Facebook helps trace "original owners of Gaborone"

NNASARETHA KGAMANYANE
Correspondent | Monday June 4, 2012 00:00

Chief Curator at the National Museum in Gaborone Philip Segadika said this as he recounted the history of one of the country's heritage sites, the Bonnington Silos, which used to be owned by the Dan Le Cordeur Senior's family.

The national museum and art gallery last week held    a seminar to celebrate the International Museum Day .

Segadika said that after seeing the Bonnington Silos story in Mmegi newspaper of 2005 they later in 2006 discovered a capsule or bottle that looked like a mayonnaise bottle. He said that in it, to their surprise, they found a letter dated 1963 from Dan Le Cordeur Snr himself.

Dan Le Cordeur was a white settler who came from Cape Town in South Africa and his father was of French Huguenot descent and owned the entire land from Broadhurst to the foot of Kgale Hill, according to the curator.

His farm was at Mogoditshane near The Grand Palm Hotel where his two silos are still standing opposite the Bonnington shopping centre, which used to be his trading centre. According to  Segadika, the letter said much about Cordeur's life. How he feared for his children and his wishes that they would turn into great and successful citizens. 'In it he mentioned his fears of losing his land as African countries were then gaining independence.

Trouble was in the air and he was afraid that maybe Botswana, like Zimbabwe, would take their land from them,' he explained. Segadika said that at the time Cordeur wrote about his five children, his last born Dan Le Cordeur was four years old.

'We were excited after realising that by then one of his children might still be alive and we looked everywhere even in the achieves for information about the family, but came up with nothing,' Segadika said.  He said that as facebook allows groups to enter the site they searched for his family and were happily surprised as they successfully traced them within three to four days.

In May 2010 they were able to trace Cordeur Junior who, unfortunately, passed away two months later in a tragic train accident. According to Segadika Cordeur Jr had visited  Botswana riding a Mountain Bike and as an adventurous man slept at the silos that he called 'my home'.

Segadika said that Cordeur Jr told them more about their lives and enriched them with more information concerning the farm where the silos  are still located. He said that Corduer Jr told them about the trading centre - from where they sold their livestock and leathers - which is now known as the Bonnington Mall.

Segadika says that even though they lost Corduer Jr, they did not stop looking for the other members of the  family who at the time were afraid to open up about their history. However, thanks to facebook the family  would later open up and share with the museum invaluable information.

'The family has worked well with us and even asked us to write a book about their father. They have even sent us letters and their pictures of that time. They sent us their pictures and amongst them is Yvonne's wedding, pictures that show a water tank whose remains are still at the farm near the silos,' Segadika told the gathering. He thanked facebook and urged the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism to let the museums have a website where they can be able to share information with the community because 'there are people out there who still hold some rich information about the heritage of this country'.

He said that if they succeeded at registering their organisation on facebook they would be able to explore more heritage sites and information for the benefit of everyone, especially the young generation.