This is the black African president of Zimababwe talking about his country’s (and region’s) true natives, the San people…
THE San people – also known as the Bushmen tribe – must be “acculturated” and brought into mainstream society, President Robert Mugabe has said.
Often referred to as the First People, the Bushmen have lived in southern Africa for more than 20,000 years, and scientists believe they are the first modern humans from which all other peoples evolved.
But Mugabe, speaking in Tsholotsho last Friday, said some of their cultural practices had no place in a changing world.
“[John Nkomo] said integrating the San was difficult because they are a culture that is resistant to change,” Mugabe said.
“We know in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa they have a similar problem but they are trying. The San still want to herd cattle because they like meat more than we do, and we should make sure we acculturate them.”
This kind of talk is not original. Black Africans of Bantu descent almost always talk about San people in exactly the same way white Europeans talk about them. So, racism does not begin or end with white people. Racism has no content; it only has a form.
