Wayei pray govt will soon hear their cry

NOMSA NDLOVU
Correspondent | Wednesday May 9, 2007 00:00

 

With Kamanakao Association flags flapping in the air, the horse riders left the delegation by the grave of the late Calvin Kamanakao, pulled the stirrups and tightened the reins as the animals ran wildly around the courtyard amid ululation, the throbbing of drums and the stomping of feet.

It is early Sunday morning, date: May 6, 2007 - and the last cock has just crowed, announcing the arrival of a new day. Up on the eastern horizon nature's unseen hand is slowly painting the sky into a romantic amber colour.
A chilly wind is stinging into the bone, freezing the marrow and leaving fingers and toes numb with cold. The chipping birds chant melodious songs that thank the Maker for the sun's rays that are about to kiss the soft dusty soils of the Okavango District and evaporate the frosty dew that covers the vegetation.

The yard is securely fenced, encompassing a compound of two huts of reed and thatch, an office and a classroom.
It is in this classroom that the Wayei children will soon converge over school holidays to learn about the richness of their language and culture. Through tutorials by the tribe's sages the teenagers, who have reached puberty, will receive revelation to human biology in an African fashion and how to abstain from sex till marriage. Circumcision will also be performed at the centre, as a revival of their culture.

Up by the entrance to the courtyard, on the right hand side, a mound of soil ascending like a hill leads to the marble tombstone of former 'constitutionally unrecognised' Wayei paramount chief Calvin Kamanakao, who, in the Shiyei language, they referred to as the Shikati (the Royal Highness).
Silently the procession files past the mound circulating the grave as the dirge is sung. Prayers were said in the rich clicks of the Shiyei language petitioning the Almighty for Kamanakao's soul to rest in peace. Shikati Kamanakao died on May 6, 2003 at the age of 45 and each year, on the same date, the Wayei gather by his graveside to remember him.

They idolise him as a revolutionary leader who took a bold stand against the government and challenged the chieftainship Act. Under the Act, only the Bangwato, Bangwaketsi, Bakgatla, Bakwena, Batlokwa, Barolong, Balete and the Batawana were constitutionally recognised as the major tribes in the country while the rest were called minority groups.
Kamanakao cried out for the equal recognition of each tribe. He reclaimed his lost stand as the Wayei paramount chief, an issue that sent ripples throughout the country that an ethnic tribe was about to evoke a war.

As the Setswana proverb goes, 'Ntwa kgolo ke a molomo', in 2001, Kamanakao and his people took government to court, lobbying for the revision of the Chieftainship Act. The ruling came out in the Wayei favour. The High Court's judgement was that the constitution should be amended and each tribe equally recognised.

'But to our surprise,  the government hasn't amended the constitution in the way the court ruled. The same recognised tribes are the ones who were given another opportunity to nominate additional members to the House of Chiefs, an issue that hasn't solved the case of each tribe nominating its rightful royal blood chief and sending him to represent the tribe like the rest. We the Wayei are still considered as subordinates of the Batawana and as such we have taken the stand to appeal our case through the Minority Rights Group in Geneva, Switzerland. This is what Kamanakao instructed before his death that the case should be appealed,' Professor Lydia Ramahobo-Nyati said.

When the trees cast tall shadows to the east and the sun set on the western horizon, Wayei who had spent the whole day singing, dancing and engaging in meetings, filed behind veteran opposition party politician Kejetswe Motsamai Mpho, the Shikati and some elders.
Mpho led them to the cenotaph where he knelt down before laying the wreath. Messages of remembrance were read out and the last prayer read to conclude the day's proceedings.
As the Wayei disperse, hope is written on their faces that government would one day heed their cry and constitutionally recognise their Shikati.