However, with the hills that have been around for thousands years and also possess beautiful artefacts, one would expect to find residents of Tsodilo living better and using their heritage site to change their lives. Tsodilo remains a settlement with a handful of people. Recently, the Tsodilo Trust in collaboration with the National Museum, the Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sports and Culture, the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation, Chobe Holdings and other stakeholders hosted the Tsodilo Hills Heritage Walk in order to promote tourism at the village.
Addressing the gathering, the deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) Masego Mooketsi, urged the Tsodilo community to preserve and look after their heritage sites. Mooketsi applauded them for this year’s theme that focused on conserving their heritage. She said it is a good thing that the residents through their trust and leaders united nearby villages such as Etsha 1 to 13, Sepopa, Xamasere, Ikoga and others. They came up with management strategy as a way of conserving and removing risks that would negatively affect their heritage sites. She encouraged them to continue with such strategies so that they could earn a living through those heritage sites. “Also bear in mind that people from the museum are there to help you conserve these heritage sites with the regulations and guidelines that are already in place to help take care of these sites. You are on the right track of taking care of your heritage sites because they are too many. I have been told that there are about 4,500 rock art paintings found in 400 locations. This is a great task that needs knowledge, researchers who will help with knowledge that you convey to tourists. That knowledge should be able to be traced back. That information has to be preserved,” she said.
