Reliving the past with Dithubaruba
Spira Tlhankane | Friday September 1, 2017 14:15
This coming weekend Bakwena tribe will celebrate the 11th annual Dithubaruba Cultural Festival at Ntsweng Heritage site and the cultural festival will continue to highlight Sechele as an integral part of Bakwena’s rich culture and history.
The cultural festival will be held under the theme ‘Golo re go yang ka go ipatla le go ipatlisisa’. People will reminisce at the old place that played an important role in protecting Batswana tribes such as Bangwaketse, Bakgatla bagaMmanaana and Bakaa as well as Bakwena from the Boers attack. Historians tell us that Dithubaruba was the place where Sechele and his people retreated to after the battle of Dimawe more than a century ago. Dithubaruba is not just a cultural festival but also an important cultural heritage for Bakwena and other Batswana tribes. It has been described as the “birthplace of modern day Botswana”.
It is said that Boers mistook cactus trees or mokgwapha for Bakwena army when they attacked Batswana after a retreat from Dimawe to Dithubaruba.
The plant now plays a symbol of a protector because of the role it played in protecting Bakwena from the vicious Boer attack at Dithejwane Hills west of Molepolole. Historians have also described Sechele as “a visionary leader and brave warrior,” therefore as Bakwena and other tribes join Bakwena at Dithubaruba, they will relive those days when Batswana merafe under the leadership of Sechele I defeated the Transvaal Boers.
“When the Transvaal Boers finally invaded Botswana in August 1852, they found the tribes united against them at Sechele’s Dimawe stronghold. Sechele was attacked by them, but not conquered.
Indeed he retaliated upon the Boers so successfully the fainthearted native chiefs living on the Boer border came with their tribes and placed themselves under Sechele,” historian Dr Jeff Ramsey reported in one his chronicles.
Furthermore according to historical accounts most of the tribes from southern Botswana including Bakgatla, Balete, Bahurutshe and Batlokwa have a connection with Dithubaruba because they sought refuge from Sechele after the migration from Dimawe to Dithubaruba. Dithubaruba has also been described, as “an ancestral home for Batswana” and it is estimated that at the time the place accommodated more than 25,000 people.
The place is the foundation of modern Botswana because eventually the tribes grew and had to relocate and spread across Tswana land. Sechele later moved to Ntsweng at present day Molepolole after abandoning Dithubaruba as a result of diseases among others.
With Dithubaruba as one of the biggest cultural festival in the country, a lot of activities will be on lined up to remind both old and the young about the customs and culture of Bakwena.
As usual, Bakwena just like others tribes from the South like Bakgatla baga Mmanaana, will celebrate their culture through the thanks giving ceremony called Dikgafela. Bakwena will demonstrate the long abandoned traditional harvest festival that is meant to appease the heavens to liberate the rains. Usually elderly women from different wards in Molepolole will carry pots of harvest and the traditional beer on their heads for villagers to drink. Lead by an elderly man shouting the phrase “dikgafela tseo”, the women will take the harvest to the Kgotla before finally taking it to Mohumagadi wa Bakwena, Mma-Tumagole.
Men will also gather at the Kgotla to feast on a traditional meat dish called mokoto. Traditionally, only men eat mokoto and the meat is taken from the backbone of a cow. In funerals and weddings, mokoto is prepared and served at the Kgotla. The men will also drink bojalwa jwa Setswana from Dikgafela offerings.
The women on the other hand will be eating meat called ngati in Setswana. Women can only eat ngati meat while young girls and men are not allowed. The activities of go ja mokoto and ngati usually take place simultaneously at Dithubarubu Cultural festival. The people will also relive the past through beliefs, language, dress, food, music and dance, poetry and rites of passage like botsetsi and marriage.