| Summary: | The rapidly expanding involvement of indigenous peoples' movements III Africa is tied in part to the process of trans-nationalisation and the emergence of new networks of indigenous identities. In the 1990s the San peoples of Botswana became increasingly involved in the international indigenous rights movement, and they formed what they called an indigenous non-governmental organisation, First People of the Kalahari (FPK). The Botswana government, which refused to recognise the San peoples as distinct from the majority of the population, decided to relocate the San and another CKGR group, the Bakga1agadi, outside their land, the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. This, combined with deep dissatisfaction over centuries of mistreatment, dispossession, marginalisation and non-recognition, led the San to ally themselves with the Bakga1agadi. They took legal action against the government of Botswana, seeking a judgment from the High Court on their rights to land, resources, and services. Their claims to an indigenous identity were not principally a claim for cultural rights or authenticity but, rather, a claim for political and economic rights. This dissertation, employing a multi-nodal ethnographic approach, examines the complexities of indigeneity and the generative power of indigenous discourses in creating and reinforcing indigenous resistance and agency. It analyses the ways in which indigenous peoples, particularly the San, position themselves at four levels: at the internationa11eve1, inside the United Nations Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues' meetings; at the regional vi level through interactions with African human rights institutions and African non-government organisations; at the national level, in meetings with government officials and in the Botswana High Court; and at local level with communities and individuals. This work contributes to the rapidly expanding discussions of the politics of indigeneity, the study of African indigenous peoples' movements, legal and advocacy anthropology, and the analysis of the agency and resistance of the San and Bakgalagadi peoples of the Central Kalahari of Botswana. My study also contributes to the fields of hunter and gatherer studies, indigenous issues, human rights, and international development.
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