Ju/’hoan San of Nyae Nyae and Namibian Independence

Megan Biesele directs the Kalahari Peoples Fund, a US-based advocacy organization. Since the 1970s she has worked with Ju/'hoan San communities in Botswana and Namibia developing curriculum and language archives. She directed the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation at the time of Namibian Independence, and helped establish both the Nyae Nyae Village Schools Project and the Nyae Nyae Conservancy. Her publications include "Women Like Meat": The Folklore and Foraging Ideology of the Kalahari Ju/'hoan (Witwatersrand and Indiana, 1993) and Hunters and Gatherers in the Modern World (co-editor, Berghahn Books, 2000). Robert K. Hitchcock is a Professor of Geography and an adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Michigan State University. Previously he was Professor of Anthropology and Geography and Coordinator of African Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1983-2006). He has worked with San communities in Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia since 1975, and he serves on the board of the Kalahari Peoples Fund. He worked for the government of Botswana in the Ministry of Local Government and Lands (1977 - 79) and Ministry of Agriculture (1980 - 1982) and has served as a consultant to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks in Botswana. He has also worked for the governments of Somalia, Swaziland, and Lesotho, as well as for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Bank. His publications include Kalahari Cattle Posts (Government of Botswana, 1978); Endangered Peoples of Africa and the Middle East: Struggles to Survive and Thrive (co-editor, Greenwood, 2002); Indigenous Peoples' Rights in Southern Africa (co-editor, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, 2004).

• List of Tables List of Figures Preface Acknowledgments List of Acronyms and Abbreviations Note on Orthography Introduction: A Community History Chapter 1. Namibia and the Nyae Nyae Region Chapter 2. Traditional Ju/'hoan Leadership and Governance Chapter 3. The Ju/'hoan People's Organization and Their Foundation Chapter 4.Ju/'hoan Empowerment from Dialogue on Wildlife Issues Chapter 5. The Lead-up to Namibian Independence in Nyae Nyae Chapter 6. Independence: The Years of Hope Chapter 7. The Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia Chapter 8. The Nyae Nyae Farmers Co-operative after Independence Chapter 9. Community-Based Natural Resource Management and Other Development Models in Nyae Nyae Chapter 10. Nyae Nyae Conservancy Programs and the Future References Cited

"Readers will obtain unique insight into how culture is both transformed and maintained in social interaction." * Choice "There are many ways in which this is an extraordinary book - This account is much more than a valuable historical documentation. It contains valuable lessons for those in anthropology, NGO's, development and advocacy, some of which were no doubt painfully learnt. Its themes resonate directly with problems facing other Khoe-San groups and indigenous peoples the world over, from land, food and water to alcohol, health and hope - That this story can be written from the inside with so much subtlety, detail and balance is a truly commendable achievement." * The Journal of Modern African Studies "...the most detailed case study ever written of the transformation of a hunting and gathering people - the Ju/'hoansi of Namibia - from a relatively independent and self-sufficient society into an economically struggling ethnic minority in a newly-independent nation state.” * Kirk Endicott, Dartmouth College "This is an important book that will have a strong place in at least two anthropological niches: the anthropology of development, and as a classic anthropological case study - It tells an original story which accomplishes a rarely achieved synthesis of top-down and bottom-up perspective" * Richard B. Lee