Dithubaruba: Will Kgosi Sechele I be proud?
Thalefang Charles | Friday September 5, 2014 14:42
It is a shame that the great-grandchildren of Kgosi Sechele I know more about Adolf Hitler, Shaka Zulu, and the Queen of England than they know about this ‘Greatest Motswana’ whom many historians have dubbed ‘Grandfather of the Nation’. Our education system teaches us more about heroes and heroines of other nations than our own.
Tomorrow Bakwena will gather at Ntsweng, next to the graves of Sechele and his children to dance phathisi, setapa, sing folk songs, and recite poetry over traditional food and beer to celebrate their cultural heritage during the Dithubaruba Festival.
But would Sechele be proud? To try to answer this question I went on my own Kgosi Sechele I Trail.
Even though there is no such thing as the Kgosi Sechele I Trail. No one remembered to honour him with such.
I started from where he received Christ as the saviour at Kolobeng. After being the first and only high profile convert by Dr David Livingstone, Sechele agreed with the evangelist against morafe’s wishes to quit believing in his rainmaking powers and find a place with a perennial water source so that he could start irrigation. So he moved from Tshonwane to Kolobeng.
Kolobeng is where Livingstone built his first Christian church, first modern school and a clinic. He lived there alongside Bakwena, teaching Sechele to read and write. Today Kolobeng is a crime-infested area that has even forced the police to erect a crime noticeboard warning visitors about the dangers of the place.
Despite Kolobeng being a shrine of Christianity in Botswana since it is here that the first seeds of Christian belief in this country were first sown, evil men still trade their evils deeds at this once holy site. It was at Kolobeng where Sechele traded with white explorers and bought military hardware that later defended Batswana. But today you cannot even buy a souvenir T-shirt at Kolobeng.
This humble monument has been left to a community trust that seems clueless of how to run a major potential tourist site such as Kolobeng. Everywhere in the world Livingstone’s footprints are big business. I know this for sure because I am an avid follower of Livingstone.
From Kuruman, South Africa to Livingstone, Zambia and to the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Ujiji in Tanzania, where Livingstone was famously lost and found by H.M Stanley, to Bagamoyo on the Indian Ocean to where he protested against the horrors of slavery in Stone Town Zanzibar, David Livingstone sites attract thousands of visitors. But here in Botswana, the Livingstone memorial is a dangerous place.
I have read countless disappointed bloggers that visited Kolobeng who thought this one and only place where he built a church would be such an amazing site. The place that Sechele worshipped in is in a bad state. Kgosi Sechele would not be proud.
I then travelled to Dimawe Hills where he fought the battle that earned him major reverence among the Boers in 1852. Historians agree that this is the battle that birthed Botswana.
The numbers of causalities from this battle show that Sechele lost more men than the Boers, but the war is never about the numbers. It is about ego and stamina, the last man standing. Ask the Americans about Vietnam.
Do not be deceived by his staunch Christian beliefs, Sechele was a shrewd military strategist that saved Batswana tribes against Boer invasion. He covertly acquired guns and the Boers hated it. They tried to disarm him but Sechele was not chicken.
When the Boers arrived in pursuit of fleeing Bakgatla’s Kgosi Mosielele who sought refuge from Mokwena, Sechele told the Boers, “I shall not deliver up Mosielele for he has become my child, he is of my blood and has been swallowed; to remove him you must first rip open my belly and allow my bowels to drop out.” It was a declaration of war.
Fortunately it was a Sunday so it was agreed by both sparring parties that the fight would commence on Monday. As agreed, the shooting began on Monday August 30, 1852.
Sechele hid his senior wife, MmaSebele in a cave at present day Manyana and remained with the other wife, Selemela who helped to load the gun as Sechele personally shot at the Boers. Sechele was a widely documented great marksman; the praise singers called him “Rramokonopi”.
I arrived at Dimawe Hills in the morning of August 30, 2014, exactly 162 years since Sechele put his life and nation on the line to defend his territory against the Boers. But there was nothing showing that I had arrived at this historical site that made this beautiful country of ours.
My guide Justice Kiki said Dimawe has not been open to the public as yet. No one is taking the initiative to try to tell this heroic story of how a humble Motswana Kgosi successfully stood up against the white power and successfully stopped the Great Trek.
No one comes to this place on August 30, to commemorate Sechele’s victory. Sechele would not be proud.
Where is the cannon that he and his junior but enterprising wife Selemela used to defend Dimawe? Kawina Power Kawina of Kgosi Sechele I Museum in Molepolole says the only artifact that belongs to Sechele that is available is that cannon. But it is sitting in a museum in Mafikeng, South Africa. How could Sechele be proud of his cannon being displayed in another country?
I travelled to Dithejwane Hills at Dithubaruba.
As I passed through the cactus plants that have grown on the foothills of this arid land I wondered why this defiant tree that blooms in harsh desert conditions could not be declared a national tree because of its contribution in the Batswana-Boer war. It is this cactus that took bullets for Bakwena when the Boers experienced an optical illusion mistaking them for an army. Sechele must be proud of this tree.
Dithubaruba is where Batswana merafe who were seeking freedom from the Boers grouped under the refuge of Sechele. This was after Sechele successfully stood up against the Boers at the Battle of Dimawe. Stonewalls that are found at the Dithejwane Hills form the foundation of Botswana.
This is where Sechele brokered peace between various warring Tswana groups. But Dithubaruba is disappointingly never mentioned when Batswana celebrate their heritage.
David Magang noted this shameful omission in his autobiography, The Magic Of Perseverance, “Unfortunately his epitaph would hardly inspire repeated visits by his [Sechele] own people, thereby reducing him to a mere footnote in the annals of the country: whilst the names of his peers saw immortalisation of euphoric proportions, Sechele’s perished, as if he was a mere also run-ran unworthy of historic esteem. Seriously speaking, Batswana have never been guilty of a greater disservice.”
Food for thought to all the revelers of Dithubaruba Cultural Festival, will Sechele be proud?