This book examines the current position of the San as marginalized indigenous peoples in Namibia. In doing so, it explores how CBNRM has become a nexus through which questions of indigeneity, conservation and development have come to bear on San communities. Focusing on the experiences of a group of predominantly San communities in the North-East of Namibia, the historical and contemporary situations of the San of the N,a Jaqna Conservancy and their engagement with CBNRM are examined. In looking to the future, this work seeks to understand what mechanisms and institutions give indigenous groups, such as the San, a foothold in the State and an avenue though which to navigate and shape their own modernity(ies). This work explores the modalities through which conservation comes together with interests of indigenous groups and how these groups deploy leverage gained through invoking conservation as discourse and practice. In examining San engagements with the Conservancy structures in N,a Jaqna, this study seeks answers not only to the question of what San engagements with CBNRM can tell us about the potential of the CBNRM framework itself for facilitating rural development and conservation, but also the question of what engagement with CBNRM can tell us about how the San of Namibia actively engage in rural development. The following work focuses not solely on how policies and governmental or non-governmental interventions have impacted San realities and life ways, but also the ways in which the San of N,a Jaqna have negotiated, impacted, and shaped these processes.
