�Africans Taught To Despise Themselves�
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Monday December 19, 2016 15:16
Speaking at the BOSETU cultural night on Friday, Hlabano applauded the union for choosing the theme that focused on children. He noted that the theme, ‘Children: Fruit of our youth, beauty of our nation’, placed children and the youth on a higher pedestal. He said that it was important for the children and the youth to be grounded in their culture as their true identity as a nation finds expression in their culture.
“We need to clearly understand what we mean by Tswana or better still, African culture. An elementary meaning of culture is that it is a way of life. A detailed definition of culture include six basic elements namely; language, symbols, norms, values, beliefs and cognitive elements. I wish to argue that the most critical aspect of culture is beliefs or religion as it speaks to our spiritual being, mind, body and spirit,” he said.
Hlabano said it was high time people asked themselves questions that relate to what they were really celebrating. He said they must ask themselves if they were celebrating a culture that exists or they are merely being regretful or sentimental about a culture that existed at a particular time in history.
He argued that African culture died a long time ago saying that what had remained were leftovers of an ancient culture. He emphasised that there was overwhelming evidence that African culture was demonised and replaced with western civilisation.
“To the unsuspecting Africans, missionaries brought the word of God to save them from burning in eternal hell. In the contrary, missionaries had a clear mandate from those who sent them. King Leopold II of Belgium 1883. ‘Your principal objective in our mission in the Congo is never to teach the niggers to know God, this they already know. Your essential role is to facilitate the task of administrators and industries which means you will go to interpret the gospel in a way it will be best to protect your interests in that part of the world’,” he said.
Hlabano pointed out that a solution to Africa’s problem lies within them as the black race. He added that Africans needed to embrace the concept of African Renaissance as first defined by Cheikh Auta Diop and subsequently popularised by the former South African President Thabo Mbeki beginning with his celebrated speech entitled, ‘I am African’.
“Unfortunately we continue to decimate our culture in all aspects of our life to the glory of the western world. Our lives are now tied to the way of life of the developed world. A very unsettling dependency state has been unleashed. We look up to the West for everything. They tell us how to behave at a table, they tell us what is right and what is wrong with our cultural practices and we are quick to correct lest we are labeled uncivilised and backward,” charged up Hlabano said.
“They tell us which farm animals to keep hence lately the Tswana cattle breed is steadily disappearing. They tell us to use hybrid seeds to plough and we abandoned our time tested traditional grains.
They tell us that circumcision is barbaric and we abruptly stop as ordered. But then they come back and say it’s good to circumcise and we resume with renewed vigor,” he stated.
For his part, BOSETU vice president, Mogomotsi Motshegwa said they have selected that day to celebrate culture annually. He said they have decided to celebrate culture towards the end of each year.
“Our culture is defined by different elements such as the spirit of giving, language, clothing, behaviour, beliefs, spirit of botho and others. Our culture is our mirror. It defines us as a nation. It reflects our roots,” he said.
Motshegwa also explained that the union had a culture that was to discuss and solve matters that affected teachers. However, he pointed out that they also had students and pupil’s best interest at heart. He described children as the future and beauty of the country.
Amongst dignitaries that embraced the event were Francistown West MP, Ignatius Moswaane and former BOSETU president Eric Ditau.