Central Kalahari Game Reserve

Central Kalahari Game Reserve

Africa at its most remote, the Central Kalahari Game Reserve covers 52,800km2 of wilderness and dominates the centre of Botswana. The mostly flat, gently undulating landscape is covered with bush and grasses, dotted with larger trees. Fossilised river valleys and salt pans add variety to the open plains and grass covered dunes. To get there you'll need to fly in on a charter plane from Maun - a small town on the Okavango Delta, otherwise it's a long and dusty drive.

Given the remoteness of this reserve it is advisable to experience it with a local safari operator - there are only rudimentary camping facilities available in the park but lodges have recently been built in the area.

The best time to visit the Central Kalahari Game Reserve is during or after the rains - January to April - when the grazing is at its best. The birding at this time of year is excellent - the resident species have been joined by migrant birds, and raptors are particularly well represented.

The game here is in stark contrast to what you'll find in the northern parks: desert species dominate: springbok, gemsbok and eland - and the density of predators is good, particularly lion and cheetah. Although there are permanent waterholes, more water-dependent animals like elephant and buffalo are absent while the huge water-based migrations of blue wildebeeste and zebra are, unfortunately, a thing of the past.

The reserve is made up of salt pans and flaxen grasslands. A few solitary mopane, camel thorn, Kalahari apple, and silver custer-leaf trees stand in isolation in sprawling fields of grass. Four fossil rivers meander through the arid reserve. Among them is Deception Valley, a dusty old watercourse that wound its way through the Northern Kalahari 16,000 years ago. Today it's a brilliant game watching area.

A variety of grass, acacia, thorn trees and other drought-resistant plants cover most of Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Among the shallow valleys, tsamma melons and gemsbok cucumbers can be spotted, providers of the main source of water for animals and Bushmen during the dry season.

This unusual reserve was founded in 1961, and is the second largest piece of protected desert land in the world. The reserve, surprisingly enough, was not founded to protect any endangered wildlife species, but rather focused on protecting the nomadic San Bushmen. The aim was to provide a home for the San in their natural environment, thus ensuring their survival and preserving their way of life.

Bushmen

The people of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve are the hunter-gatherer Bushmen or San peoples. One of the oldest peoples in the world, the Bushmen have lived in Africa for at least 22,000 years.

Both current names for the San or Bushmen people might be considered unsuitable. "San" was applied to the Bushmen by their traditional and historic rivals, the Khoikhoi. It means "outsider", whereas the Khoikhoi name for themselves means "the real people." The term "Bushmen" was also considered pejorative and politically incorrect, but has now gained much more usage and is used by San to refer to themselves.

Spokespeople for the San have argued for the use of the Naro term N/oakwe (Red People) or "First People", since they were the first people to inhabit the vast Kalahari Desert. Their spiritual and cultural tradition is ancient and rich, with a language of clicks and cadences and a deep understanding of the land and animals of Africa.

A small people without political or economic leverage, the Bushmen face major challenges of land ownership (a concept their spiritual worldview does not recognise), political representation, poverty, education and discrimination. They have been and continue to be marginalised and disadvantaged by political and economic processes outside their control, and have not been afforded the human rights enjoyed by other more populous peoples.

Perhaps the single most pressing issue for the Bushmen is land ownership. The Botswanan Constitution enshrines their to live in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in perpetuity. However, since the mid-1990s the Botswanan government has tried to relocate the Bushmen from the reserve. The government explains that it is too costly to provide basic services such as medical care and schooling, despite the reserve's tourism revenues. Others feel that the San are being removed to make way for lucrative diamond mining in the area.

In 1997, three quarters of the San population were removed from the reserve, and as of October 2005 the government has resumed the forced relocation of the Bushman from their lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve into resettlement camps. Only about 250 individuals remain in the reserve, or have returned surreptitiously to the Kalahari to resume their independent lifestyle.

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