Dekar

Dekar (also spelled D'Kar) is a Naro San village in the Ghanzi District of western Botswana, about 40 km east of Ghanzi town. The land was originally a farm belonging to the Dutch Reformed (Gereformeerde) Church, later donated to the local Naro San community; the village that grew up on it is still governed through San leaders working with the church trust. The population was 943 at the 2001 census, and residents are engaged in a mix of subsistence farming, livestock, and craft production. Dekar has a school, a clinic, and mostly gravel streets; a tarred road passes about 1 km from the village. Dekar is best known as the home of the Kuru Family of Organisations and the Kuru Art Project, a San artists' cooperative founded in 1990 that gives Naro and G/ui San artists a platform for painting, linocuts, dry-point engraving, and lithography — their work has been shown in more than a dozen countries and has appeared on Botswana postage stamps and British Airways tailfins.

By Plane

Ghanzi Airport is the nearest, about 40 km west of the village.

By Car / Road

Dekar is about 40 km east of Ghanzi via mostly gravel roads, meeting a tarred road roughly 1 km from the village centre. A 4x4 is not strictly necessary in dry season but is advisable after rain.

Walkable within the village; a vehicle is needed to travel between Dekar and Ghanzi or the surrounding game farms.

• Kuru Art Project studio and gallery — a working San artists' cooperative; visitors can view and buy paintings, linocuts, and lithographs by Naro and G/ui San artists.

• Village and Kalahari farmland — gravel streets and acacia woodland typical of Ghanzi District's San farming communities.

• Visit the Kuru Art Project workshop to see San artists at work and learn about the cooperative's history.

• Dqae Qare San Lodge and Game Reserve, roughly 15–24 km toward Ghanzi, is a 7,500-hectare reserve owned and run by the Ncoakhoe San of Dekar — the only game farm in Botswana legally owned by San people. It offers bushwalks, traditional fire-making and craft demonstrations, storytelling, and self-guided game drives for giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, kudu, and eland.

No hotels in the village itself. Dqae Qare San Lodge, 15–24 km toward Ghanzi, offers en-suite rooms in a converted farmhouse, rustic Bushman-style huts, and a campsite with fire pits. Otherwise, stay in Ghanzi.

The Kuru Art Project shop sells original San paintings, prints, and crafts, with proceeds supporting Kalahari San artists and their families.

• Ghanzi — 40 km west, the district capital with more services and the nearest airport.
• Dqae Qare San Lodge and Game Reserve — 15–24 km toward Ghanzi.