Abstract
In late 2006 ‘the Basarwa’ won a landmark case against the Botswana government, returning their rights to continue living in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (from which they had been ‘forcibly’ removed). The case attracted massive media attention, both in southern Africa and abroad. Although this media coverage overwhelmingly heralded the judgement as a victory, some reports suggested otherwise. Anthropological accounts have been similarly divided. Such different interpretations seem to indicate that there are still numerous unresolved issues regarding the role of activist anthropologists in similar minority rights cases. Most significantly, and notwithstanding the generally accepted critique of essentialist discourse within the discipline, we still seem unable to deal with the paradox of primitivism in an adversarial legal context. Not surprisingly, the Botswana government is now using the notion of the pristine “Bushman” to circumvent the spirit of the court ruling.
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