Background: Treesleeper Camp

The word ‘Treesleeper’ has been derived from the biggest ethnic group in the village of Tsintsabis, the Hei//omn Bushmen. For the people who are not familiar with Khoisan (Bushmen/San and Nama) languages: The sign ‘//’ in the word Hei//omn is not a mistake. In the Khoisan language group four so-called ‘clicks’ are being used, them being: ‘//’, ‘!’, ‘/’ and ‘‡’.

When the Hei//omn still used to hunt, they sometimes fled into trees not to be caught by lions. Because of the patience lions have, the Hei//omn sometimes had to spend the night in the tree. Apart from this explanation, it also helped to sleep in the trees with a fire underneath against mosquito’s. ‘Hei//omn’ in fact means ‘Treesleepers’. Therefore the name Treesleeper symbolises the whole project: It respects the traditional culture of the Hei//omn while at the same time covering the tourists who are to visit the enterprise. This last reason is because the tourists have a chance to become a Treesleeper for a night by camping on a tree deck.

Treesleeper Camp is a form of what we call ‘community based sustainable tourism’. This means that the members of a local community are involved in all the aspects of carrying out the tourist activities, so they can have some income of their own. They should have a fair income for all their labour activities. As much as possible will be done by the local community, and the FSTN has always paid extra attention to ‘modern’ abilities (eg. working on a computer). By training and educating the local people, they will eventually be capable of improving their own situation independently and with responsibility.

Therefore, especially for this project a legal body (the Tsintsabis Trust, TT) has been founded in Tsintsabis. The TT is the owner of Treesleeper Camp. Everything related to the project will always be discussed with the TT (as representatives of the community). With them anything concerning the project is discussed.

Treesleeper does not aim to adjust attractions only to the needs of tourists. We want to give a realistic image of both the traditional and the contemporary way of life. Without bothering the tourists too much with ethical or moral aspects (they are on vacation, after all), we will give some attention to pointing out the contemporary situation of the (Hei//omn) Bushmen. Apart from that it is an environmental project, eg. as much as possible we work with solar energy. All warm water at the camp site is provided by solar geysers, every camp site has 2 solar lights and the electricity at the cultural centre is also provided by a solar panel.