The King played football with Presidents

GREG KELEBONYE
Staff Writer | Friday March 19, 2010 00:00

We arrive at the home of the old chief unannounced, having failed to secure an appointment the previous day as the old man was not at home.  He is nonetheless all too happy to host us. We find him in the company of his wife Theresa and their first daughter Mmaserame. We exchange pleasantries with the old chief who, speaking in flawless English, whenever he chooses to throw in an English sentence, wants to know which part of the country we come from. My colleague, Mathe explains that he is from Serowe, and the old man lights up.

'Monna o tswa kwa motseng wa Molekane-ame Seretse. Ke tshamikile kgwele le monna yoo wa molekane, Rraagwe Ian [ Man you come from my buddy's village. I played football with that man, Ian's father] '. He becomes animated as he takes us through life in the yesteryear. Although three years younger than Sir Seretse Khama, Botswana's first president and father to current President Ian Khama, the two would have been in the same Malekantwa or Maletamotse regiment as their peers group was known, respectively in GaMmangwato and Manyana.

' Yea, I played really good football with Seretse's, [Ian's] father. He played for Serowe Motherwell and I played for Bathoeng, Seepapitso's [Bangwaketse Paramount] father's team. Then we had great football players the likes of Phaladi 'Joko Tea' Dikgakgamatso, Lenyeletse Seretse and Mamelodi, that Mahalapye born who is the father to football's Ashford,'

Playing number two, he would ever arouse cheers from the home girls with his witty dribbling. 'Daddy-Max-on-the move!!' they would holler each time I dribbled left and right.' He says signing with his hand how he would dribble past his opponents. Max is a popular pet form of Mareko.

Then it was no bother to travel by truck from Kanye or Manyana , depending on where he was at the time of travel, to Serowe. He is about to tell us about how Bakgatla Kgosi Lincwe Molefhi, and grandfather to Kgosi Kgafela Kgafela, went into exile among his people when his daughter advises that we should go to the office as some visitors are coming and would likely disturb us. We all oblige and file out of the simple but very beautifully furnished living room. The Kgosi's office is only 30 metres from the house. He walks fast for an octogenarian. We reach the office and as we prepare to sit I ask him how he has managed to keep young at his age.

' It is just a blessing,' he says, before returning to the story about Kgosi Molefhi.

'That guy, we called him Skotlegat - basinhead. He rode a white horse and was feared by all men in the village.Not because he would use a gun, but because he packed a punch. Man, that man was fast. Either way he would get you - by horse or on foot, so you'd better not cross him. Somehow we were friends and together formed Manyana 11 Experience, where I became president of the club,' he reminisces mirthfully.

A Presidential Certificate of honor with the inscription: 'In recognition of long and faithful service to Botswana,' and signed by former president Festus Mogae hangs on the wall facing me. I see it as an opportunity to discuss the old chief's 'other' life.

Born on April 15, 1924, Kgosi Mosielele has survived most of his friends.

'I am told that my dad died the year after my birth. My mother, Seakanyeng, remarried, but my stepfather would not take care of me. So my mother sent me to stay with my maternal grandmother Mmaserame,'

In 1932, his grandfather sent young Mareko to school at Manyana Primary School where he studied up to Standard five. He then went to Kanye to do Standard six. That was in 1941.

'From Kanye I proceeded to Tiger  Kloof. I was with Masire [Quett, second president of Botswana] and Moutlakgola Nwako [former speaker of the National Assembly].  I did Form three but could not complete because my grandmother did not have money to pay for my tuition and living allowances. My uncle, who was at the time managing my grandmother's cattle insisted that my English was good enough and that there was no reason for me to go back to school,' he says as he leans back on the reclining chair, a tinge of sadness - or is it disappointment? - screening his voice.

Anyway, back to what happened after Tigerkloof. After failing to continue his education young Mosielele got a job as a tax collector. He also doubled as a Kgosi. That was in 1945.

' I decided to quit my job in 1946 as I felt it was too much being a tax-collector and a chief. The First World War had ended in May and there was a lot of rebuilding that needed to be done. I had seen some British Soldiers around the Mmakgodumo area and had really loved the spectacle. I so much wanted to be a soldier.  So it happened that I went to Lobatse where I found the British army recruiting. Phillip Matante, who founded the Botswana People's Party was writing down enrollees names by the place that is today Botswana meat Commission.

I enrolled,' he leans forward a distant look in his eye, possibly retracting those old-time memories. The recruits were then taken to Durban to board a Middle-East bound ship. The ship came, and an array of nationalities jumped in.

'The ship headed for the Suez Canal. It took 26 days to reach the Suez Canal, having gone past  Mount Eden and indeed the Red Sea,' he says looking out the window, obviously overwhelmed by a sense of nostalgia. After a month's training in Cassisini, Egypt they spent the next two-and-half years rebuilding what the war had destroyed.

It would not be until December 19, 1948 that they would set foot on home ground.

The following year, Mosielele applied for a job at the District Commissioners'.

'I was hired as an interpreter for one A.A. Mathews - a rabid racist who had been transferred from South Africa and someone whose ears I would really have loved to punch. At the time we were with Lenyeletse - as some of the the Bangwato royals had gone into exile following persecution that followed Seretse's decision to marry a white woman.  Would you believe it, those people wanted Seretse to go and be king in Jamaica if he was so intent on marrying his woman. They believed the embarrassment would be lessened if he led a people he didn't know,' he says, almost spitting out the words in disgust.

That, he says was the ultimate insult upon his friend Seretse. He quit as a royal. A few years later he formed the Botswana Democratic Party. That would become Mosielele's party, although at some point he left it to join Matante's People's Party. Most Dikgosi were not aware that it was wrong to be a politician and Kgosi at the same time, he says.

' You see in 1951 I resumed my duty as Kgosi. Although it took a few years before I could be draped in a leopard's skin, I finally was in 1957.' If history was strictly followed, that would have confirmed him as the most senior of all Batswana kings.

Mosielele's tribe,the Bahurutshe are historically the most senior among Batswana tribes.

'That fact was understood by Dikgosi and traditional doctors during initiation ceremonies. A mohurutshe  (a member of the Bahurutshe) tribe always got first priority - respect given to the firstborn. It was out of this recognition that tribes such as Balete, and our cousins in South Africa have had me drape their Dikgosi. Ke rona maloma-sotse [we are the first in the line]' he says with a grin and a warning that other merafhe might not like to hear this, but that it remains a fact.

The Bahurutshe of Manyana and those found in Mankgodi were at some point all residents of Manyana having first migrated from the Great Marico area in 1852, he says.  At the time they were under the leadership of Kgosi Manyana Mangope.

'You should pronounce this name with an intonation upon the second 'a'. Manyana meaning playtime, as in 'banyana'. The same applies to 'Mangope'. The name means facial bumps - makotlopo- as in what you get when you badly mix mealie-meal. Now that is the man after whom this village is named. He is the same man from whose bowels I, my cousins Victor Suping in Supinstaad, and former Bophuthatswana premier Manyene Mangope come. As for the Bahurutshe of Mmankgodi, they are our younger siblings who got land across Polokwe after the Bakwena gave them the land. It was given as a token following a marriage between a Mohurutshe royal and a Kwena Royal girl. That is why today they are under the Bakwena jurisdiction and I am under the Bangwaketse'.The old Kgosi looks at his time, and I figure he must want to leave. I throw in a question about when he is quitting.

'I have been Kgosi for 57 years. I am 86-years-old today. Although I look younger, my hearing and sight are failing me and I need to rest. My eldest son, Kebinatshwene, will succeed me,' he says simply. In fact preparations for both the coronation and the hand-over ceremony are under way. So far members of the community have contributed 10 beasts to be slaughtered come April 30, 2010.

'We are hoping to have my friend's son Ian officiate and of course my cousins, Victor and Manyane will be here,' he says as he walks over to a handcrafted wooden chair, 'given by Batswapong for me to sit on when I retire.' The chair has his name carved into it, eternally declaring it as his, for as long as the chair survives. He invites us to the big event and glancing at a huge wall photo of president Khama he chuckles:

'Ngwana wa molekane wame ruri', before telling us how Sir Seretse Khama would show at his house unannounced and wait in the verandah while a child went to call him and declare in a hushed tone, ' Papa, President o kwa lwapeng'.