of life they had to adjust to and many new social ills such as unemployment, alcoholism and diseases, especially HIV-AIDS.

Survival International, a British NGO that has been helping the group fight for its right to return to the game reserve has been accused of using Mr Sesana to wage a propaganda war against the government and the people of Botswana, for its fund raising purposes. Survival International has been accused of deliberately telling untruths about the matter in order to make the matter more appealing to the westerm public who form its funding base. They have gone to all extremes to link the relocation of Basarwa(bushmen) to attention catching concepts such as genocide,ethnic cleansing and blood diamonds. The government of Botswana has however maintained that there is no ethnic cleansing or genocide involving Basarwa. Survival International from time to time make press releases attacking the government of Botswana through Mr Sesana.

In 2002, the First People of the Kalahari took the Government of Botswana to court to seek the right for the relocated people to return to the reserve. The protracted court case attracted substantial international attention. It is due to end in December 2006 with a final judgement. However, the Bushmen group, together with their international backers have already vowed to take the matter to international courts if the outcome does not favour them.

In September 2005, Sesana was arrested for rioting and attempting to forcibly enter the Central Kalahari Reserve, but released on bail a couple of days later. In December 2005, he received the Right Livelihood Award for "resolute resistance against eviction from their ancestral lands, and for upholding the right to their traditional way of life."