When towns don nicknames

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Friday October 15, 2010 00:00

It also used to go by another sobriquet 'Sthalala' while it has also borrowed a name from west of the city called 'Machimenyenga'. Hence, you could hear someone, especially of Kalanga origin saying 'Ndo enda ku Machimenyenga.'

Sobriquet and nicknames of places are not only confined to Francistown as other places like Gaborone, Serowe, Molepolole and Kanye have such names.

Take Gaborone, or Gabs, to the trendy city-sleekers who reside in the suburbs of Phase Two, Block 5, Block 7, Extension 11 and so on. In a jovial mood, they would tell you they were staying in  'Mageba' or heading in that direction. 

And Serowe has been called 'Ga-MmaBesi-a-Kgama' from time immemorial. The name refers to the fact that Serowe was the home of the wife of the King of Bangwato, Khama The Great. As is Setswana tradition, a mother is usually called the name of her first born, hence 'Mma-Besi'.

On the way to Gaborone from Francistown, the first place that has a nickname is Tonota, aka 'TNT' which residents and people on transit would praise as 'the land of Manonyonyomane between Shashe and Tholodi rivers.'

As a student at Shashe River School, we used to indulge in the delicious fat cakes or 'manyonyomane' also known as 'magwinya' sold at a general dealer just outside the school by the name of 'Panorama'. The fat cakes were so popular Tonota became known as the land of 'manyonyomane'. Palapye, some 200 kilometres  along the way has always been known as 'PY'.

Detour directly west at the Palapye bus station and you are on your way to Serowe, which is abound with nicknames - Sjapi, 'Ko-disoweng'. In days gone by the landscape of the village was characterised by rondavels with their grass-thatched roofs whose tinned conical tops glistened in the sun.

Before you get to Palapye, there is a diversion that takes you about 30 kilometres into the Copper mining town of Selebi-Phikwe. Call it 'Majombolo' if you like, but it can also be referred to as 'Piczana'.

In fact, the younger generation will tell you they are going to 'Piczana'. As for Mmadinare you will be forgiven for thinking it is a place for mentally challenged people, but 'Mad-city' has very sane residents some of whom are big figures in the country.

The chief of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Gabriel Seeletso is from the place, as is a plethora of other bigwigs and illustrious sons of this country.

On the A1 from 'The Ghetto' about 70 kilometres from Palapye you arrive in Mahalapye or 'Mafiatown'. I have never known the place to have another nickname, though but this 'Mafia' refers to the fact that the place had a lot of 'tsotsis' in the past who fashioned themselves after the real mafia from Italy.

That is, the way they dressed, trousers pulled up to the stomach and caps sideways while the 'gent' walks with a feigned limp.

Mochudi, 45 kilometres before you enter 'Mageba' is simply 'Moch'. But another place with an abundance of nicknames is Molepolole or 'Maltlere'. On Radio Botswana, Mogatusi Kwapa calls 'Moleps' 'ko-Phuwas' or 'Phuwa-lerole'.

No one will tell you exactly what Phuwa-lerole means, but I suspect it has to do with the fact that the Bakwena capital is susceptible to dusty winds which always leave residents gaping for breath and looking the worse for wear with mud-stained clothes. As you travel southwards towards the Ramatlabama border post, the first town is Ramotswa or Ramcity.

Not that it is a place of shepherds, but the Bamalete capital is known for 'elephants' who roam the streets.However, recently there has been a concerted effort to stamp out the notorious gangs who adopted the name of the gentle giant of Botswana's wilderness.

I have no clue if Otse, a few kilometres from Ramcity, has a nickname, but as the place has the legendary 'Lovers' Hill' or in the local lingua franca 'Lentswe la Baratani' it would not be amiss to donate a nickname.

Perhaps 'Oteza' would do, or any other name that would resonate with the romance that sent two lovebirds up the hill never to be seen again.

After Otse, you definitely enter 'Bandleng', another place that has 'tsotsi's'. the influence of South African townships like Soweto, Gugulethu and Alexandra is highly evident in Lobatse.

It is not surprising that Lobatse Extension Gunners, which is presently riding the crest of the wave with a win after win in the beMobile Premier league, is known as 'Mapantsula'.

In the 1980s when 'pantsulas' were in vogue in their baggy trousers, takkies and 'sdori' (a cap) usually pulled to the eyes,  'Bandleng' seemed to be  where they emanated from. And then fanned out into every corner of the country.

The biggest 'pantsula' then was the South African musician Paul Ndlovu, who sang mostly in his Shangani tongue and danced quite a storm.

A Kenyan visiting Bots for the first time would be left gaping to hear someone saying he is catching a bus to Kenya.This is because he is positive a travel by bus to Mombasa or even Nairobi from Gabs would be an arduous exercise that could have been attempted only by the likes of London Missionary Society priests like David Livingstone and his father-in-law, Robert Moffat.

They are known to have traversed the length and breadth of Africa making new discoveries of places. In Botswana they discovered some villages, perhaps my town 'Rake' or 'Zowa'.

Note: Ask for directions if you do not know Rake or Zowa-zonyalala'.

Anyway back to Kenya. For a puzzled Kikuyu man or Luo tribesman, in Bots, Kenya is none other than Kanye, the capital of Bangwaketsi tribe who speak Setswana with a dialect that make other speakers of the language laugh at them.

Bangwaketsi, though are treated circumspectly by other tribes, though not to an extent that there can be a pogrom at any given time. Even folk songs warn other tribes not to mess with Bangwaketsi.

A joke doing the rounds about Bangwaketsi is that while a Mokgatla lass would ask her date for a coke, her Mongwaketsi equivalent would ask for a bag of cement.

Farther afield, we have Jwaneng otherwise called J-T. Someone whispered in my ear that when it is time for sexual acrobatics, people go to Jwaneng!

The list of sobriquets is endless. Even Maun is called 'Ko Muchii'. Shakawe is 'Shake-Away. Closer to my home village of Rake, there is 'X-H' (Xhomo), 'Pipecity' (Mopipi), Column-Two (Makalamabedi),  'Tops' (Motopi) etcetera.