Motswana is a calabash

RAMPHOLO MOLEFHE
Correspondent | Friday October 12, 2007 00:00

 

This versatile receptacle, in the rainy seasons or in drought, sits mouth agape and facing the sky to capture the raindrops that the Badimo may on that rare occasion be willing to part with.

For the most part of the season, the year, or decade, the nkgwana will absorb the relentless pounding of the scorching sun in the undying hope that, when the Gods are ready, they will release a few more drops of pula.

Even in the hottest of seasons the nkgwana will keep what there is of the drinking water cool enough to quench the thirst of the fatigued herdboy, or the visitor from across the village, who must always enjoy the most hospitable of welcomes.

The Motswana is a rain man, built to withstand the intolerances of the unkind skys that are ever so selfish with water bearing clouds that must feed the grass, fill the rivers and wet the 'masimo' where the women fetch the mabele, magapu and makgomane in times of letlhafula.

The Motswana is also the Mosarwa who has for over 80,000 years withstood the cooking heat of the Makhadikgadi of the Kgalagadi, systematically touring the soils of the desert for food, medicinal herbs, and the ostrich eggs that, keep the water at strategic sidings along the seasonal trail that the women folk have designed over centuries.

His temperament is as 'cool' as the belly of the calabash and the ostrich egg that remains resistant to the blazing heat of the Northwestern hinterlands.

Strangers, deceived by his ever gaping mouth, will take the Motswana for a fool, 'a mogo', the epitome of the undiscerning savage who cannot be trusted with any item of civilisation.

Not good governance, the science of creating livelihood - otherwise tagged as economics in European terms - or even civil social interaction.

Belonging to the greater flock of godless and uncultured African society, the Motswana would have been expected to fail at the practice of democracy, capitalism and good behaviour which shuns war.

Even as the Motswana has not benefited from the windfall of forced labour such as the slave trade which brought capitalist America and Europe to where they are now, he still boasts an exceptional acumen for good management of development resources, even though that talent is under persistent erosion resulting from unquestioning embrace of western capitalist values.

He has learnt - and trained the world - to govern without aimless war.  He has learnt - though much of that is getting lost - to govern by humilty, a good sense of fairness, and the fear of God.

It is not like the Motswana to deliberately deceives his brothers about the noble intention to mine the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve for the good of all, when he in fact seeks to exclude the indigenous peoples living in the immediate surroundings - Yes, the Basarwa and the Bakgalagadi - of the benefits of such development.

It is not like the Motswana to cheat his toiling brother of a good return on his labour, to tax everything that his brother could buy to sustain himself whilst at work, and to deprive him of a place to rest his head when the sun goes down.

It is not like the Motswana to steal land -refer to the Kgabo and Christie reports, thereby revoking the spirit of the founding words of the nation: 'Fatshe leno la rona, ke mpho ya Modimo'.

It is not like the Motswana is to seek from the village council, money for cutting grass far beyond the value of the work that was done, and then to demand, as if by legitimate entitlement, from the Kgotla. 

It is not like the Motswana to kill for food, sex or money. There shall be an increased occurrence of these social aberrations due to continued incentivisation by government and its institutions, of women living outside of the family of father, mother and children.

It is unlike the Motswana to seek knowledge of the family secrets of his neighbour: his pocket, his wife, and his spirit.  Why then an intelligence and security law in addition to the DCEC, the National Security, the Penal Code and several other laws according to which the police have been eavesdropping on private citizens and searching their bank accounts and post boxes?

The nkgwana cracks when there is a disproportionate mix of sand and water to create a resilient mix of clay.  The nkgwana will crack if it is not properly baked so as to heighten its capacity to absorb the heat on the outside in contrast to the cooler tempratures on the inside.

Continued polarization of the propertied classes in contrast to continuing impoverishment of the propertyless and lower income earners does not bode well for a nkgwana mould that will sustain the unifying characterstics of the Motswana's personality.

Soon, calm under the summer heat and drought will be transformed into anger, anti- establishmentarianism anti-social riotous behaviour among the large majority that has been excluded or ignored in the distribution of the resources and benefits of post-independence development.

Economic polarization of the laboring lot and their employers will continue as long as the means of production reside in the hands of a small national elite that is itself under constant threat of marginalization by the larger and infinitely more resourced international groupings that drive the new imperialism in the modern form of 'globalisation'.

In that regard the Motswana will continue to fade, like the Zulu, Masai, Bemba, Afro-American and Indigenous American into the larger almulgum that - for lack of  a more creative label - may be classified as the international working class.

In other words, even as ethnicity - the group pride of the Ikalanga, Bakgalagadi, Basarwa, Batswapong - seeks proper recognition under the present form of the nation state, Botswana in this case, the country and its boundaries will receive lesser and lesser recognition as globalisation or 21st century capitalism envelopes the world. But of course, this will not be a random process.