Theme: In traditional hunter-gatherer settlements in Botswana, both women's and men's strategies for accessing food are weakening

In spite of its rapid mineral-led growth, almost half the population of Botswana is estimated to be poor and, often, hungry. In some of the poorest districts, such as Kgalagadi, the National Nutrition Surveillance Data (in 1996) shows malnutrition among the under-five age group to be 24.6%, and for Tututme, 17.3%. A 1996 IFAD social assessment notes that the Basarwa and other ethnic minorities living in the Remote Area Dweller (RAD) settlements are the poorest of the poor. RAD households are traditionally hunter-gatherer ones, dependent on natural resources for survival, although the extent of that dependency varies from one household to the next. Seasonal hunger and even year-round hunger are not uncommon. The food access situation of the RAD populations is visibly deteriorating. Men's access to wildlife for hunting is decreasing, as is women's access to veld foods. Food production and income are not developing rapidly enough as alternative sources of food.

Hunting wildlife

The Basarwa traditionally depend on hunting more than do other ethnic groups in Botswana. Not unexpectedly, men are the primary hunters, and women the main gatherers. Wild meat is rarely sold. Its main purpose is to provide food for the family and the food-sharing group of other households. But meat has other benefits for the Basarwa. It has a ceremonial function and ensures social cohesion, in addition to being nutritional. Wildlife products provide the basis for making handicrafts and clothing. Further, men's self-esteem is linked to hunting.

Women play a role in hunting. They traditionally go along on extended hunting trips, to care for donkeys and dogs, prepare biltong after a kill, and to gather veld products in new areas. Studies have found that female-headed households should not be assumed to be less involved in hunting and wildlife than male-headed ones. In some RAD communities, such as the Zutshwa in Kgalagadi, female-headed households were found to have more hunting members than male-headed ones. But this could be explained by the fact that a married son will often, out of respect, designate his live-in widowed mother as head of the household.

However, hunting is no longer a major source of food for RAD populations, for a number of inter-related reasons. These include a decrease in wildlife numbers, government quotas and controls on hunting, the exploitation of minority groups by outsiders, the primitive weapons available to most RAD men, and the distance of wildlife from settlements.

Collection of veld foods

Women are the gatherers of veld foods as well as of other veld products, primarily for family use. These include:

• tubers, which is the staple of the Basarwa;
• various veld fruits, such as marula and milo;
• phane worms;
• mahupo (truffle);
• grewia (a type of berry bush, which is used as a cereal);
• nuts, such as mogongo and moramo; and
• herbs used for medicinal purposes and teas.

There is an increasing depletion of veld products around RAD settlements. In part, this is a function of the gathering activities of the settlement people themselves, who are no longer able to engage in their traditional conservation practices. But the destruction of veld foods and products is also being accelerated by the influx of the cattle brought in by more powerful outsiders who are attracted by the settlement water supplies.

Agriculture

Neither men nor women farm among the Basarwa or other RAD settlement people. They may own a few livestock, though mainly for subsistence. Women do not even grow vegetables around their homes. Often it is not viable for them to do so given the poor quality of the soil and the lack of inputs (e.g. fertilizer). Access to water is also difficult, even in RAD settlements; RAD settlement people must compete for water with other ethnic groups and with cattle owners, with the more powerful group usually capturing the water supply. The lack of a cultural practice of cultivation is also a major barrier for RAD people. The IFAD social assessment reviewed a number of efforts to encourage such activities in RAD settlements, by dedicated non-governmental organization (NGO) staff and by National Service youth, but none of those efforts could be considered successful. Even when the Basarwa have a plot of land in their possession, it is not unusual for them to plough it just to get the government ploughing subsidy, but then not plant crops in it.

Purchase of food

There is little cash access for the Basarwa, and what cash they do have is poorly used. People may have small and irregular sources of cash from work in government relief programmes (mainly women), at cattle posts (mainly men), from the sale of handicrafts of veld products (mainly women) or, occasionally, from remittances (usually men remitting to women). Wealth and individual achievement is culturally feared, and cash is often quickly spent on beer rather than food. Payments made to the Basarwa in food, as is sometimes the case, are more likely to contribute to food security.

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As Basarwa men's access to hunting becomes increasingly restricted, they are less able to contribute to food security. But women's access to veld foods is also threatened. The immediate result is hunger, and a secondary impact is family breakup and mobility in search of food. The fear of cash, lack of farming culture and lack of initiative and entrepreneurial spirit among the Basarwa are retarding the development of alternative channels for improving food access.

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References

• Heli Perrett. 1996. Botswana: Community Development of Wildlife Management Areas Project: Social Assessment. Rome: IFAD, December.
• All other references are as noted in this study.