Thupa gae bolae, e bolaya peba

After thrashing an offending child, a Motswana elder would soothe the weeper with these words: “ Thupa gae bolae, e bolaya peba (a little spanking can kill only a rat.”At the kgotla a recalcitrant young man is made to bend over and lashed on bare buttocks.

The elders would then say “Ya mosimane ke e nkgwe (a boy deserves a canning”.

They did not discriminate who should get larruping or not.

Editor's Comment
The Boko-led administration has to tread carefully

‘When you make peace withyourself, you make peace with the world’- Maha GhosanandaThis may come at a huge cost if not handled properly. What started off on Labour Day in Letlhakane this year, where Boko was in attendance when the militant lawyer-cum-trade unionist, Robert Rabasimane rebutted the President’s address in defence of the trade union has seemingly spiralled out of control. The issue is now creating a cat-and-mouse type of a...

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