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Potential Oil Project Threatens the Indigenous San of Namibia
Sydney Tomuro
ReconAfrica’s oil project jeopardizes not only the Indigenous San of Namibia, but also the sacred Okavango Delta and its endangered species.
Empathy & Equity outlines historical and modern flaws that leave marginalized communities disproportionately vulnerable in the face of climate change. In highlighting healthier solutions, E&E weaves environmental justice into the fabric of the environmental movement to create a more equitable planet.
It’s Friday morning. You are sitting at your kitchen table before work eating breakfast and drinking coffee. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. You’re in a good mood. Without warning, you see from your window countless workers beginning construction in your front yard. They tell you they have heard news that you may have something valuable hidden underneath your property. Despite your efforts to cease their work, you have no success — and they continue digging.
You wouldn’t want people coming on to your property and start destroying it without your consent or benefit — why would anyone else? A real world issue not far off from this scenario is currently taking place in Namibia.
Who are the San People?
The earliest hunter-gatherers in southern Africa are referred to as the San people. Also sometimes referred to as Bushmen, these 100,000 individuals today live nearly the same lifestyle they did for tens of thousands of years — by relying on Mother Earth’s resources for food, water, shelter, clothing, tools, and anything else they might need.
They are most densely located in Namibia, southeastern Angola, South Africa, and Botswana. The Indigenous San have used their land’s natural resources to live for many thousands of years. As a mostly nomadic people, they often move from place to place, going where there are resources for hunting, fishing, and gathering. As a result, the San live one of the most sustainable lifestyles on our planet.
While the San people have changed little over the years, their homeland and the world around them has changed dramatically. Africa is considered the most vulnerable region in the world to the effects of global warming and is especially exposed to the harsh reality of anthropogenic climate change. Indigenous to southern Africa, the San people are having to cope with the rapidly changing climate conditions. An oil project by the Canadian oil firm ReconAfrica further intensifies potential negative environmental impacts, as well as the social and economical impacts of the region.
ReconAfrica Project
ReconAfrica is an oil and gas company based in Vancouver, Canada, interested in exploring the abundant oil resources in southern Africa. Earlier this year, they proposed to build a network of rigs, pipelines, and roads across Kavango East and Kavango West in Namibia — right through the middle of the San homeland.
Drilling Site
This is a semi-arid, hot, dry, and environmentally sensitive region that is a part of the Kalahari Desert. It is also home to Africa’s largest remaining population of savanna elephants and other threatened or endangered wildlife species.
Before the entire San community could consent, ReconAfrica has already begun their project. They are currently drilling three test wells in their 9,800 square mile approved area in the Kavango Basin in Namibia. They also have a license for 3,450 square miles in Botswana.
Kavango is the poorest area of Namibia, with the unemployment rate at nearly 50% in Kavango East. Kavango East and Kavango West are home to 200,000 people, including the Indigenous San. Most of the community make their living through fishing, farming, and tourism. Thus, this project has the potential to be extremely damaging to the community’s economy.
Project Impacts
Just like several other families, Andreas Mawano Limbundi and his family are living near constant drilling and feel concerned that they may have to relocate and angry they were not consulted and may not be compensated. Many of the residents living in the project’s land (including the Indigenous San) are worried they will not receive any financial benefits that the ReconAfrica project would bring in — the pipeline’s findings are estimated to be up to 12 billion barrels of oil, equating to billions of dollars. Although some traditional leaders said they were informed about the project, the information was not filtered through to the entire community, and so the San feel they are uninvolved and have little say in the project.
Drilling during the project may require hydraulic fracking, which can cause cascading effects to the land — underground geological disturbances that cause small earthquakes, release harmful subsurface gases such as methane, and use large amounts of freshwater that hydraulic fracking requires. It would surround the national parks and wildlife conservancies and could contaminate the Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Waterbody Site that communities and animals rely on.
Africa’s Okavango Delta is a fragile ecosystem and is “the last remaining sacred lands that continue to sustain and tell the origin stories of the world’s first people, the San.” Aside from the environmental risks, the history behind this wetland pose disastrous threats to the culture and tradition of the San people, if destroyed. Additionally, experts and activists say there is also a lack of knowledge on how the project would impact this unique ecosystem or how oil drilling impacts the plants that San communities traditionally use for medicine.
Take Action
Much like several other Indigenous nations, the San people have been victims of genocide and have lost much of their heritage lands. The ReconAfrica project appears to be exploiting the abundant natural resources in Kavango, without the approval or consent of the collective San community.
Put yourself in their shoes and think how you would feel if people invaded your land for their own benefit. If you would like to take action, please create a short quote and/or video about your overall thoughts and feelings of the project and send it to IndigenousNations@USGreenChamber.com .