The various tribes of this nation need no recognition. They were made by the gods, and therefore "recognition" is meaningless. Rather than "recognise" the Bakoba, the Government should have simply declared that no tribe is subject to another. As for territory, I can only refer you to a letter in one of the recent papers. The letter was written by Rev. Cosmos Moenga in which he showed that there have never been boundaries in Ngamiland, and that the situation is best left that way. This blog too is on record, as calling for the abolition of Tribal territories. That Government seems to be in haste to do the opposite; consolidate tribalism by hiving away parts of "Batawana" tribal territory to the Bayeyi, is completely self-serving on the part of Government.
If Government is successful in its endeavors, Kgosi Tawana's legal argument that his father never signed away the mineral rights of his people to Government will have been neutralised! Such mineral rights are likely to find themselves in a new "Baweyi" tribal territory very soon. While the nation no doubt benefits from national ownership (as opposed to tribal ownership) of natural resources, the party that accepted tribal divisions into our constitution at independence, the BDP, should not be allowed to carry out piecemeal patch-up jobs to correct the mess that should have been hurled at the British Imperialists on their departure. There is only one solution, (achievable through the steps listed below) to the tribal problems our nation faces today:
- Abolish tribal territories.
- Introduce into our constitution a clause that declares any and every entity that considers itself a tribe, independent of any other tribes.
- Let members of a tribe (and not national government) carry the burden of paying their tribal government, which government will have no territorial control over any inch of our republic.
