Kgosi Kgomotso, a walking culture encyclopedia bids Jwaneng farewell
Lebogang Baingapi | Tuesday August 15, 2017 17:04
On Friday, the former Raphalane deputy court president bid the Jwaneng community farewell following his retirement in May this year.
Kgosi Kgomotso from Kanye is an encyclopaedia of history and culture and has made it his mandate to pass any kind of information to anybody who cares to listen, be it at formal events or through casual conversations.
Even though he started his career as a bank teller with the then Standard Bank of South Africa in 1968, he still considers himself a self-appointed teacher as he carries and disseminates information whenever a chance presents itself. The only thing that hindered him from pursuing teaching as a profession back then was the low wages.
“After finishing my Cambridge at St Joseph’s College in 1967, I could not enrol for teaching because then teachers were earning R35 as compared to R75 for bank tellers, so I chose banking,” he reminisces of his early career choice.
Nonetheless, he did not stop being the epitome of informal teaching. He prides himself in having acquired first-hand information during his youthful years when he enjoyed sitting around the fire with his grandfather, Kgomotso Montwedi.
It was the former who taught him a lot about history and culture, especially of the people in the Ngwaketse area.
It therefore does not come as a coincidence that Kgosi Kgomotso has over the years been engaged to share information on historical events and cultural aspects of people in this region. On many occasions he has left his audience in awe as he relates such historical moments like he is reading the palm of his hand.
“From time to time I get invited to share my knowledge with different groups of people in various villages in the Ngwaketse area.
And I must admit the kind of information I share is considered credible because I got it from the horse’s mouth and not from books that were written by people who were probably not there when these things occurred,” he told Mmegi.
He regrets that some of the information being circulated has been distorted and misrepresent the context in which they were used. It saddens him that school children are subjected to distorted information, and also that they only learn history briefly at school.
To him, three years is not enough to encompass History as a subject at junior school. He wishes more could be done to teach children about Batswana culture, which he believes is diverse and differs from one area to another.
Even though he acknowledges the effort made to engage him relay the knowledge to young people, his wish is for authors and publishers to document it for when he is no more.
“I have so much to share and most of the time I do it randomly, but it could help if such information was written somewhere to continue to be shared in the future. I mean, what will happen if I were to die today?” he asks rhetorically.
His love for information-sharing has made him popular even among the taxi operators around town, whom he usually sits with at the taxi rank and chats for hours on end. The 74-year old retires home to Kanye and he leaves behind a legacy of rich steam of history. Having served as the deputy court president for 14 years, there is no doubt that Kgosi Kgomotso has served the Jwaneng community with dignity.
He takes home the experience and the great memories he had with the people of different cultures and learnt to be tolerant of the same. He urged the people of Jwaneng to be united against all odds and move the town forward.
“I have learnt to adjust to the environment to be sensitive to other people’s cultures. It goes without saying a rolling stone gathers no moss and it is my time to go home and rest. However, I will still be available to assist in other cultural activities,” he said.