Every tourist who steps onto a boat and steams upstream into Botswana’s Chobe National Park will notice a solitary and proud flagpole flying the beautiful sky-blue pennant of Botswana. This announcement of sovereignty, over a seemingly innocuous piece of land that goes under water every year, has an interesting and rather chequered history dating all the way back to 1890: a time when the superpowers of Europe took out their rulers and pencils and divvied up vast tracts of our beloved continent - probably over a glass of sherry.
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Let me attempt to precis a complex period of global politics and influence brought on by an economic desire to control the world’s trade and resources through colonies – I hope I do not lose you along the way.
The ‘fairness’ of distribution of these colonies is now legendary in the annals of history....”I say old chap, if we draw a line here you can have Mount Kilimanjaro and we will have Mount Kenya”....”Ja, sehr gut. Und ve vill give you Zanzibar for ze Island of Heligoland”. The latter trade was an example of how even Napoleon’s long dead imperialism affected the ‘Scramble for Africa’ as the negotiators sought to restore ownership over lands the diminutive General had expropriated…. with distant lands they had expropriated!
Despite literally being worlds apart, The Chobe River, and its Sedudu Island, somehow made an appearance in the ‘Treaty of Zanzibar and Heligoland’ when the boundaries of German South West Africa (Namibia) and the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland (Botswana) were decided as an afterthought. The decision in this all important treaty was that the southern boundary of the western Caprivi (originally named after Chancellor Leo, Count of Caprivi and recently renamed The Zambezi Region), shall follow the 18th Parallel until it reaches the Kwando River, thereafter following ‘the main channel’ (English text of the 1890 treaty) or ‘thalweg’ (German text) to the confluence of the Zambezi River.
The result was this rather innocuous probing finger of today’s Namibia brought about by a concession between two related, some say incestuous, royal households so that Germany could have access to the Zambezi River and ultimately the German colony of East Africa. Somehow, they forgot, or ignored, the fact that David Livingstone had ruled out the Zambezi as a ‘navigable river’ due to the Zambezi’s 300 foot plunge that is named after one the aforementioned royals!
My learned friend, Google, reliably informs me that the definition of ‘main channel’ or ‘thalweg’, is ‘a line connecting the lowest points of successive cross sections through a river channel or valley’. This definition has caused a tremendous amount of debate and almost got Botswana dragged into the Namibian war of independence, but more on that later. For now, let’s return to 1909.
Two administrators would be sent by the pre–WWI German government to the Caprivi and both would leave long lasting influences on the area and particularly its people, the BaSubiya. The first was ‘Imperial Resident’ Kurt Streiwolf. You’ve got to love the title of a fellow sent to the middle of nowhere, where if the wildlife doesn’t get you, malaria will. That’s colonial job marketing at its best. But I digress… Streiwolf developed a system of indirect rule for the BaSubiya that remained in force and functional up until the independence of Namibia in 1990. This was no mean feat in the wake of the German-Herero war when Germans were regarded with massive suspicion and hatred.
What has this got to do with Chobe’s Sedudu Island you may ask? Well, traditionally, and to this day, the pastoralist BaSubiya use the floodplains of the Zambezi and Chobe for subsistence agriculture and cattle grazing through the dry season and then retire to higher ground during the perennial flooding. It is quite likely that Sedudu, or Kasikili Island as it is known by the BaSubiya, was such a resource in years gone by, thereby creating a valid claim for ownership. If seasonal occupation can be regarded as ownership?
In 1911 Victor von Frankenburg und Proschlitz became the next ‘Imperial Resident’ of Caprivi, though I think his bosses at the time probably thought his own name was high-brow enough to demote his job title to ‘District Chief’. Von Frankenburg drew up one of the most comprehensive maps of the Chobe River that included Kasikili Island as German territory. It was this map that created the foundation for an incident that really heated up the whole dispute on the ownership of Sedudu. Victor’s control at the Caprivi capital of Schuckmannsburg lasted until 1914 when he surrendered to the British South Africa Police at the start of the Great War. Incidentally, the BSAP officers allowed him to go outside and fire his rifle so that he could honestly claim he did not surrender without a shot!
In an effort to spare you too much mundane historic detail, the Caprivi was consecutively administered by the British, then on behalf of the British by South Africa, then South Africa independently up to, and through the trials and tribulations of the Namibian independence war. Over this period Sedudu/Kasikili Island became increasingly more prominent as a disputed chunk of ground between South Africa and the British authorities of Bechuanaland, and later the independent Botswana.
One of the most vociferous pundits for Namibia’s claim to Sedudu was Major W.E. Trollope – South African Resident Magistrate and Administrator to Caprivi from 1939-1953. His discussions and correspondence with his Botswana counterparts became key components of the final legal wrangle for ownership. Towards the end of his tenure, Trollope progressively fell out of favour with the newly elected apartheid government of South Africa and after numerous transgressions, was ordered back to Pretoria – an order he chose to ignore. When his successor arrived to take up office Trollope asked if he had a permit to enter the Caprivi! He resigned and died shortly thereafter; his final resting place is under a large tree on the banks of the Zambezi River in Katima Mulilo. On the back of all of this, and quite some years later, an incidence of aggression sparked the first scientific determination of where the main channel of the Chobe River actually lies, thereby defining the international boundary and the subsequent ownership of a 3.5km2 patch of perennially flooded grassland.
In October 1984, a South African Defence Force boat doing a routine patrol [This according to official reports though angling for tiger fish was more likely. The Caprivi was a cushy posting by all accounts.] ventured into the southern channel of the Chobe River and was fired upon by the recently formed and highly conscientious Botswana Defence Force. Both parties rightly claimed that their respective maps showed the channel as being ‘theirs’. What could have escalated into yet another regional conflict was mutually decided to resolve peacefully through the determination of which branch of the Chobe, north or south, constituted the main channel. However, this opened up its own can of worms!
Through the United Nations resolution stating that South Africa’s mandate over South West Africa was no longer legal, South Africa lost its treaty making powers for the territory and Botswana could not legitimately enter into negotiations over this boundary dispute. Discussions were held with the UN Council for Namibia and the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) in order to gain their blessing for negotiations to proceed. In December 1984 it was agreed that a joint survey would be undertaken to unequivocally determine where the main channel of the Chobe River is located.
Enter, at last, the sanity of science! Using echo-sounding equipment and qualified surveyors it was determined that the average depth of the thalweg of the northern channel was greater than that of the southern. A joint report presented in July 1985 stated that, ‘The main channel of the Chobe River now passes Sedudu/Kasikili Island to the west and north of it’. Problem solved? No chance!
Botswana’s repeated requests that South Africa confirm the location of the boundary fell on their selectively deaf ears – in a way that only the South Africa of that period could choose to ignore such requests to relinquish territory. Unperturbed, Botswana did the next best thing, and in the tradition of the very colonialists that started the whole fiasco...... They hoisted their national flag over the island!
In early 1992, 2 years after Namibia’s independence, Windhoek lodged its first official protest to the Botswana government over the latter’s proprietary claim. This, under the oversight of Robert Mugabe, led to the creation of a forum of experts from both Namibia and Botswana to try and reach a resolution. Numerous rounds of discussion eventually led to a deadlock and in 1994 it was recommended that the dispute be brought before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Belgium. After mere five years of exorbitant legal fees, on the 13th of December 1999, The Hague said this:
In its Judgment the Court finds, by 11 votes to 4, that “the boundary between the Republic of Botswana and the Republic of Namibia follows the line of the deepest soundings in the northern channel of the Chobe River around Kasikili/Sedudu Island” and, by 11 votes to 4 again, that “Kasikili/Sedudu Island forms part of the territory of the Republic of Botswana”.
The Court adds unanimously that, “in the two channels around Kasikili/Sedudu Island, the nationals of, and vessels flying the flags of, the Republic of Botswana and the Republic of Namibia shall enjoy equal national treatment”.
And so finally, this small but stunningly beautiful piece of land was ceded to Botswana to form an integral part of our Chobe National Park, yet may be enjoyed without prejudice by Namibians.
Why, you may ask, was there so much fuss? Well, when you quietly drift past this island, chilled glass of wine in hand, watching the numerous herds of lechwe, hundreds of elephants, thousands of buffalo and tens of thousands of birds, ask yourself, ‘Who wouldn’t want to own this little piece of paradise?’.
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