A head teacher who became an MP

Sonny Serite | Monday February 29, 2016 17:02

 

I am ushered into the living room and after a few minutes of waiting, an elderly man walks in from the bedroom, with the aid of a knobkerrie. I rise from the chair and extend my hand for greetings. I proceed to introduce myself and to my disbelief, the old man responds with, “monna Sonny you are now grown up and even working? I last saw you when you were just a toddler.”

While I had expected Obed Itani Chilume to immediately recognise my surname given the fact my parents once worked and lived at his place in Tutume back in the early 80’s, I never imagined he would still remember me. I must have been about two or three years the last time he saw me.  Chilume is one of the only four surviving members of the inaugural Botswana Parliament which was put together in 1965.

Born on August 8,  1933 in Nswazi,  Chilume  did his Standard One and Two before fleeing Botswana to Rhodesia with his parents who were running away from Kgosi Tshekedi Khama’s reign of terror on the Bakalaka tribe. “That man terrorised Bakalaka. He would just confiscate our cattle and goats just for the hack of it”, Chilume says with a serious face. Like all his contemporaries, Chilume went through the then normal boy child upbringing of herding cattle barefoot. He liked writing down letters of the alphabet on the ground using his finger until one day his father asked, “Son do you want to go to school?” He answered in the affirmative and his father gave the green light.

At 83 years of age, his memory has taken a serious beating so much he cannot put dates to some of the events in his life. In fact, he had to call in his wife when I asked when  they tied the knot.

Chilume also has poor sight and tells me that while he still feels fit to drive,  he never attempts to  drive  because the Department of Transport and Safety has since declared him unfit to drive after he failed his eye test when he tried to renew his driver’s license.

He cannot remember how long they stayed in Rhodesia but recalls that after all those years in asylum, he came back to continue with his studies in Francistown where he did Standard Three up to Six. He would thereafter go to Kanye for a teacher training course. After completion of his teaching course in 1957, he went to teach in Maun where he met his first wife with whom he had six children.

Unfortunately death has since claimed three of them. As fate would have it, God blessed him with three other children in his 44 year-long second and still-running marriage. Chilume pursued his junior certificate and secondary (Form Five) qualification through correspondence while still a  teacher.

Chilume  started active politics in 1962 while he was still a head teacher at Matobo. He was only 33 years of age when he registered among the first Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) members. “Actually when I stood for elections in 1965 I was still a head teacher”, he reveals. Chilume won the Nkange constituency under the BDP banner thus becoming the first MP for the constituency and one of the first batch of members of Parliament in Botswana.

“When we started our country was very poor. Tarred roads were only found in Lobatse. We campaigned on foot and donkeys. The privileged used bicycles”, he recalls. I ask him about his views on Parliament during their time and parliament now and he sits upright in his seat perhaps to show how burning the issue is for him. “We had three  opposition members from the Botswana People’s Party (BPP) and guess what, we respected them and embraced their different opinions because in a democracy, we always expected different views from other people”. He says unlike today’s Parliament, theirs was filled with debates and not disrespectful arguments. Chilume says during their time, people went to Parliament purely for the love and service of the country and not monetary gratification.

“President Sir Seretse Khama had made it clear to us that we were there to sacrifice and build this country”, Chilume says with a somewhat sense of pride. When Sir Ketumile Masire became president, he appointed Chilume assistant minister of finance.

Unbeknown to many, Chilume was the man behind the establishment of sub-districts and through his initiative together with the then district commissioner, Tutume became the first sub-district in the country. “It saddens me that while Tutume became the first sub-district in the country, it remains one of the least developed in the country”, he says with a dejected face. Chilume is also sad that while they are the architects of this country, they receive no help or recognition from government. He says at the time they left Parliament, there was no gratuity for MPs and this has relegated some of them into a life of pauperism.

“Luckily for me, I had a vision while I was MP and built myself this nice house which now needs renovations here and there”, he displays a face of achievement. He however remains grateful to former President Masire who in 1992 bestowed on him the Presidential Order of Meritorious Service to this country.

A staunch member of the UCCSA, Chilume now spends most his time at home after serving as area MP from 1965 until 2004. He is a subsistence and commercial farmer and a business man with a shopping complex that houses big tenants such as Choppies supermarket in Tutume. He used to run a public transport business, Itachi Bus Services, several years ago.

How does he relax, I enquire. “I read newspapers and watch BTV to inform myself about what is happening in the country”, he says

Chilume is a member of the Tutume sub-district forum which is mainly made up of former politicians and retired civil servants in the constituency. Its main purpose is to advocate and offer ideas on how the Tutume sub-district can be best developed. As we wrap up the interview, his son, Ntoo arrives and asks if his father did not say anything controversial that may get him into trouble. His old timer ignores him and asks if we are using a ‘BX’ car and we all burst into laughter before explaining to him that we are from a private newspaper and not the Daily News. He removes his wallet and gives me and my partner P20 each to buy soft drinks for ‘mofago’. “You must buy at Choppies”, he implores us.

Interviewing this octogenarian was such bliss. He is witty and speaks his mind. We pass by Choppies, buy soft drinks then leave Tutume and proceed to Gulubane where I am going to interview yet another political veteran from the 1965 Parliament, Kenneth Nkhwa of the Botswana Peoples Party.