Roy
Sesana is a Bushman activist from Botswana who co-founded the First People of
Kalahari in 1991 to advocate for the Bushmen to be allowed to remain on their
ancestral lands to practice their traditional way of life. The government of Botswana
wanted to relocate the Bushmen out of what has now become a game reserve. Roy
Sesana traveled to Europe and the United States to meet with government and United
Nations officials in the hope of pressuring the Botswana government to allow the
Bushmen to remain on their lands. Despite international appeals, the Bushmen were
evicted in 2002. The Bushmen took the government of Botswana to court, and after
the longest-running trial in Botswana history, in December 2006 the Botswana High
Court ruled in favor of the Bushmen, declaring that the government had illegally
tried to evict them from their ancestral lands. This landmark decision is a symbolic
and practical victory for indigenous people all around the world who are facing
similar treatment from their own nations' governments. In 2005, Roy Sesana and
the First People of the Kalahari received the Right Livelihood Award (often called
the Alternative Nobel Prize) "…
for resolute resistance against eviction from their ancestral lands, and for upholding
the right to their traditional way of life."
