War at a funeral

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Monday September 10, 2012 00:00

However, the tribe leadership led by deputy paramount chief, Tsimane Mokgosi, publicly rebuked the family for their utterances.A member of the newly initiated Balete male regiment, a Mr Noge, started the war of words when he stood up, girded in traditional Balete regiment outfit, and announced that the deceased was actually sick when he joined the initiation school. That prompted the deceased's brother to stand up and 'clarify', 'Gaa lwala; ga a a tswa fa a lwala, ke mo okile' (he was not sick at all, when he left, I'm the one who had to look after him).Another family member, Joyce Makaka, who says she looked after Chaa during his short illness, narrated to the mourners how as fit as a fiddle Chaa left for the initiation school only to return very sickly.

However, Mokgosi told the mourners he could not disclose what goes on during the initiation ceremony because it is taboo. The deputy chief, who said he was speaking on behalf of Balete paramount chief, Mosadi Seboko, blamed a member of the family, Chaa's brother, who went to a local radio station announcing how they were made to drink concoctions that allegedly took Chaa's life.Mokosi said he had been sent to rebuke the family as well as to bid the deceased farewell. Mokgosi narrated how he knew the deceased. He said instead of blaming the initiation school for the death of Chaa, people should be celebrating the return of bogwera after 31 years. He however absolved the initiation school of Chaa's death, adding that the deceased concluded the exercise but could not attend the ceremony because he was ill in hospital.

According to Mokgosi, the initiation school ensured that whoever was not well was sent to hospital to be attended to adding that the deceased did not die in the forest, but at a government facility.The village headman, Mothusi Tsetse, praised the revival of bogwera, the initiation school. He said when the initiates returned on August 29, no one was missing, but said Chaa could not attend the initiation ceremony because he was in hospital. 'Let us go to bogwera, it was his time to go.' The area councillor Major Ntshonono described the deceased as a martyr for Balete culture. Chaa died on September 3