Goo-Moremi: A place of unspoilt gorges and amazing folklore

Thalefang Charles
Staff Writer | Friday July 19, 2013 00:00

 

For instance, it is said that in the morning of July 13, 1980 between 2am and 5am the villagers of Goo-Moremi heard a loud rumbling as a huge rock tumbled from the gorge above. The rock falling, the story goes, was a sign or message that someone of great importance had passed on. That morning, sad news came through that the first president of Botswana and paramount chief of Bangwato Sir Seretse Khama had died. Apparently the village elders already knew about the death of a leader through their ancestors.

Goo-Moremi (not to be confused with Moremi Game Reserve in the Okavango Delta) is located on the northern end of the Tswapong Hills next to Botswana's most scenic gorge called Mononnye-Moremi Gorge -- about 40km from Palapye. It is said to be the ancestral home of the Bapedi/Batswapong. Together with a group of adventurous friends, now known as 'Maraka', we arrived at Goo-Moremi Gorge Lodge at twilight after scaling the Tswapong Hills on a painstaking hike from the Old Palapye ruins.

We set up camp at the Lodge which, unlike the Old Palapye site, has excellent camping facilities complete with hot water showers and luxury chalets. After quick showers it was time for Goo-Moremi bedtime stories. And the best way to consume folklore is to sit around the fire at night -- Ian Khama style. The ladies have prepared dinner; dumplings with braaied beef, chicken stew and chakalaka -- these meals taste delicious in the bush.Sparks from the burning Mophane wood disappears into the cold air as the sober colleagues eat smoked marshmallow sweets; apparently they are tasty, but tonight with my sore muscles, a beer would do. The support team did a good job by restocking the cooler box at Palapye. Even though a friend warned us that sex, drugs and alcohol are forbidden in Goo-Moremi, the beer goes down without incident; in any case we are just clueless tourists.

As we chat about the day's epic walk through the hills we are joined by the lodge's night watchman, Isaac Kwadiba, who turns out to be an amazing storyteller and a great charmer who dearly calls a beautiful woman 'leraka' (pumpkin).Under the beautiful night sky; bright stars with a seemingly tangible Milky Way, and logs of Mophane tree crackling, Goo-Moremi stories unfold. We hear of a tiny village with extraordinary legends of sacred ancestral spirits and mammoth lighting snakes that cry out like goats and travel with swarms of extra-large flies.The folklore of deep pools below the steep gorges that spit you out if you accidentally fall into them -- pools with sacred water that is much more effective than prophet TB Joshua's anointing water from Nigeria. As moonlight filters through the tall trees, the scary thought of lighting snakes crossed our minds so our excellent storyteller switched to his personal accounts of his stay at the South African mines. 

Narrating in an entertaining Fanakalo language -- a hybrid lingua of the mineworkers who came from around southern Africa, Kwadiba shared stories of hard men that worked inside the belly of the earth digging for gold. He told about the fighting Sotho men with their knobkerries, the tough Zulus, the strict makulo baas (boss), the camaraderie songs, the enterprising women who frequented the hostels and how they were charmed. He recounted his pivotal sad story of how he lost his sewing machine due to some bad advice leading to poor packaging in transit from the mines. He rues that fateful day saying: 'Nako tse nkabo ke na le leraka lame, ke sa sitwe ha, ke humile' (I could be rich, warm in bed with my wife). The following day when we embarked on the Gorge Trail we insisted on someone that knew his or her game because we did not want a lousy guide like the one we were assigned at Old Palapye.  Gaongalelwe (Gao) Mokwape raised her hand and she turned out to be an amazing guide. She taught us about the trees found in the area and also narrated the history of the Bapedi.She gave us accounts of Kgosi Senwedi's son of Mapulane who came from South Africa and settled with his tribe at Goo-Moremi. She informed us that those seeking ancestral deliverance must first arrange with the komana (an intermediary who communicates and translates between ancestors -- apparently there is only one of a kind in the village) from the kgotla on a different visit.

Gao showed us the 'Sir Seretse Khama alarm stone' which fell during his death in 1980. The thought of a falling stone as a sign of thedeath of someone important made us uneasy because of Nelson Mandela's 'critical condition' stories. Will the ancestors drop a boulder while we are in the gorge if dies? We also learnt that Goo-Moremi gorges are the nesting place for the Cape Vulture (Gyps caprotheres) and the Black Eagle (Aquila erreauxil). A telescope has been mounted at the third pool for tourists to view the birds and their nests. The pools with crystal clear water have abundant birdlife. It is an amazingly quiet place with soothing sounds of quiet waterfalls. It is this water that many villagers and most Bapedi/Batswapong regard as medicinal. We hear that many pilgrims travel here to fetch this water. Since we came here as tourists, with a tourist guide and not a komana, stakes are different and we could only quench our thirst with the water.