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Hitchcock, Robert, and Diana Vinding, eds. 2004. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' RIGHTS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA. Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. 278 pp. $25.00 (paper).
This book examines systematic patterns of social exclusion and discrimination experienced by the San and Khoe of southern Africa. The authors maintain that such patterns, reflected in these groups' "extremely marginal social status and their general lack of access to land and other resources" (p. 229), are not merely effects of long-term poverty, but are directly linked to their cultural identities. Consequently, these communities deserve protection under a category of "indigenous peoples' rights." Indeed, the authors imply that the deepening vulnerability of San communities can be adequately addressed only by invoking such rights. Given the importance of poverty alleviation in African development agendas, this is a provocative argument.
The protection of minorities through culturally defined group rights is a complex challenge, engaging constitutional politics, social policies, and development strategies. The book addresses each of these themes, though it focuses mainly on development. The essays examine Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa in depth, with brief regional comparisons. Intriguing constitutional comparisons emerge. South Africa, with the most liberal constitution, has gone the furthest toward recognizing cultural rights, as demonstrated in T. M. Chan's chapter on the recognition of "aboriginal title" in the Richtersveld land case. The situation in Namibia is ambiguous: the constitution incorporates international law, thereby increasing the range of instruments (treaties or U.N. conventions) that can be invoked to protect marginalized communities, yet governments have designed development policies with little regard for the structural poverty of San communities, increasing their vulnerability. Botswana, widely regarded as Africa's...