The celebration of Independence in Gaborone
Sandy Grant | Wednesday February 4, 2015 10:43
Swaneng, at the latter, had a battery of volunteer teachers – surely some of them must have taken photos? But now Brian Anderson, formerly an Inspector in the Botswana Police, has started to send me some of the very important photos from his collection, which were taken in the years immediately before and after Independence.
Unfortunately they are all very low resolution because he does not possess a decent scanner – might the government regard it as an excellent investment to give him one? - and sometimes without adequate description. This particular photo, for instance, is a teaser. It shows the Chief Justice and his wife arriving at what is obviously the National Stadium – there being nowhere else at the time which looked even remotely similar. They are being escorted to their seats by Dingaan Mokaila – at a guess, the Chief of Protocol at the time - whilst Col. Bailey, Officer Commanding the Police, medalled and beribboned, stands statuesquely by the government vehicles. In the crowd at the left can be seen – depending on the quality of reproduction – David Finlay, the President’s personal private secretary, although the exact title of that post would need to be better pinned down.
The problem with the photo, however, is that there is enough shadow to indicate that it must have been taken in the first part of the morning so that it could not possibly have been taken during the flag raising ceremony which culminated at midnight on the evening of the 30th. The presumption has to be that there was another occasion during the four-day Independence ceremony which brought everyone to the National Stadium. A quick check with the programme suggest that there is only one possible candidate – the combined church service which was held at the National Stadium on the 2nd October, starting at 0930.