Hai//om fight to reclaim their heritage in Etosha

Once the stewards of Etosha National Park, the Hai//om San community say they face restrictions, neglect and erasure in the land of their ancestors.

They believed Namibia’s independence would bring them relief and recognition, but decades later, the Hai//om San of Etosha National Park remain sidelined, struggling to survive on the land that was once theirs.

At the inauguration of newly developed infrastructure at Ombika Gate, formerly known as Anderson Gate, many from the Hai//om community could only ask, quietly but painfully: "What happened to our history?"

While officials celebrated development and tourism, for the Hai//om, the event highlighted the chasm between promises of progress and the lived reality of marginalisation.

Lost heritage

Paul Oabeb (56), a community member living near Okaukuejo, close to Ombika Gate, voiced the anguish of his people. “We want our land returned to us,” he said, describing how access to the bush for traditional food and medicine is now forbidden. Those who dare to enter are met with fines ranging from N$500 to N$3 000, he said.

“These restrictions are destroying our culture,” Oabeb added. “We cannot take our children or grandchildren into the field to teach them the knowledge passed down by our elders. It is a very sad thing.”

The Hai//om, recognised as the aboriginal custodians of what is today Etosha National Park, recount a history of displacement, abuse and persecution during the colonial period.

Today, they say their history continues to be erased.

Pure survival

Albertus Komob, headman of the Hai//om at Ombika Gate, stressed the ongoing neglect.

“We have had no electricity since 2023, yet government buildings right in our centre have power,” he said.

He claimed that “when we asked why, we were told shacks cannot have electricity. That is insulting. Do they really think we cannot afford to pay for it?”

Community members report a harsh daily living reality. Without social grants, they are forced to survive on discarded food.

The areas they inhabit are hidden behind tall wooden fences, ostensibly to shield tourists, but in effect, confining the community.

“We are literally in jail. We cannot move freely,” Oabeb said. “Everything is done without our consent. Even the renaming of our landmarks like Namutoni, which we call /amiro, meaning 'star', and Halali, called tsinab, happens without consulting us.”

The community argues that this systemic exclusion is slowly eroding the Hai//om way of life.

With no access to traditional hunting and gathering, the knowledge of medicinal plants and ancestral practices is vanishing.

Those who once herded goats and cattle now have nothing. “The government just does what they want without communicating with us,” Oabeb lamented. “We are here, but it is as if we do not exist.”

In a bid to reclaim their rights, the Hai//om have turned to the courts.

They are asking the High Court to recognise their ancestral ownership of Etosha and the neighbouring Mangetti West area, or, alternatively, to acknowledge that they were dispossessed unlawfully.

They are seeking just and equitable compensation for this dispossession, whether in the form of the restoration of their land rights, alternative land or financial compensation.

The Hai//om Association asserts that the State’s actions violate the Constitution of Namibia and multiple international frameworks, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The association emphasises that the history of genocide and apartheid perpetrated against their people necessitates comprehensive legal redress to restore their dignity and rights. The matter is currently pending before the High Court.

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