The Programme for the 10th Anniversary of Independence
Sandy Grant | Wednesday May 24, 2017 16:16
The programme of events for the five-day 10th anniversary celebrations makes for instructive reading and demonstrates how much could be achieved even when drawing on very limited resources. There were, of course, speeches by the four visiting Presidents of Zambia, the Gambia, the Congo and Tanzania and visits to the BMC in Lobatse. There were prayers by church leaders and a sermon, intriguingly by University of Botswana (UB) lecturer Dr Setiloane who was later deported for offences unknown. There was a contribution by the police, but neither the BDF nor Prisons featured.
For the venues, there was heavy reliance on the National Stadium and the Civic Centre – do we still have one? – on the National Library, the Moth Hall and the University College of Botswana. Outside Government, organisers of the various items were the Capital Players, the Lions, the YWCA the Botswana Council of Women, the Mine Labour Organisation, the Scouts and Guides, the Red Cross, and rather surprisingly, the Baptist mission. In contrast, the LMS of Moffat and Livingstone, appears nowhere in the programme.
Four films were shown, three, which could well have been about this country and many of us must now wonder if any of them have survived? The fourth film, improbably, was Julius Caesar. One was donated and shown by Caltex Oil, a film entitled ‘Botswana’ was organised by the Office of the President and the third by UB staff. Unexpectedly, there was no exhibition of the events of 10 years earlier. Surprisingly, it was the Lions Club which organised an art exhibition at the Art Gallery, presumably the National Museum, whilst the Baptists organised another entitled, Unusual Paintings’ whatever that meant.
There were march pasts and a procession of floats, a football match against Zambia and sundry other matches including one played by the old timers, presumably of 10 minutes each way! There were tennis, golf and boxing tournaments, horse racing and judo and karate. The Cultural Sub-Committee organised music- both traditional and modern- with the Revelation Quartet the Brown Kalanga Wizards,, the Sister’s Band amongst others. The Bafokeng made a presentation gift and the Muslims laid the foundation stone of the Mosque. There was an Independence Youth Ball and a child welfare show with judging of babies and prize-giving. This was the pre-diamond age which now seems so distant and so wonderfully innocent.
But of course the one occurrence which was not in the programme and which many of us still remember was the sinking in the mud of Mobuto Sese Seko’s large plane, which had needed more than the limited runway. It had to be pulled out by the South Africans. And that was a sharp reminder of the world outside this country’s borders.
* I am obliged to Derek Haldane for a copy of the programme and for the press cutting.