This long overdue recognition is a step in the right direction for one of the most overlooked and underdeveloped job creating sectors in the country.
With the task of developing native administrators for the newly independent nation high on its list of priorities, Botswana embarked on the arduous task of educating its people. Together with its development partners, Batswana put their hands to the plough and never looked back. In that race to produce homegrown engineers, teachers, doctors, architects, technicians, lawyers, accountants and the like, anyone viewed as unresponsive to the rallying call was seen as noxious to the nation's newfound ethos.
Batswana who secretly and openly entertained thoughts of being musicians, dancers, actors, writers, comedians, actors, poets, photographers, painters, or sculptors, precursors of today's graphic designers, were viewed with disdain. How dare they waste their God-given talents trying to be artists instead of using them to build up the country's human resource capacity?
