The Journey Of Botswana According To QKJ
Correspondent | Monday July 4, 2016 16:25
What has set us apart from others? One could here speak of good governance in the context of leadership, policies and institutions, the African image, the history of political parties or the history of our economic development. But I suppose that is reserved for our discussion time.
But on further reflection, I thought I might rather try to dig a bit deeper by focusing on some of the longstanding, shared qualities that have defined who we are as a nation. Certainly one of our strengths as a nation has been our ability of the last five decades to uphold our unity in diversity through our practices of consultation and consensus building buttressed by tolerance and mutual respect.
Other social values that have propelled our progress would include our prudence and, at least in the past, collective commitment to self-reliance. As a nation we can take collective pride in the fact that we have made remarkable progress since independence, though many challenges admittedly remain.
Back in 1966 our total budget was just under US$3 million (R 10 million). In the current financial year it is about US$ 5 billion (P 56 billion). In 1966 we were listed among the 10 poorest countries in the world with an annual per capita income of less than R80! We are now listed among the world upper middle income countries with a per capita income of just over USD 18,000 (PPP) Our exports have grown from about US$2 million to over US$ 6.5 billion, domestic employment has risen to about a half million, up from less than 14,000 at independence. Of course the development of a country is about much more than monetary figures.
Any nation’s development must ultimately be measured in the livelihood of its people. Since 1966 education and health have consistently been our two largest recipients of public expenditure, together accounting for nearly half of our total public expenditure.
Today over 95% of our population lives within 15 kilometres of a public health facility. Despite the setback caused by HIV/AID our life expectancy have risen along with most of our other health and well being measures, where we have largely achieved our millennium development goals. In terms of education we have been transformed from a largely illiterate to literate nation. Whereas no more than a few dozen Batswana had been exposed to any form of post-secondary education by 1966, over 30,000 students are currently enrolled in tertiary education programmes, mostly with Government sponsorship.
Although many challenges still lie ahead, our accomplishments as a nation are by any measure commendable. In more recent years there have also been a multitude of international surveys that recognise our country not only as a leader on this continent, but indeed in the wider global community. This is especially true in such areas of economic freedom, good governance, and the rule of law. Contrary to what some may wish to believe, these accolades have come from independent institutions and organisations - that is to say observers that have no special stake in making us feel good about ourselves.
This brings me back to the role of values, for I believe that the democracy and good governance we enjoy today has to a great extent been grounded in our own social norms, rather than foreign ideology.
In this context while the 81 years of British overrule that ended in 1966 was an important, indeed transformative, episode in our history, it was clearly not the beginning of our story. Archaeologists have shown that for at least two millennia the territory of Botswana, along with the rest of Southern Africa, has been a place of continuous settlement and interaction among people of various cultures and economic livelihoods. Such findings confirm the fact that our contemporary communities are the heirs of an ancient indigenous cultural cluster, which has given rise to its own enduring values.
Over the centuries what we now know as Botswana has been, as it remains, the home of people of different languages and ethnic traditions living, more often than not, in harmony with each other and the land they share. Lest my words appear overly romantic let me acknowledge that, as with virtually any part of the world, the social-orders that have evolved in Botswana were not without inequality, exploitation and, on occasion, even violent conflict. But, the best evidence is that such conflict among local communities was of a relatively modest scale. The mid-19th century was characterised in Botswana, as elsewhere in the region as a period of turbulence. Yet even during this epoch the general pattern was for various local communities to join together in the face of external threats, e.g. the Amandebele and Boers. The ideal, and challenges, of realising unity in diversity is not new to us. It has been an aspect of our pre- as well as post-colonial sovereignty. Modern Botswana’s 50th anniversary is thus an opportunity for us to once more take stock of our diverse identity by asking ourselves who we are and wish to be as a collective? We have certainly come a long way since 1966. But this is relevant to the extent that it may guide us towards further progress.
A Ugandan commentator Kintu Nyago once praised our first President, Seretse Khama, as “a person with a remarkable sense of political morality and a vision for his people” who, nonetheless, “believed in evolutionary rather than revolutionary methods.”
For my own part, I believe Khama’s vision was born of and remains a reflection of our broader national character.
In this dynamic era of globalisation, driven as it is by rapid technological transformation, no society nor social aspect can be isolated from change. An evolutionary state must therefore have the capacity to respond to the shifting needs and legitimate expectations of its own citizens. Around the world globalisation has not led to anything like a homogenisation of outlook. For the foreseeable future we shall continue to live in a multi-cultural world. As elsewhere, Botswana will continue to progress within a framework of its own evolving values and perspectives.
*Sir Ketumile was speaking at BIUST, Palapye, speech edited for length