It is indeed a great privilege and honour for me to be called upon to respond on behalf of the indigenous descendents of the Khoi-Khoi and San people. Our descendents, now called the Khoi-San have a leadership structure in place called the N.K.C (National Khoi-San Council) former N.K.F National Khoi-San Forum). Through their mandated representatives, our government towards Constitutional development in July 1999, told the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples in Geneva that they have a plan. Today they are proving it, even though it is only in a draft form. Today I am faced with an enormous task, a task that I am deeply honoured to undertake. On the 11 April 2000 I was present at the launch of this very draft amidst many high ranking T.L's (Traditional Leaders). I here wish to thank Minister S.F. Mufamadi, and his department for their valuable input in constructing a draft plan for our acknowledgement and recognition. The S.Q.R process this discussion document and the policy framework has no doubt taken effort, thought and concentrated study. The Bill of Rights, as enshrined in our Constitution, has posed it's own gender, youth and indigenous concerns. It seeks to give us an institution which today conforms and promotes and protects Human Rights. We as a law-abiding people must walk in these principles of equality, but then do we also expect it from every citizen. This is the main purpose of us seeking our rights here today. Our people have been denied access to their fair share of their ancestral wealth as an inheritance. Instead, our people.over centuries, have been exploited. Our institutions of Khoi-Khoi traditional leadership have been expunged to the extent that it is almost an impossible task to reclaim and rebuild it to as it was before the invasion occurred.
Today, our government has shown us that they will help us to allow that
miracle to happen. Right here where we stand. in our ancestral land are new systems and institutions. It works because we’ve worked it into our policy. We do not wish to extinguish anything that is pragmatic in essence. The Institution of Traditional Leadership does not seek this. It operated on dynamic principles. It has both a negotiable and a non-negotiable value system. However. we must not loose sight of how T.L saved our country from bloodshed. devastation and agony. This form of societal organisation. with its flexibility, allowed us to inherit a world-class system of modernisation. which we now enjoy..
Other countries in Europe had to be subjected to near annihilation before settling down. It was our traditional leadership. especially our system of tolerance which held us in check. It is now the time, through this system of institutionalised ancestral values, that our people need to be allowed to plough, sow and reap the mutual benefits as Africans in our ancestral land.
Chief Joseph D. Little
Chairperson for N.K.C (National Khoi-san Council) formerly N.K.F (National
Khoi-San Forum)
SECTION A 1. FOREWORD
MINISTER F.S MUFAMADI's ADDRESS
Traditional leadership embodies a system of discourses, which describe
Africa's earlier forms of societal organisation. "ln the sense ... is a true icon
of our identity as Africans." [Quote from page 3]
Comment
The Minister, together with other great minds of our country, agrees to the role, function and power of traditional leadership. The Khoi-Khoi and San should serve a lesson to all of Africa as a nation. A first nation, who due to deliberate plans of foreign powers, were subjected to cultural genocide and assimilation by invaders. Today we also wish for an institution to serve as a monument to our pasts. Because we did not have a solid customary base of enduring traditional leadership, we thus cannot effectively engage in governance and nation building. We thus agree with the Minister and our President's predecessor, former President Nelson Mandela that we must regain our status and role as full participants in our country's affairs. This can only be done by the reconstruction and development of the Kho i-san Traditional leadership institution and its re-establishment.
2. INTRODUCTION
PRESIDENT THABO MBEKI 'S ADDRESS
I am the grandchild of the warrior men and women that Hintsa and Sekhukhune led.."[Quote page 4 at Parliament on 8 May 1996]
Comments
2.1 We would also like to hear. our descendants utter similar words as our Presidents do and have done about Khoi-Khoi warriors. Autshumoa. Nammoa. Oedeso, Sousoa, Jan Christiaan Afrikaner. Nanseb (Hendrik Witbooi) and
Abraham Esau only to mention a few. Their pioneering leadership was done through instructions of tradition, custom and a struggle for freedom from
oppression. In the past and even todav we are left with no option but to learn about our forefathers' killers as our heroes. Unlike the Black African
Traditional leadership which can uplift their peoples with impressive displays and recitals of their struggles. we are torn apart. We now trust in the wisdom
of our government as expressed in this draft, that a role for Khoi- Khoi traditional leadership will be determined and established.
2.2 We agree with phases 1-3 of the White Paper process on TL's
2.3 This paper contains the submissions around Promotion and Protection of our Constitutional Rights as the Khoi-san Peoples. It was felt that the word communitv should be changed to peoples since all indigenous people worldwide prefer it, especially in the UNWGIP(United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples)
3. VISIONFORANINSTITUTIONOFTRADITIONALLEADERSHIP
As the vision clearly expresses that a breakdown did occur, distortions were caused and transformations happened. This, more so than anywhere else, is evident when studying our Khoi-Khoi history. In other African cultures invasion by colonials could be more forcefully opposed and so produce the pride of place. We can easily see why the Khoi-Khoi still wants this institution to be maintained in a modem society. It served a valuable purpose in unifying our African brothers to oppose oppression without sacrificing a vast amount of human life and tragedy. We agree on all (9) points, as the vision statement reads. We also see that our institution will not be come a surrogate or an adversary of our present Government. It instead will enhance our co-operation of policy making at all levels according to our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and legislation formulation at Provincial and Local Municipal Levels. If we could adjust. it order to accommodate what was alien to us and use it to meet the demands of modem society, then how much more can't we now do this amongst ourselves. Principles are principles and traditional leadership has always followed this as a guideline. It was those, who had no principles who caused the collapse of our institutions. Those who had to form for themselves from what they saw in our country, even now are being accommodated. We the Khoi-San peoples must thus play a more significant role in this vision. This institution is the only platform for us to express ourselves as Africans rather than as politicians. This base will allow us once again to have a pride and dignity of origin in Africa. It will allow us to become a meaningful part of the African Renaissance. We will not wish to be anything else but who we truly are. ‘Children of the African Soil’.
4, COMPARITIVE PERSPECTIVES
4.1. The African Experience
The Khoi-San Peoples are living evidence of a loss of the African experience within their own country and ancestral lands. One can find an apology for the African American. But for the Euro-Khoi. Khoi-Euro or Khoisan who were not removed from their native/indigenous soil. what type of apology does one proffer'? Yet. we are neither unique nor alone in this loss of our Indigenous original experience. Many peoples. i.e. Indigenous Nations have suffered the same plight. After having being subjected to Euro-centric and other lifestyles for centuries, they have yet not accepted it has their lot. There is now an upsurge into finding their origins. This is also our quest. viz. to attain our true African experience. and our ancestral roots as it was before we underwent change. lt will give us a pride of origin as to who we truly are on the African continent. This is an argument for or against modernity. It is a call from the heart, the soul and the very being. It is not about the dance in the dust as against that on a sleek, shimmering sheeny floor. It is a matter of whom we are about and our cultural heritage, not of oppressive control. When evaluating the African experience against the European experience it becomes clearly apparent of the speeds at which each works. Its not about the duration and sustainability and equality. The European system seems to work because it is self-seeking and only for the benefit for a power hungry few. The African system, due to its traditional leadership nature, is slow but fair.
Everywhere in Africa, which was touched by colonialism, nations suffered bloodshed in all is brutality though it abides alongside technological expertise. African brother and sister have risen up against each other to fight in order to fill the seats of power vacated by the former 'white' government. In traditional leadership, there were enough seats to be filled by competent Kings, Paramounts. Chiefs and Headpersons. Bloodshed did occur, but not on the scal