There were also the Bakgalagadi and the Batswapong and Babirwa, whose languages are to a great extent mutually intelligible with Setswana. All that these tribes (merafe) had one thing in common: they wanted to be recognised as tribal groupings with distinct histories, cultures and customs. A recurring strand of argument was, and continues to be that the tribes should not remain subjugated by other so-called main eight [read Setswana speaking] tribes. Setswana tribes. At the time the Bahurutshe also known as Bakhurutshe [For those South and North of the country respectively] and the Bakgatla ba ga Mmanaana did not quite make their voice as loud as those of the Bayeyi who trumpeted through their Kamakao Association, or the Bakalanga whose Society for the Promotion of Ikalanga (SPIL) fearlessly articulated the mind of this huge tribe or even the Batswapong through their Lentswe la Batswapong. When the tribal coalition RETENG [for WE EXIST], made up of and representing all the marginalised merafe campaigned for these merafe to be liberated from the 'major eight', the Bahurutshe and Bakgatla were not very loud. That could be because the journalists simply did not give them coverage or that they simply did not holler loud enough. At the time, the two merafe had elderly chiefs who have since handed the baton to their sons or passed on. Like most of their generation, the new chiefs are well-read. And as most educated folks, they will not allow their teeth to "set on edge because their fathers ate sour grapes". These young leaders may just prove to be a headache for whoever is unlucky to be local government minister - currently Lebonaamang Mokalake. Now the popular RETENG refrain: 'If you want to get rid of a tribe, deny them of their identity, take away their land and kill their leaders' can be heard. Blowing the lead trumpet is fearless Oscar Mosielele of the Bakgatla ba ga Mmanaana. "As a Kgosi I am the custodian of my people's culture, customs and practices. I may, for example, want to call dikgafela (a practice where the King calls his people to bring harvest to the King as both a way of saving for the future and also as thanksgiving to God), or to instruct letsema (where he officially announces the ploughing season), but it is a challenge if everytime I do that I have to consult another Kgosi to seek his permission. He does not understand my people's ways and can easily say he will not allow such a thing to happen in his country," says Mosielele. The 'another Kgosi' that he is referring to is Kgosi Malope Gaseitsewe of Bangwaketse. Mosielele believes that the current arrangement where he has to report to the Bangwaketse King is erroneous and makes it appear like Bangwaketse are superior.
"The thing is that Kgosi Malope is Kgosi of his morafe. I am a Kgosi over my people. I am not representing him as a kgosana as he is not my people's leader. I believe government needs to appreciate that as dikgosi we are peers. None is senior to the other. Thus the current arrangement is fallacious," he says. Government, he says, needs to appreciate the circumstances under which his people became Bangwaketse subjects. "It is a bitter part of our existence as Bakgatla ba ga Mmanaana. We would like to close that ugly chapter in our history and hope that all stakeholders - Kgosi Malope and government, will have an appreciation of what we are saying and deal with the matter in as sensitive a manner as is possible." The 'bitter' part relates to the treatment of Bakgatla by Bangwaketse. A case in point is the well-documented conflict between Kgosi Gobuamang of Bakgatla and Kgosi Bathoeng II of Bangwaketse in the 1930s. Bathoeng, it is said, believed that the older Gobuamang was stubborn, so he set out to "deal with him".
