Botswana Bushmen win legal rights to land.

The San people of Botswana, a hunter-gatherer group also known as the Bushmen, have won a historic court case granting them rights to ancestral lands from which they were driven in 2002. In December, Botswana's High Court ruled that it was illegal for the government to cut the water supply to the San's traditional homeland in the Kalahari game reserve and to forcibly relocate residents to outside settlements.

The government had claimed the settlements afford the tribe better access to clinics and schools, and that the San's presence in the reserve interfered with conservation efforts. It denied accusations that the evictions had been orchestrated to allow for diamond mining.

More than 1,000 San were forcibly evicted from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve four years ago, following similar relocations in previous years. The group's leader, Roy Sesana, was seen smiling broadly after the court's announcement and said he would return to the Kalahari "to greet his ancestors" in the coming weeks. Gordon Bennet, the tribe's lawyer, hopes the verdict will encourage indigenous peoples elsewhere to reclaim traditional lands. "It's about the right of the applicants to live inside the reserve as long as they want, and that's a marvelous victory," he said.

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Even so, the San's homecoming will be difficult, as government officials are imposing restrictions on domestic animals, water, and the building of permanent structures.