Once described, what more was there to say? It is unfortunate that there should be common understanding between the 'simple buildings for simple people' which is the unavoidable implication of the 'no history' advocates, and those in the government responsible for Culture. The latter seeks desperately for information about the kinds of homes that were built by all the varied peoples of this country before they came in contact with travellers from the western world from, say, 1805 to Livingstone in the 1850s, who introduced the rectangular building, 90% corners, commercially made nails, hammers, and all the others bits and pieces which were part and parcel of oxwaggon life. Surviving examples of those long lost 'traditional' buildings can no longer be found and it is a mistaken policy, which would even want to do so. Everything about post Independence Botswana concerns change. Independence meant change. The history of this country prior to Independence is all about change and adaptation. Nevertheless, the old view was that this place, between say, 1805 and 1966, was stuck, frozen fast, nothing moved and nothing changed. Huge changes were taking place all around it, new tools, new techniques, new ways of life and political ideas, new laws, new food, new clothes, new everything.
The rest of the world was on the move, this country, supposedly isolated from all that excitement knew nothing, experienced nothing, met no new ideas, had no trade contacts, was a nothing place in the middle of nowhere. You can buy into that kind of scenario if you so chose. Nevertheless, the way Batswana reacted to those influences and choose to build their homes changed with those new ideas and opportunities. They moved forward. In contrast, the government when pushing that vastly expensive Cultural Village at Toutswe Mogala, insists on presenting to tourists a fictional re-creation of a society prior to the advent of major change. With its left and right hands out of sync it is unable to project a consistent message that that this country's history is a continuity between then and now.
