the role of tourism in natural resource management in the okavango ...

Bugakwe and Xanekwe people traditionally lived in small groups centered on
extended family relationships with no central authority figure such as a chief. These
extended family groups moved periodically in response to local depletion of game,
and groups would sometimes camp together for several months, or even years
before going their separate ways. The Dxeriku, Hambukushu and Wayeyi people all
resided in semi-permanent, patrilocal extended family settlements. There was a
central authority figure in the form of a hereditary herdsman, and within a radius of
several kilometres from the settlement most families were related (Bock, 1998;
Hitchcock, 2000; Bock and Johnson, 2002).
During the late 1700s, the chief of the Batawana, a Tswana speaking group, began
to exert political control over the Okavango Delta peoples. This external control
resulted in changes to the traditional political structures of these groups, and many
matrilineal oriented customs regarding property and the family were replaced by
patrilineal Tswana traditions. In the early 1900s the British also began to exert
political control over the Okavango Delta, integrating traditional political institutions
into government based ones. It was only when Botswana became independent in
1966, however, that government political institutions became formalised in much of
the Okavango Delta. Today, the traditional headmen have been replaced by
government employees and are assisted in their duties by police, court personnel
and citizen committees (Bock, 1998; Hitchcock, 2000; Bock and Johnson, 2002).
The arrival of the Batawana in the late eighteenth century was to have a powerful
impact on the political and social fabric of the Delta region. The tribe had its origins
in a group that broke away from the cattle-herding Bangwato of the eastern Kalahari,
in about 1800, due to a dispute between their leader and his brother. They made
their way westwards to the Khwebe Hills around Toteng, 25 kilometres from Lake
Ngami. Once settled, they themselves became expansionists, eventually extending
their authority and culture across the entire Delta area. They also extracted tribute,
in the form of meat and hunting trophies from other residents of the Okavango Delta,
and by 1850, it is thought that they owned most of the region's cattle. Today, the
Batawana, together with some dozen other groups that migrated to and across the
Kalahari, are part of Tswana society, to which the great majority of Botswana's
people belong and which is also prominent in the human geography of South
Africa's northern areas. The Bangwato however, remain the largest of Botswana's
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