Bakgatla National School to celebrate 90 years

CHIPPA LEGODIMO
Staff Writer | Friday July 12, 2013 00:00

 

Ninety years ago the then Bakgatla regent Kgosi Isang Pilane lead a successful project of building the first school in the district Bakgatla National School whose building currently houses the Phuthadikobo Museum in Mochudi.The tribe now plans to celebrate the existence of this treasured building and the achievements of Kgosi Isang who led the morafe after the death of Kgosi Lenchwe I in the early 1920s.He ruled during trying times when Western civilisation was literally taking over. 

Missionaries and their mission schools drew mixed reactions from various Batswana tribes and their leaders. While some acknowledged their positive impact some suspicious traditionalists viewed them as a way white supremacist eroded African traditions.However, some, like Kgosi Isang, seemed to acknowledge that while they served a good purposed and a step into modern education, the mission schools taught only the basics, hence the idea of a 'proper school'. This building of historical significance was only converted into a museum in 1975 after a district council resolution.Bakgatla National School was built between 1921 and 1923 under the leadership of Kgosi Isang and the Mafiri and Machechele mephato.

It is reported that his initiative was the first deliberate attempt anywhere in Botswana to take education beyond elementary level, which was provided in mission schools.It looked like a big mountain to climb then, but the visionary tribal leader would not even be deterred by the fact that building materials had to be hand-carried up the Phuthadikobo hill, which hosts the edifice.Kgosi Isang is quoted in Wikipedia as having said in 1933, 'I found that there were already an accumulated number of problems facing people owing to change that has taken place around them and their inability to adapt ourselves as a tribe to the new world conditions, the people must have some insight of the world around them understand the forces that encircle them closer and closer as time goes on, enable them to react to these forces.

This understanding was lacking and was in fact conspicuous by its absence.  It became quite obvious that this understanding must be instilled and with the greatest possible speed'.A dress rehearsal for the big day, however, is planned for August 10 when a traditional lunch event will be held.Assistant curator Khumo Ntsepe has told Arts & Culture that although a date has not been set for the commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the building, they would be selling tickets for the Traditional Lunch event to raise funds for the big day.'Tickets will be going between P100 and P160 and we will be serving almost all the traditional dishes like Bogobe Jwa Lerotse, Morogo Wa Dinawa, Mosutlhane, Lengangale, Madila and Kabu,' Ntsepe said.Traditional music and dance will also be abundant during the event, according to Ntsepe.  Popular Bakgatla traditional poets are also expected to grace the event.

'We believe the August 10 event will give people an idea of what a big day we want to have when we celebrate the existence of this building.  We want others to share our pride and we would like the whole tribe and any person interested to come during the commemoration,' Ntsepe said.