Botswana�s Culture Is Secretive - Mosojane
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Monday June 19, 2017 16:43
She said this during the commemorations of the Day of the African Child, which was attended by multitudes of children from pre-schools, primary and secondary schools.
When delivering the keynote address Mosojane said that there is a need to maximise protection, empowerment of children and interrogation of some of their cultural practices. She added that they need to see relevance and user-friendliness of some of their cultural beliefs in the ever-changing time and circumstances.
She said that communities disregard the need to empower children in order to protest against certain types of behaviours because they think that the conservative values of the 70’s are still in place.
The former Tatitown customary court president indicated that the secrecy of the country’s culture has led to not calling items by their proper names.
She said that when she was still a customary court president she discovered that even the euphemism that they use for describing crime could aggravate the vulnerability of their children.
“Words like ‘go dirisa ngwana’don’t seem to describe the ugly crime of defilement or rape and it opens doors for negotiations instead of criminilising the devious act,” she said.
She indicated that parents must learn to appreciate that the role of the police is not to bring pain, but to protect and they can only give adequate protection if supplied with sufficient information.
Mosojane said that there is evidence in their communities that parents claim not to know the birth dates of children when offences like defilement have been committed.
She further said that modern-day children are growing up in a world that offers them drugs and information technology (IT) generated games, which do not help them develop positive values.
She said that parents should be the first-line advocates for a drug free life in their children and they can only do so if they are in constant watch of their children’s development.
She said that the modern-day family has suddenly been hard hit by a wave of social ills like alcoholism, cash basket syndrome, which keeps parents away from home for long hours.
She indicated that these social ills have a tendency to compromise the quality of life and protection, which children must enjoy. Mosojane urged every parent to know and appreciate that they hold the key to the destiny of their children.