Bluetown’s Plot 7440 hailed as safe haven
Spira Tlhankane | Sunday March 17, 2024 21:06
The White House in Francistown of the Kaoyaos, is said to have provided refuge to all four Namibian Presidents including Geingob at various times.
Mary Kaoyao of Namibian origin, accommodated former presidents including Dr Sam Nujoma.
As people paid their tribute to Geingob in Botswana this week, Plot 7440 kept popping up because his life was a journey of servitude, which took him to Francistown in the quest for liberation for his country and his people. Geingob is said to have left Namibia at the end of 1962 to join the liberation struggle where he came to Botswana and ended up living in Bluetown at the White House alongside other Namibians.
At Plot 7440 the hosts facilitated the liberation fighters’ settling into Francistown so in the end they found it much easier as refugees crossed the border to Botswana. President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who was hosting the memorial, said Geingob sketched a roadmap that stretched from his birthplace of Grootfontein, with Kalkfontein being the last turn off before stopovers in Gantsi, Sehitwa and Maun all the way to a White House in Francistown, now Plot 7440. “There he joined his fellow South West Africa People’s Organisation or SWAPO comrades in the inevitable pipeline into exile,” he said.
Masisi added that given the geopolitics of the region, Botswana’s pipeline to exile became a natural choice for Geingob and others in the struggle for self-determination. “Freely given to hospitality, families in Botswana provided a warm welcome and upkeep to the many who were forced into exile to escape oppression and persecution from white minority settler regimes,” he said. Masisi underscored the fact that Botswana and ordinary Batswana in particular, took it upon themselves to shoulder the onerous responsibility to safely care for these leaders and commanders.
He said Geingob and others were in a quest for freedom, equal justice, equity, social upliftment and empowerment of the majority black citizens of their respective countries. Masisi said this was much weightier than the sum of all the predicament Batswana had to contend with on a daily basis therefore Plot 7440 became a safe haven. “So much depended on the safe passage that Botswana kept open. It is no surprise that all the Namibian former Presidents, including you my brother, President Mbumba, found refuge, safety and passage in and through Botswana in pursuit of your liberation. The White House in Francistown, now Plot 7440 of the Kaoyaos, provided refuge to countless other freedom fighters of all liberation movements in Southern Africa. Those from then South West Africa were by far in the majority,” he indicated.
Masisi said as a result, being hospitable therefore, is deeply rooted in Botswana’s culture and traditions. “To a very large extent Botho is ingrained in every fibre of our social identities and relations. Owing to the culture of Botho and the ethic of care for humanity and freedom, Dr Geingob settled in Francistown. We are humbled that such an enduring legacy of sustained democratic ideals and a climate of peace, gave the necessary assurance to our neighbours who fled atrocities from the East, West, North and South, to finally settle in Botswana or opted to use Botswana as a reliable conduit to Lusaka, Arusha and Dar es Salaam,” he said. Masisi indicated that Geingob was among those that came to Botswana through the same channel, before the onward journey took them to distant lands to intensify their campaign for material and other forms of support necessary to aid their justified and noble cause.