More than any institution in the country, UB are a symbol of national triumph over adversity. Proudly built by a people left in the sun after the makeshift Lesotho based outfit was nationalised by a madman, the university is a perfect example self-reliance and sacrifice. The university’s gesture is consistent with its character. It was built out of denial of educational refugee status. The people of Botswana were kicked out of a standing arrangement upon which they depended for their children education. They have since built an institution that compares with the best in the region; one with a heart as big as the world itself and it has proved just that.
I was reduced to tears by the report that the institution has assumed full responsibility for the tuition and related costs of at least four refugee children from the Dukwi refugee camp who excelled in their High School Examinations. These are children who for reasons of which they have absolutely no control, find themselves in very difficult circumstances. They were born to and into adversity. They are refugees. I cannot imagine a more difficult state to be in than to live as another person’s pleasure, with hardly any civil rights to claim. In a world full of adversity, hope is what drives us on. When a hopeless situation is illuminated with such a precious gesture of kindness, one cannot help feeling, even for the fleeting moment, that he was born in the right country. In the words of Martin Luther king, the university has hewed out of their mountain of despair, a stone of hope. It has transformed the jingling discords of their lives into a beautiful symphony of hope.
