Borotsi without Barotsi

EDWARD BULE
Correspondent | Monday February 14, 2011 00:00

FRANCISTOWN: When I made a trip to Borotsi Ward in Tonota, I imagined an overly humanistic community populated by pitch-black people who pronounced the letter 'r' as though it were the letter 'l'. Of course, I was disappointed.

My disappointment did not emanate from the absence of people whose skin pigmentation is as Chinua Achebe's two midnights put together. Those are in abundance, though many of them do not have  a drop of Lozi (Barotsi) blood in them. I was disappointed because all the people I spoke to spoke perfect Setswana with no Barotsi accent at all. How can you have Borotsi without Barotsi? I had gone there to look for a lost tribe of Barotsi in Borotsi.

The Barotsi people, who settled in various places in Botswana, including Chadibe near Francistown, Bobonong, Sefhare, Semotswane and Tonota, came from south-western Zambia, back in the 1920s. Apparently, the majority of them came here as labourers contracted to the company building the railway line and decided to settle here permanently when their contracts ended.

The Barotsi lived on flood plains but moved to higher ground every rain season. A festival called Kuamboka accompanies this movement.

The Barotsi of Borotsi in Tonota first settled among the Bakhurutshe of Tonota and married among them. Living among one's parents in-law is like a tight leach in many African cultures. The Barotsi men who married into the Bakhurutse families yearned very much to move with their wives away from the restraining atmosphere of being neighbours with their in-laws or even staying in the compounds of their parents-in-law. Khindi Muyunda was born in 1946 in Tonota to a Morotsi father. She regrets that she never asked her father where in Zambia he came from.

According to her, in 1960, a certain Kgosi Ngela Sepopa, a Morotsi, was granted permission to settle in present-day Borotsi from Tonota. Many Barotsi, from 'mainland' Tonota, Semotswane and Chadibe joined Segopa at Borotsi, also known as Leomboko.

The name Leomkoko, which rhymes with the word kuomboka, also means to cross over, referring to the crossing of the Tholodi River by the Barotsi to Borotsi. The name also calls to be associated with freedom or independence as the Barotsi men had now moved with their wives away from their in-laws and established themselves as heads of the households with their mainly Bakhurutshe wives.

The settlement was also suitable. At the confluence of the Shashe and Tholodi rivers, the situation of the village gave the inhabitants a lot of fishing space. Culturally, the Barotsi buried their dead along riverbanks. The place therefore also gave the community a lot of burial space.

Kgosana Simon Ernest says he was brought up by a Morotsi man after the death of his parents. According to him, Barotsi settled at Leomboko, for that is what Borotsi is also called, in 1960. Originally called Sianga Ngongola, Simon Ernest says he had to change his name and adopt one that would not hurt the tongues of his white employers in South Africa. Vowing to resort to his original name, he says the community celebrated its 50 years of existence last year. He would like the Barotsi to revive their culture and have it recorded for posterity.

Indeed, with a kgotla, a primary school, a clinic, and a community development office, the people of Leomboko have a lot to celebrate. However, people like Maria Kapena, Keotshipile France and the rest of the unemployed villagers, it is difficult to find contentment. Osenotse Tawana feels short-changed by the government because it has not provided her with a job but has stopped her brewing and selling khadi because, as it purported, it is not consistent with its objective of promoting positive values.