Standing its ground
Bongi D D M Radipati | Monday September 26, 2022 09:14
But since 2008, this brief claim to movie-making (about a fearless woman sleuth) is no more – confirming that pop names are intrinsically ephemeral, although in their wake, we may be left with memorable performing artistry! What still remains though is that the top of this hill is the only place that offers a near perfect view of the Gaborone Dam, Mokolodi nature reserve, the A1 highway, the quarry and the city’s skyline. Amazingly, even on its ground, you also get one of the best flat views of the city as you enter it from the south on the dual carriage highway.
The name Kgale has an easy pronunciation with this country’s desert, Kgalagadi. Gaborone, the city and capital that it abounds on its southern fringe, is a gruff name made mellifluous by the constant reference of the city’s residents and visitors. It may be that the name Kgale - in English, the place that dried up - is an appropriate moniker for this hill – the entire country itself is a dry place anyhow! But whatever the season of the year or the hour of the day, on its hilltop the sun has virtual dominance as the city below the hill is both topographically and literally flat. At all times, and despite past and current human encroachment, Kgale Hill stands its ground at the edge of the city! In turn, it always renders it virtually impossible to regard the city as existing beyond the hill itself.
I do not know why Kgale Hill is the only hill that constitutes a part of the city. Perhaps it is because its presence in the city compensates for something that lacks in the city itself or in life in the city. In any case, some great cities of this world, such as Rome, have been called by the number of hills they have. Perhaps, if this city had not been called by its present name, it could have been called by this hill. It may also be that Kgale Hill has a structural and necessary purpose in the affairs of Gaborone, comparable to a river, the Notwane River, that flows through this city. Perhaps it was the reasoning then, that the only natural way (and thus, the best way) to see most of the proposed city, once it was built, would have to be above the hilltop of Kgale. This is an idea that would be a fortifying reason for promoting tourism, hiking and cultural projects in a place such as the city.
Kgale Hill is not only a place’s geography, nor is it only a metaphor for a city's bounded limits. It is also a representation of the connection between people and their surroundings. In a country mostly flat and prone to aspire to best its nearest equal, a hill in it inspires it to reckon with its landscape and the size of its ambitions. Seen clearly from the highway side, and with a commercial park and a huge mall beckoning you, perhaps even tempting you, this hill also reflects to the city’s visitors and back onto the city itself, this nations’ yearning for commerce and consumerism.
I do not know if there are any cultural or historical connotations to Kgale hill. But given how it grants a southern access to the city while it simultaneously buffets the city from the same side, I think that this hill is an essential landscape in this country. Anyhow, a hill draws a border - not only between a place and others – but also between its people and outsiders, between what is accepted and what is rejected, and between what is part of that place and what isn't. I would also like to imagine that perhaps with an unhurried reflection about it, as in other contexts, above this hill, one may encounter a deep and unrestricted sense of this country's size and dreams – of a small nation with big ambitions.
Every city is typically the mocking tribute that urban planning pays to our environment, and a victory over our natural habitat. To repudiate these, every city needs a natural phenomenon such as Kgale Hill where its residents, like every human being elsewhere, can satisfy their biological yearning for movement and for exploring their environment. And when you succeed in climbing to the top of any city’s hill (which you must do often), instinctively you will look around you and beyond the hilltop, and then realize that indeed both you and your city have come a long way.
Unless we do the unthinkable and blast it away, Kgale Hill will always stand its ground! Therein is some surety for its continued survival. But regrettably, we can still be disdainful toward it. For instance, we can take its presence in our midst for granted in the same way that we often regard the ground beneath our feet as worthless. Additionally, we can fail to accept that the hill's presence in the city requires all of us to see it as an embodiment of values beyond our personal interests. But whoever we are, we have a responsibility to behold and express gratitude for our physical world. And whatever we believe in, we have a responsibility to be genteel to our environment. Both of these responsibilities are by definition, conservative and conserving; indeed, they are the saving of treasures of nature, and thus the preservation of, among others, a hill.
Through Kgale Hill, both personal pleasure and national development may be experienced. Actually, the unique views from it are as meaningful as the ever-changing landscape of the city beneath it, and the salve of perspective above it, which only this hill can bestow upon those who climb it to the top. Ultimately, Kgale Hill is a hill confined to a particular place and existing in a particular environment.
Yet, in my view, if you allow it, for the rest of this country and on a day such as this, it can have sociological relevance, physiological necessity, touristic appeal, and aesthetic resonance. Happy Independence Day.
*Radipati is a Mmegi contributor