Supa Ngwao Museum rich with Francistown history

KOPANO OLESITSE
Correspondent | Friday September 25, 2009 00:00

Close to the museum is the police canteen where my mother used to buy groceries during my formative years because it was cheaper.

Even though I visited the canteen at least once a month, I now realise that I somehow did not understand the importance of the area, which is rich in the history of my own city and culture. In short, visiting the Supa Ngwao Museum this week taught me the history of Francistown as a garden city.

Jubilee Hospital was the first hospital in the core of the city. Before 1971 health care services were provided at Jubilee Hospital in the central business district. But because of the congestions arising from rapid population growth, there was need to increase health services. So in 1989, the then 286-bed Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital was opened to serve everyone in northern Botswana.

The railway line to Zimbabwe, located some 200m from the museum, was originally constructed by the British South Africa Company (BSAC) at the rate of a-mile-a-day on September 1, 1897. The railway line was part of Cecil John Rhodes' dream of building a railway line from Cape Town South Africa (in the south) to Cairo, Egypt, in north Africa),  as it passed south of the Nyangabgwe Hill because it was the shortest route to Bulawayo in the former Southern Rhodesia. Nyangabgwe Hill is within walking distance from the museum. Before the advent of modern roads/streets, hills and rivers played a greater role as landmarks for orientation. However, making my way into the Museum recently also reminded me of the school vacations when we would go to the lands to work with piston and mortar, otherwise known as motshe le kika, to pound fresh sorghum/mabele from the fields. So seeing these items on display in the museum reminded me of my childhood days.

The place where the museum is built itself is part of the city's 40 abandoned mines within the city's planning area whose histories are scanty or unknown. This is because these abandoned mines are mainly on the western side of the railway line and extend all the way to the airport. Some of these abandoned mines are located right within the town, most notably within the Nyangabgwe Hospital grounds.

The museum is partitioned into three sections.  The first one is the crafts shop where you find all the talent of handcrafted items on display for sale. These include leather-made key-holders, a variety of woodcarvings, traditional jewellery known in our language as beads/dibaga and rattles/matlhowa.

If you have a passion for reading history, then books such as Historical Building In Botswana and Geomorphology in Botswana are yours for a fee.

However, my curiosity soon led me to the next section where I was greeted by the yoke/jokwe complete with motif for cattle to demonstrate how they were used during the ploughing seasons. In this section, one can also see the traditional bon-fire on display as well as traditional string chairs and hand-curved chairs/dipora.

The Director of the museum Stella Rundle said that one of their aims is to promote local people's artworks, paintings and many others.

'We display their work in this museum because that way they find the market for their works easily as tourists frequent this place. We also collect any information and objects rich in culture and history that can be displayed either in text or audio format,' Rundle said.

We then proceeded to the last section where I saw the most beautiful hand-made traditional baskets/ditlatlana.

'These were made from palm trees and they originate from the Ngamiland in the North-West District. They are so scarce, they are hard to find,' explained Rundle.

The baskets are made in various and shapes and sizes. Some shallow, others wide with different patterns. Even by taking a glance at the way the decorations are made, it is easy to notice that people from Ngamiland are gifted. With a passion for history and culture, seeing this work ignited within me the desire to visit Ngamiland and see more of these skills on display.

As we came to finish the tour of the museum I noticed that even though the place is rich in history, Rundle wanted to tell me something that she finds disturbing.

'I am concerned because even though international tourists frequent the museum, the locals rarely visit the area,' she said.

She further lamented that the museum lacks the support of local people.
'We need the support and involvement of local people such that they may recommend how best we can improve the museum. We also want the local people to bring forth any information or objects that tell of local culture and history.'

The Francistown Supa Ngwao Museum was registered in 1986, but started operating in 1992. The museum is registered as a public trust and managed by a board of trustees. The board is made up of four members of the community, the District Commissioner (DC) for Northeast, Francistown city clerk and the director.