San people deserve better

News
LAST weekend members of the San community gathered at Gariya Dam in Tsholotsho to celebrate the United Nations International Day of the World Indigenous People.

LAST weekend members of the San community gathered at Gariya Dam in Tsholotsho to celebrate the United Nations International Day of the World Indigenous People where they again appealed to the government to consider their plight.

Southern Eye Editorial

The San are mostly found in Tsholotsho and Plumtree and their population currently stands at about 1 600.

This is a worrying figure that raises real prospects of a people becoming extinct. Community leaders are also worried that their language — Tshwao — which before the adoption of the new Constitution was not recognised in Zimbabwe is facing death.

Only about 14 members of the San community in Tsholotsho are reported to be conversant in the language. The rest hardly speak the language and have adopted Ndebele, the dominant language in that area.

However, the issue of a language facing extinction is considered peripheral by a community that has been facing perpetual starvation.

Successive governments, including from the colonial era, have done little to help the San transform from hunter-gatherers to modern lifestyles, yet legal barriers continue to be put in place for them to resort to their old lifestyles.

Thirty-three years after independence, the San still find it difficult to assimilate with other tribes hence the challenges in transforming their lives. Their children still cannot go to school, thereby perpetuating a vicious cycle of poverty and hopelessness.

Non-governmental organisations have been doing a great job over the years feeding the community, but the effectiveness of the aid is devalued by the fact the people are not empowered to become self-sustainable.

Instead of just giving them food parcels, the government must ensure that they assist them with farming implements.

They can also be assisted to start keeping domestic animals that would ensure proper nutrition for their families in the long run.

The San also deserve social amenities enjoyed by other Zimbabweans and access to education because it is the only way they can be fully integrated into modern society.

The level of deprivation these communities are subjected to is a travesty of justice that is not expected of a country that claims to be truly independent.