The other day I picked up the new 2009 Getaway Guide Book to Botswana and was intrigued to find Gaborone described as,'one of the most healthy, pleasant of low rise cities you'll ever visit. It's like the perfect capital of a near perfect land ö and it's for real.' Wow. Take that for a never previously heard opinion! And why not? It's about time that someone started to sing its praises because it cannot all be bad. Or can it? What do Gaborone residents feel? But its the second Getaway comment on Gaborone that really worries me. Here goes. 'it hardly existed 40 years ago. Until 1966 it was the village of Chief Gaborone of the Batlokwa people'. Not least because people, 43 years after Independence, still make this kind of statement, I am slowly attempting to get it's history straightened out and producing a book. Incredibly there still isn't such a history. And that is bad. Even Maseru came up with one as long ago as 1993. But Lesotho had David Ambrose. That said, it may well be that someone else is beavering away at the same objective. If so, that's great. We then get a variety of approach. But it would be encouraging if, somewhere around, there might be a bit of official interest, financial or otherwise. Yes, cash does matter. But more immediately to the point, however, is the need to tap into memory and to garner photos. What do you know of previously unpublished or archival information about Gaborone in the period between, say, 1890 and 1970 which you think might be of interest or importance? What old photos do you possess which you think might be of relevance? The history of this country is tricky, not least because so much is the opposite of what is the norm elsewhere. It is also poorly understood, and almost everything about it concerns land. Historically, Gaborone is the pivot of that land issue and its development today is rigidly determined by what was decided yesterday. It seems therefore, to be merely commonsense to start understanding what was decided. And what then happened. Oh yes, 'prior to 1966 'Gaberones' was the village of Chief Gaborone'. Hm! So we need to get our act in order. Help please.
Change of subject. The President had a terrific idea when he encouraged government departments and parastatals to buy the work of local artists. But what has been the outcome? Mmegi reports that Thapong records show that through its agency, those two have so far spent P400,000, with the BDF being the top buyer at P100,000 for 15 paintings and four sculptures. I have no idea about current Southern African market art values, but can safely assume that the value must depend on professional reputation.
Here, it looks like a free for all, with everyone with any initiative becoming an over night artist and painting large scale (up goes the price) sentimental studies of a decorated rondavel, clay pots and discarded dikika. This is indeed, the time to make a move. The encouraged buyer, entranced by an idealised depiction of a cultural past, which he/she has long discarded, and probably without the faintest notion of quality, happily signs the huge cheque and obtains a large scale painting, which no professional art gallery in Johannesburg would even bother to stock, let alone try and sell. My suggestion therefore, is that the government should make known the details of all the purchases that have been made. That way, competent assessors would be able to make some sort of judgment about the effect of the President's remarkable initiative. Has its effect been to push quantity forward, or quality? Who, of the country's major artists, has deservedly gained and who lost? And who, without any pretensions to quality, has made a wholly undeserved killing? A better controlled system would be a gain for both the quality artist and the buyer.
leitlho_grant@it.bw
