Floggings or mere caning: Corporal Punishment in Kgatleng

M D LECHA | Wednesday October 27, 2010 00:00

It is therefore amazing that a mode of corporal punishment known to us all and exercised daily in our active social lives has come to be treated as though it were an apparition that has suddenly come to hog our space, disturb our peace and the even tenor of our, otherwise, blissful social lives. However, it only happens to be the use of the aggressive and thunderous sounding synonym, 'flogging' that suggests offenders are being done a murderous bombardment. Flogging is not a term and concept in common usage to most of us, and usually is seldom heard if only through that English proverb that by and in itself invokes a wilful senselessness, insensitivity, violence and fatalism in all their communicative purposes of the normative, interpretive, and contrived expressiveness - 'flogging a dead horse'. Notice the sport being played at in the oxymoron served in the closed juxtaposition of meaning, sense, and portrayal! It would not have come out with much the same vigour and command intended if say it were, - 'caning a dead horse' or 'beating a dead horse'. And that is exactly what is and was intended when they substituted the normally social and lawful happenstance of 'caning' by the scary, insensitive, and violent sounding 'flogging'. Suddenly 'thobola o kgwathe' has become so unnatural, so barbaric, so un-African, and so un-Setswana.

And yet all systems work together for the good of society. The only time when anyone needs to stop and shout, is against any flagrant flogging, -yes, a brutish, haphazard and indiscriminate flogging of people in that same violent and crude sense even against the basic precepts of the law. It is that which cannot be condoned and that which should not be tolerated because it will itself be an act of wanton lawlessness. The basic tenets of law are truth and justice. If one has broken the law, they are brought before lekgotla to explain themselves, - natural justice (I swear that...and nothing else but the truth, so help me God). Just as any law enforcer would caution -everyone must appear to say 'ba re ke robile molao'. It is then that after establishing the facts to either exonerate or incriminate one that judgement is delivered, be it a fine, caning, prison term and so on. Equity. And that my friends is our Setswana and African culture. Ga go epe ngwao e e ka galaletsang sepe se se kgatlhanong le tsamaiso e ya molao jaaka o tshwanetse wa dirahatswa.

Jaanong, the Laws of Botswana are also clear that when any MALE has been sentenced to receive a defined number of lashes (they are called lashes and not floggings) on a prescribed part of the body the offender must also be found to be healthy and fit enough to can handle the pain and possible bruises from the lashes. Of course, punishment is used as a deterrent, and not as if to exterminate the offender with all his/her ways as we would the weed and its effects.

In simple terms, you do not just cane a person even when they have scurvy all over the body (motshweetshwee), or cane them even when they have sugar diabetes (sukiri), or they have full blown AIDS! 'Ke go eletsa go hohotsa' Batswana hela. This is why there are alternative forms of sentence in the event the offender is not fit for lashing. And this is happening and has been happening all the time in Botswana including Kgatleng.Truly it should not be considered a normal statement to say: 'We didn't know she was pregnant'. Also the question that no one should be asked to answer is whether Mephato in their routine rounds are well equipped with pregnancy test and other ailments diagnostic gadgets to enable them to effect impromptu floggings to women and men they meet so that they do not repeat the obnoxious excuse: 'We did not know she was pregnant'.  Under these circumstances, then every right thinking person knows that it is wiser to be patient, allow these people a fair trial ('molato ga o bole'), proceed to establish their health record, and deliver the sentence accordingly. What's the rush? Can you reverse the shambocking of that pregnant woman and its effects? Then do so right now. This is not about empty platitudes as we are talking real life, real pain and suffering and real people here. Ga se go itsoketsa ka mahoko ga boagente jwa jeno, jo bo senang tebelopele: jwa setlogolo ga se lesika le malomaaso ke lesika le mmaaso fela.

The Laws of Botswana are not ambiguous about women caning. All lawyers and all dikgosi and all Batswana know that. 'Dikwalo di menolotswe go bonwe go re go kwadilwe, -ke molao'.

Please defer to the truth, - 'nnete e e sa jelweng pheko'. Botswana Law states simply that NO woman shall be subjected to caning. If caning in Kgatleng is done under the ambit of the Laws of Botswana, women are not subject to caning at all.

Who wants to argue with that simple fact? It is law. And I am glad every Motswana is well aware of that and will defer to that and help our fellowmen to appreciate the true meaning of this law.

Those who cry and clamour for the caning of women miss out on some very important facts of life.  Suppose the woman is pregnant, may we cane her still? And yes a woman was caned in Kgatleng and the fact was regretted immediately afterwards. How many regrets are we prepared to go through before we decide it is not worth the effort?

You want to cane the woman? You want to ask her if she is pregnant? You want to ask her about her periods? You want to ask her about her period pains? You want to ask her if she is a 'motsetse'?

You want to ask her of all her aliments to screen for a possible waiver? Are these questioning areas really our domain? Are all these things you want exposed to Borre ba Mophato and the rest of the world not in the privacy area of the feminine species as God alone has willed? In Setswana culture, caning is about 'thobola o kgwathe'. Are you asking our mothers to bare their backs for the lash? Oh for the pride and joyful pain of motherhood. She carries you nine months inside her body and delivers you through the biblical labour pains at the risk of her very own life and you still want to think she is equal to any other joe-blow, 'togo-mpane' or 'togo-mpeng', in social stature? 'Ba kahe banna ba ba sugang ba tlhatswa metseto/mengato ya ngwana e le makaka tsatsi le letsatsi' from birth up to 11 years?

If you so want to cane our mothers, what do you propose they do or rather, WHAT DO YOU DO with their breasts ('mabele') when you so want to put them in line with a cultural lash, the senior humans that we may be? Do they lie on their 'mabele' as they receive the back lashing?

'Ruri, go sego letsele le le sa amuang le motho yo o sa imiwang ke mosadi! Mosadi ke thari ya sechaba. We are not talking about spanking girl children, 'ra re go kgwathisa'. Is it true go re re lelela go kgwathisa bo mmaetsho? Nnyaa ruri Franco: motho o kare 'ke lela le lona'.

A mme le Ausi Dr Unity Dow o dumalana le go kgwathisa bommaetsho? And you really believe you will be advocating for the feminine gender? Mogala mmakapaa, Ntombi o kae!? Pinagare ya motheo wa Emang Basadi le Feminism e reteletse ruri go tlhaloganngwa le ke ba ba e anamisang.

So what is feminism if its advocates do not kow or understand the basis upon which it is grounded?There can be nothing wrong in the Kgatleng floggings if they follow the Laws of Botswana as they always did. 'Molao ke one poo. Ka Setswana, ga go poo pedi'. There can be no two laws or two codes regulating one society. Or else that will be a perfect recipe for disaster.

Imagine Batswapong, 'Go! ke seharena'; Bakalanga, 'ndo blah ndi dhusa hibgwa dza ka jale'; Bangalogi, 'o diha sheng'? Bakgwatlheng, 'Gojwa heri', Ngwaketse, 'Ao rre he, ntsihe wa reng'? Bakwena, 'Motlhakola o montsho wa ga sebolaa kgosi, bo malome'; Batwa, 'tso, tso, gaa!' ('Go phsega go phsega!')

Do we then recommend that there should remain no nation but a mushrooming of several entities each with its own little belly to mind, -its own little backyard culture to nurture and develop selfishly and to separate itself from the erstwhile nation building process in-spite of the tremendous strides we have all covered in the last 44 years and at great cost and pain including the virtual assimilation of other nation states and ethnic groups making the nation of Botswana? Take a leaf from David Bohm: 'For fragmentation is now very widespread, not only through society, but also in each individual; and this is leading to a kind of general confusion of the mind, which creates an endless series of problems and inteferes with our clarity of perception so seriously as to prevent us from being able to solve most of them...The notion that all these fragments are separately existent is evidently an illusion, and this illusion cannot do other than lead to endless conflict and confusion' (1980).

Nnyaa betsho dirisang letswalo le segakolodi se se phepa. Tsenyang ditlhong mo mererong ya lona. Gatwe tlhong botho.

That according to the Laws of Botswana one who is above 40 years is above the age of corporal punishment needs to be understood in perspective. There couldn't have been a better blessing. From 35 years is the time when many troublesome diseases begin encroaching on the human persons, especially the silent killers as in diabetes, hypertension, alzheimer's, arthritis, parkinson's etc.

You try to scar their backs in the traditional way you may be in effect inviting more harm than correction. Common sense based on realism.

Even then, under normal circumstances, a man of 40 would have contributed their fair share to nation building and social growth and development, and it would only be fair to honor them as senior citizens and save them the chastisement reserved for the common rogue in the character of youthful flatulence.

If it is agreed and recorded as law of the commonwealth, the unified polity, then it stays as the one and only guiding principle until such time that members of the social whole may consensually decide to reform it. Alternatively, the law only ceases to bind one who willfully and willingly withdraws from the commonwealth to pursue a life guided by a code peculiar to their private wishes and tastes.  I don't think we should take the latter to be a good enough option.

So far the status quo makes more and better sense until we decide as a nation, to reform it. Let us pull together in truth and in unity. A re kopaneleng go direla lefatshe la rona. Modimo o re segohatse.