A Batswana ba a timana (Are Batswana miserly)?
Keletso Thobega | Tuesday June 24, 2014 17:45
A point in case is his recent column in the Sunday Times titled ‘Ubuntu is complicated across the colour bar’. In the article Ngcobo as good as agreed with the stereotype that Batswana are miserly (ba ngame). He gave an example with a friend’s Motswana wife who apparently counts chicken drumsticks in a pack and cooks enough food for her and her husband only. Ngcobo’s wife, who is apparently half Motswana, has always been, it seems, at pains to point out to her Zulu husband that it’s not all Batswana but specifically Bakgatla, who are misers. I suspect Ngocobo’s wife has never interacted with Bangwaketse and Bakalanga!
Most of the other points he made are partly true, especially when he noted that whites are different from blacks when it comes to small acts of politeness like offering guests food. My godparents are white Americans. When I lived with them several years ago I observed that while friends could pop by any time, they were rarely offered meals as is the norm at our home in a predominantly indigenous black township, where it’s acceptable for people to not only rock up unannounced but they must be served something to eat. At my godparents’ if ever the guests’ visit extended into dinnertime we would sit with growling tummies until they left! Although this is not standard practice among all white people, as someone with a multi-racial background, I have observed that we are all a bit different when it comes to gestures of botho (humility) and so forth.
I’m reminded of an acquaintance who has shared how he once visited a childhood friend without an appointment. The two sat together watching a football game. The guy kept ducking off to the kitchen only to return with cheeks bulging, wiping his mouth. When he went for the third time, the visitor followed him to ask for a glass of water. He found the man of the house huddled over the stove, tearing off pieces of meat from a pot and shoving them into his mouth. The visitor loudly cleared his throat. The frightened man turned around with embarrassment and because he was caught off-guard, choked on the meat! I don’t blame him. The economic downturn has turned most people miserly no matter how generous one would want to be.
I took interest in Ngocobo’s article because although I consider myself thrifty I’m often accused of being a miser. I recall an incident that occurred at a former employer company some years ago. On one occasion I was famished and so strolled to a nearby kiosk and returned with snacks which I ate ferociously. One colleague kept casting angry glances at me. When I had almost finished he stormed towards me sweating profusely, his nostrils flared as if they would emit smoke. His lips quivered as he thrust his head into my face and seethed: Ngwanyana ke wena o legotswana. Fa o bona o ntse mokgaraga jaana, ke go timana! I was stunned. I gave him my infamous blank stare and flatly ignored him. Perhaps I was supposed to feel guilty but didn’t. Why didn’t he buy his own snacks?!
Some Batswana are greedy, with a sense of entitlement. Do you remember the uproar over performer Vee’s private wedding a few weeks ago? Some people were “crying” so much you would think they were funding the whole shebang.
Our people are also ungrateful. If you offer a Motswana a cup of sugar for example, the person will come back next time and ask again, this time carrying a large Tupperware container. If you turn them down, they begin to despise you. I never hesitate to assist someone in genuine need not random entities who want to sponge off others. Sometimes you spoil people and the next thing they are building a mansion or driving a top-of-the-range sedan while you are kicking pots in a one room, driving a beaten up car or being among the masses squashed like sardines in a can, in a combi. If my stance makes me a despicable miser, let it be. In that case, I am not a Mohurutshe. In keeping with Ngcobo’s wife’s argument, maybe I am a Mokgatla too!