Bachelor President, Ian Khama, in Racist Outburst

You would recall that last month, My Khama…, the President of Botswana made news by publicly declaring that he wanted a tall, beautiful and slim woman to marry after pressure from his cabinet and village folks continued to mount on the president asking him to marry. Some of you thought it was undiplomatic for the President to make his wish list public without any discretion.

Well, this President is not getting out of the news any time soon. In an astonishing outburst, Botswana’s president a few days ago described the Kalahari Bushmen as ‘primeval’, ‘primitive’ and ‘backward’.

Speaking at the country’s largest diamond mine, President Khama accused the Bushmen of living a ‘life of backwardness’ ‘a primitive life of deprivation co-existing alongside wild animals’, and ‘a primeval life of a bye [sic] gone era of hardship and indignity’.

Khama also accused Survival of ‘embarking upon a campaign of lies and misinformation’, calling the tribal rights organization ‘modern day highway robbers’. His comments came in response to Survival’s call for a boycott of Botswana tourism and diamonds over the government’s treatment of the Bushmen.

In 2002, while Khama was vice-president, the Botswana government forcibly evicted the Bushmen from their ancestral lands; an act that was later declared unlawful and unconstitutional by Botswana’s High Court, which also ruled that the Bushmen have the right to live on their lands.

Despite the ruling, Khama’s government has continued to prevent the Bushmen from living on their lands. It has banned them from accessing a well, which they rely on for water, and from hunting for food. At the same time, it has drilled new wells for wildlife and allowed Wilderness Safaris to erect a luxury tourist lodge with swimming pool on Bushman land. Over 25,000 people across the world have signed Survival’s petition calling on Wilderness Safaris to move its lodge off Bushman land.

While the Bushmen have turned to litigation to gain access to their well, the government is in negotiations with Gem Diamonds to construct a diamond mine on Bushman land.

Khama has previously referred to the Bushmen as ‘an archaic fantasy’.

Rarely have we seen a sitting President in such an unguarded public outburst. It is not clear whether these mannerisms play any role in scaring potential women from entering relationship with Mr. Khama.

Botswana is one of few countries under the sun with a bachelor President.