Boys and their multi-tasking socialization

Victoria Seiketso Sethibe | Thursday February 16, 2017 16:55

*Modisaotsile is a 27-year-old young businessman managing three of his own. He is also a newly-wed husband to Bontle* and a father to their two-year-old daughter Maru*. Modisaotsile* was brought up by some traditional Setswana parents in his home village, together with his older sister Osadi*. While Osadi* was groomed to manage her time to accommodate the demands of her school work, as well as her daily kitchen house chores, Modisaotsile* was groomed to multi-task in a different way. He would come home after school and briefly cut firewood for Osadi* and their mother for supper, milk the cattle and herd them back into the kraal in the evening. He would then check stock of his herds before doing homework and finally retiring to bed. Early in the morning, Modisaotsile* would prepare fire for his mother to prepare breakfast for him and his sister before they left for school.

From his upbringing, Modisaotsile* learned to multi-task sequentially, whereby he would complete one task first before moving to the next one. Osadi* on the other hand, would be cooking and tidying up the kitchen at the same time. From that, she learned concurrent multi-tasking.

During the weekends, Modisaotsile* would join his father to slaughter some of their livestock at the cattle post and take the larger part of the meat and firewood to the markets place for sale after reserving some for the rest of the family at home. Sometimes Modisaotsile* and his father would hunt wild animals for their family while herding livestock. His childhood experiences put much emphasis on grooming him for the future role of a family man who provides for his family materially.

Many years later, Modisaotsile* is actively involved in managing several businesses he owns. He makes sure his businesses run efficiently by spending an entire week working in one company before moving to the next one, in addition to using some online management systems. His top priority is to ensure that his family’s material needs are well met. He is a typical traditional Setswana man.

Modisaotsile* is also an emotionally balanced young man, thanks to the mentorship he got from his grandparents. Some of the young boys Modisaotsile* grew up with were not fortunate enough to get some home schooled social skills like him.

When he was about 23-years-old, quite a sizeable number of Modisaotsile’s* age mates went through a stressful phase of “passion killings” and suicidal thoughts after being financially drained by some opportunistic urban girls, only to be later dumped without mercy. One typical example of such victims was Ronnie* who nearly committed suicide after his ex-girlfriend Matlhomola* called off their wedding, once Ronnie* had built a nice four bedroomed house in her name, thinking that they were going to spend the rest of their lives together. What made Ronnie* even more angry was the fact that Matlhomola* had just moved into the house Ronnie* had worked so hard for, with another man. Fortunately, Ronnie* underwent some very effective therapy and narrowly escaped a suicidal attempt. Modisaotsile* and Ronnie* represent some typical traditional Setswana boys who were groomed to engage in multiple tasks that are primarily based on raising funds to provide for their families.

*Not their real names