ETECETERA II

SANDY GRANT | Thursday May 9, 2013 00:00

What had happened to him, I asked, apart from the fact that, as reported in the Sunday Standard of 3rd September, he was not intending to stand in next year's election. Why he died, didn't you know? I didn't - but expressed surprise that this could have happened without my having heard. Check the internet and see for yourself. I did and there it was, a Wikepedia entry which reported that Charles died, somewhat surprisingly, at the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland in 2009; that there was a huge memorial service, and that his degree in international relations, international economics and international law from Oxford University was put in the college degree hall of fame. It added that he had worked at the Ministry of Home Affairs and at a number of foreign missions before entering the private sector and becoming managing director of Gaborone Delta. Other internet entries, however, made no reference to his passing. Why on earth would anyone post such an entry, how long it has been on the internet and why has no one taken steps to have it removed? When people are mistakenly reported as having died, the person involved usually takes the matter lightly.

There are likely to be distant friends however who would have no means of knowing that such a report is dead wrong, and would undoubtedly be distressed. On the other hand, the supposedly deceased people may be amused to read the appreciative comments made about them after their 'death' that were never made about them when they were still alive! When Sidwell Gabatshwane reviewed Isaac Schapera's Bogwera in Kutlwano in 1979 he mentioned that the author was dead. Schap took the news of his passing very coolly suggesting to me by letter that, 'the reference to me as 'late' was amusing but I suppose should be corrected. Would you feel like dropping a note to the editor saying that you have been authorised by me, from my London address, to inform the readers of the journal that I am still alive (or at least was on the date given above i.e. 3rd March). Gabatshwane's mistake was understandable. When anyone of us are out of sight for any length of time, the presumption is usually that we have gone on to higher places. The Tibone account is something very different.

Death real or imagined has been very much in the news recently and having recounted last week the extraordinary saga of the eventual burial of our Odi friend Javas Masuku, I am almost obligated to stick with the topic. Not that it is difficult to do so because of the latest horrible development with the five young lads from Odi in court charged with murdering a night watchman in Gaborone.  In the last few weeks there has been much comment about the numerous ills that beset the young. Whether those ills had some influence on those five will eventually be learnt. But this is supposed to be a society which is profoundly influenced in its attitude to life by its affiliation and commitment to, either one of the Christian churches or to Islam, whose message appears to be in so many ways, the same.  Yet we continue to steal, brutalise and murder.

Has any researcher at UB, or elsewhere, attempted to establish if there is any link between the more serious criminals of the last, say 10 years, and the faiths to which the   country is committed. What was and what is the family religious background of those who now steal, harm women, kill. Is it possible that not one of them had affiliations, were family members, had mothers perhaps, who  were Catholics, Congregationalists, Lutherans, members of Apostolic Churches, the ZCC or Muslims. Last week, I told how a very small part of the Odi community had so generously responded so that a penniless foreigner could be given a proper burial. Now it must be the moment to remember, and try to learn, from the career of the once-upon- a-time notorious Ramatlotlo who I have always believed, came from Mochudi.In his younger days, he was clever, unusually inventive, and took particular delight in giving the police the run-around.

He must have spent time in prison. In the upshot, however, he converted to Islam and with much support, became an entirely new self-respecting person who I met from time to time. I was saddened to learn, when I recently asked about him, that he had died some time ago. But how gratifying to learn however that when he died, the community (essentially Muslim) turned out to give him, an erstwhile crook, a well attended, decent burial.  What was achieved with this one unusual individual was remarkable. Hopefully the churches have had similar success stories in re-habilitating individuals who have gone off the rails.