Balete revive bojale

| Monday August 26, 2013 00:00

 This was probably premised on the realisation that Batswana were losing their identity and their being by ignoring their culture. The loss of culture is a big problem for any nation and it is important that Batswana wake up to this reality and embrace their different cultures.In recent times, different tribes in Botswana have been working hard to revive their cultures. This is all meant to pass it on to the younger generation which seems to be losing ground on the traditions of this society. The young generation is more into aligning themselves with foreign cultures.We are not in any way suggesting that it is wrong to borrow from other cultures but it is important that we adopt the right things.

We applaud Balete for reviving their initiation school. On Saturday, the Balete welcomed the new initiates from Bojale. This is the second batch of initiates as last year, they welcomed back boys from Bogwera. Balete have for a long time stopped the initiation schools and they have woken up to reality that culture is very important for their people. It is good that this time everything seemed to have gone well unlike last time when there were reports that an initiate died in the process. This was however denied by those in charge.

The imitation schools have in recent times in South Africa attracted bad publicity as many boys lost their lives. The problem was that a lot of these schools were not licenced and as such they could not be regulated. Unhygienic methods were employed in some of the activities which led to some initiates losing their lives.We believe that back home everything is done properly and above board.  This is probably why there is no bad publicity around the initiation schools. Bakgatla have taken the lead in initiation schools and other tribes can learn a lot from them in this regard.

Just last week, Batlokwa were celebrating their annual culture day. In no time Bakwena will be doing the same in the famous Dithubaruba. We believe that the younger generation is learning a lot from these events.The older generation will soon be giving way to the new generation and it will be a disappointment if this generation is going to fail the upcoming generations by not learning the ropes now.