Shoshong, the Bangwato capital where bogwera thrived and crumbled

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Friday May 27, 2011 00:00

 

These were the Initiation Schools for boys and girls (bogwera and bojale).  It was also in Shoshong that the initiation schools were abandoned, when a new kgosi, Khama the Good, rejected the practice as heathen. Today, 122 years since abandoning their capital, which once was home to 30 000 inhabitants, the Bangwato are not famous for the initiation schools, but European explorers' literature shows that Shoshong inducted boys and girls into age regiments (mephato) and initiation schools every three or five years.  Ironically it was also here in Shoshong that bogwera and bojale was discontinued.

Interestingly, it was actually the death of mephato that immediately resulted in the sudden demise of Shoshong when immediately a bitter civil war ensued in 1864.  The European traveller, Dr Emil Holub observed in his second visit that the population had reduced drastically to 6 000, from 30 000 in a space of 10 years, as multitudes of tribes dispersed from Shoshong fleeing the civil war.

The crown prince Khama and younger brother Khamane were naturally expected to lead the next bogwera as the king's sons, while their mother, the queen was also expected to lead the bojale, but they all broke Bangwato's centuries old cultural practice and defied Kgosi Sekgoma, their father, who was so sad that a civil war broke out as the king sought to eliminate the stubborn Christian sons who dimmed  bogwera and bojale as a heathen practice. 

After months of fighting, Khama and Khamane's forces were defeated and multitudes ruthlessly slaughtered, but the king spared the sons, who nevertheless still remained defiant and rejected bogwera and bojale.

Sekgoma had enlisted the help of half-brother Matsheng, who grew up with the Ndebeles who had captured him at a young age in a war.  After the war against Khama and Khamane, Matsheng toppled Sekgoma and promoted indigenous culture against Khama's Christianity. 

He promoted bogwera, dingaka tsa setso and  baloi to undermine Khama's christian faith.  However Sechele of Bangwaketse would secretly back Khama and Khamane with troops to topple Matsheng, who was assisted by Ndebele's led by Mzilikazi's son Kuruman, but Matsheng's forces were defeated and Khama, later to be known as Khama III had began his era as the Christian king who outlawed cultural practices as paganism, banned all types of bojalwa, bogwera and bojale in his territory.  Missionaries gave him the adoring names, Khama the Great and  Khama the Good and praised him as the best of all the African kings in Southern Africa. However Khama would later look for his banished father, Sekgoma, and returned him to the throne in 1873.  European Missionary Rev James Davidson Hepburn recalls that Sekgoma brought back heathen abominations.

A few months later Khama left Shoshong for Serowe, with multitudes of followers, while a few remained behind in Shoshong with Sekgoma and Khamane, he would later move on to a stronger fortress in Boteti (Zouga).  Khama returned from Boteti in 1875 to fight against Khamane and Sekgoma at Shoshong and claim the throne.

Prior to the ascendence of Khama III (1872) however, mephato would hunt animals for the community, the king, as well as serving as part of Bangwato's standing army.  At Shoshong, mephato never ceased to work and each mophato had its responsibilities for the community, throughout its entire life span.

Although Christian explorer, Emil Holub (From Molepolole to Shoshong) refered to the practice as heathen, he provides one of the most detailed activities of male and female initiation schools at Shoshong. 

'Until they have undergone this  process no youth was considered a man and no woman was considered of marriageable age.  Boys started bogwera at the age of nine.  The boys presented themselves voluntarily or were forced into the schools.  As part of the preparation for bogwera boys and girls were smeared with white chalk.  The girls wore nothing but belts made of pieces of reed or aprons of genets' tails, their breasts and faces also whitened with chalk.  The solemnisation of the rite took place outside the town, dingaka and old men acting as operators with the boys and old women with the girls.

Singing as they go, the young people of both sexes, accompanied by the linyakas (dingaka), would proceed beyond the town to the appointed spot, where the boys are put through a drill in manly exercises, and the girls are formally initiated into domestic duties, such as carrying wood and fetching water.

The European explorer also observed that the boys marched off in detachments to the kgotla, where they have all to be flogged with dithupa': observes Holub.

'Bare of all clothing, except their little girdle and their sandals, which they are permitted to hold in their hands, they are placed in two rows, back to  back, and made to kneel down whilst a man, generally their next-of-kin, stands in front of each and proceeds to deliver his lashes, which the lads parry as best they can by the dexterous manipulation of the sandals; they are required to keep on singing, and to raise each foot alternately, marking the measure of the chant,' reads Dr Holub's memoir in part.

The rite was followed by a succession of hunting excursions, organised and kept up for several successive years;the members of a company were told off into sets, and under the guidance of an experienced hunter chased and killed antelopes and gazelles, and in the course of time they mastered pursuing elephants and buffaloes.

At Shoshong a proud Motswana commonly reckoned his age from the date of a bogwera; when asked how old he is, he will mention the company to which he belongs, and will refer to the names of one or two of its best-known members.