A BRITISH tourist has been arrested in Namibia over an alleged series of sex attacks on San tribal children at a cultural “living museum” in the remote north-east of the country.
Douglas Robert Brooks, 65, was detained on Sunday at the Ju’/Hoansi Living Museum near Grashoek after allegedly offering sweets to local children in exchange for naked photos and inappropriate touching.
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He now faces 38 charges, including rape, indecent assault, human trafficking and child exploitation, under
Namibia’s Child Care & Protection Act of 2015 and international protocols.
Brooks also faces charges of crimen injuria, which means a deliberate attack on a person’s dignity through the use of vulgar or racially offensive words or gestures.
The pensioner allegedly persuaded 33 minors to strip and allow him to touch their private parts, with the promise of sweets he had brought to the camp.
He appeared at Grootfontein Magistrates Court on Monday afternoon, where prosecutor Erastus Christian laid out the charges. No plea was taken.
Namibian police Inspector Maureen Mbeha said Brooks is accused of groping the breasts and backsides of 16 teenage girls, 14 teenage boys and three younger children.
Police say the alarm was raised by concerned parents, leading to his arrest just a day after arriving at the remote museum for his third annual visit.
It’s believed that his detention has since prompted further allegations.
Brooks entered Namibia on May 15 and drove six hours from the capital Windhoek to the camp, which is part of a network of seven
“living museums” set up by the Living Culture Foundation Namibia (LCFN), a German-Namibian organisation.
The museums are designed to preserve San traditions and culture by allowing visitors to observe and take part in daily activities such as bow-and-arrow hunting, fire dances, and traditional craft-making.
While some adult women remain topless in keeping with cultural norms, management said teenage girls are always fully clothed in leather antelope-skin dresses.
Tourists are explicitly warned not to give sweets to children due to the lack of dental care, and instead encouraged to donate to local groups who distribute gifts fairly.
The Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism has condemned his alleged actions stating they were “deeply disrespectful” to the people of the San.
A spokesman said: “The allegations are a serious violation of our law regarding the protection of minors and it is unacceptable for tourists to exploit them.
“We applaud the Namibia police for their swift actions in attending to this matter and are confident that the law and justice will take place in due course”.
Brooks has been remanded in custody by Magistrate Abraham Abraham and is due to reappear in court on June 19.
It is not yet clear if he will be transferred to a main prison.
The San – or bushmen as they were known in colonial times and a description some find outdated – are the oldest surviving civilisations in Southern Africa.
Their small stature and semi-nomadic lifestyle saw them persecuted and hunted and forced into poverty when their traditional hunting grounds were taken.
Some 2000 of the 30,000 San in Namibia remain faithful to their traditional roots, hunting and farming for survival, and do not entertain the modern way of living.
The San are thought to have diverged from other nomadic hunting groups some 200,000 years ago and spread out across Southern Africa surviving in the wild.
They are known for their “click language” and supreme hunting and tracking skills and knowledge of nature and do not believe in possessions but sharing.
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