Shandereka cultural village: Showcasing Bayei's ancient heritage

BONIFACE KEAKABETSE
Correspondent | Wednesday January 26, 2011 00:00

 

Certain people use it while others abuse the wetland....' a citation from a book published last year titled 'Okavango Delta: Floods Of Life. For the people of Sankoyo, a village on the southern edge of the Okavango Delta whose of 700 inhabitants are predominantly Bayei, the positive side of the above assertion is apt.  The Sankoyo community is an integral part of the Okavango Delta.   In fact, the life of this community is so intertwined with the delta that their customs and traditions have become part of the beauty that attracts many local and foreign tourists to the Wetland.  As the saying goes 'every river has its people'.

Supported by the Wildlife African Foundation, the Sankoyo community developed the Kaziikini and Shandereka cultural site under the community-based Natural Resources Programme.  Shandereka, a Yei word, means suffering or Tshotego in Setswana.  The cultural village is a living negation of the sentiments that tourists flock into northern Botswana only for the Big 5.  The cultural village, which is operated by the Sankoyo community through their community trust, Sankoyo Tshwaragano Management Trust (STMT), showcases the Bayei ancient heritage and folk traditions to the many tourists who visit the delta.  Last year, 2,956 visitors passed through the cultural village where they were treated to the customs and traditions that underpin the Yei culture.

The Bayei were the first Bantu-speakers to migrate to the Okavango (around 1750) from their home of Diyei, an area just west of the confluence of the Chobe and the Zambezi rivers, now within the Namibia Caprivi Strip (Tlou, 1976).  They met and intermingled with the BaBugakhwe in the Okavango area.  The Bayei are celebrated among other things as having introduced the canoe (Mekoro) to the delta.  To date the Bayei remain the most populus ethnic group in Ngamiland.   For visitors to the village, this flashback to the Yei history is offered in precision in the Seyei language.  There is always an interpreter who interprets the language to the visitors.

From symmetry and the stunning geometrics involved in the art of basket-weaving to the ritual of the traditional doctoring, medicine, traditional games and Bayei traditional dance showcased at Shandereka, the people of Sankoyo are proving that cultural inheritance if well-conserved and used can help unlock and diversify the country's tourism product from much reliance on wildlife.  Some of the activities provided at the village include nature walks, woodcarving and demonstrations on the olden tools and techniques the tribe used while hunting.

STMT manager Graham Young says the trust, which employs 39 people, uses revenues from the cultural site for the provision of social services to the Sankoyo community.  The trust also provides funeral financial support to the community.  After building a community hall, they are now constructing water borne toilets for all the residents.