Bushmen
13 July 2007
A long way from home for Roy Sesana (below left) and Kgosimontle Kebuelemang when we met at the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal Peoples' reception at the House of Commons.
Roy and Kgosi, Bushmen from the Gana and Danisani tribes, respectively, spoke in the local African language, Tswana, or possibly Seswana, as (I think) there are more than twenty dialects for the Bushmen tribes and this allowed Kgosi to translate for us all.
"So, you've written a book about a Bushman boy helping your hero, Max Gordon survive in the Kalahari. I'd really like to read it." Or words to that effect. Happy to oblige, Kgosi, it's already in the post thanks to Survival International who helped the Bushmen win a four-year court battle to stay on their home and hunting lands. The Bushmen tribes had been removed (forcibly at times) because diamonds had been discovered in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
There's a lot more info about tribal people in different parts of the world on Survival's website: survival-international.org and if you think life's tough where you live ... get reading!
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