Participants at the Global Sustainability Tourism Conference(GSTC) in Maun have warned that unless local communities receive Government support to patent indigenous products like traditional baskets they faced being marginalised by multi-nationals that could steal their intelluctual property, rich historical cultural heritage and undermine their way of life.
“We are saying that communities are befitting from cultural tourism. But we must also be able to do simple things like including local cuisine like Seswaa in lodge and hotel menu’s. Opportunities exist for tourist facilities to engage local communities to cook local cuisine for a fee to further sustainability tourism and to meaningful involve local communities in the development of tourism,” said Raulin Gomachas, Quality Assurance Manager for the Nambia Tourism Board.
The importance of involving local communities in the development of tourism and ensuring that local knowledge is preserved is highlighted in a petition challenging Disney’s registering a trademark on the Swahili phrase ‘Hakuna Matata,’ which was featured in the Lion King series.
The term means ‘no trouble,’ and is used by most Kiswahaili speaking countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique and the DRC. Another high profile theft of indigenous knowledge is reflected in the decision of the Japanese Patent office to patent the Kionda bag, which is a handwoven bag made from sisal with leather trimmings. It is indigenous to the Kikuyu and Kamba tribes of Kenya. They are popular in western countries where they are exported.
“Women in Maasai Mara, a national reserve and tourist hotspot in Kenya make necklaces, jewellery, leather belts and bags using beads to sustain themselves. Some are in organized groups and make quality products export. One of the groups for example called the Base Camp Masaai Mara have perfected art to point where they make annual sales of about $US 50,000.00 by targeting countries in Europe like Norway, Sweden and America’s,” said Grace Nderitu, Chief Executive Officer(CEO) for Economic Tourism Kenya.
She said, “Protection of indigenous rights on commercial products made especially by grass roots communities is not a discussion that can be handled on their level because it requires expertise they lack. It is the role of Government to patent the products and designs of indigenous communities because they have resources to do so.”
The threat of globalisation, is also felt in a negative way by rural women in the northern parts of Botswana. The Shorobe Basket Co-operative, which is a group of 65 women, who reside in a small village 30km outside Botswana’s tourism mecca barely irk out an existence using indigenous knowledge to make traditional artefacts using natural vegetation.
Started in 1985 with the support of Conservation International, Buy Okavango and Department of Gender Affairs the women mostly uneducated earn a measly P1,000 a year and often walk 40km to collect materials for artefacts taking 4 to 6 weeks to make and walk an additional 10 km to get water using 25litre containers which they carry themselves through vegetation dominated by wildlife.
Determined to feed their families in the face of unsurmountable odds they are forced to take risks that are life threatening and salaries they are not market related to avoid deterring customers.
“We make open baskets, bracelets, closed baskets, monkeys, food mats and ear rings. It is a skill we learned from our mothers and which we pass on from generation to generation because it is not taught in the formal curriculum. We therefore teach our children about weaving and patterns we use to make cultural artefacts,” said Seipone Kgare, a weaver from the Shorobe Basket Co-operative.
Despite the hardships they face and the risks they face to irk out a living, the Botswana Government which often preaches the importance of supporting local communities to thrive, appears reluctant to help encouraging them to become self-sustainable and support themselves by being innovative.
