Why every Motswana must watch Pula

Setswana is the first indigenous language south of Ethiopia to have a complete Christian Bible - Bibela ee Boitshepo. Robert Moffat gave us, first, the New Testament in 1840 and later on the Old Testament in 1857, according to historian, Neil Parsons.

This is probably why Batswana got to be so peaceful because we have long learnt about Christ in our own language. In 2016 when Botswana was looking back during the celebrations of 50 years of independence, many Batswana never took a chance to reflect beyond September 1966 and search for “What does it really mean to be a Motswana?”

That year, one young man that actually introspected much deeper and beyond 50 years was Andrew Kola with a dance production titled Pula. Kola staged Pula in April 2016 during the Maitisong Festival with Mophato Dance Theatre. A month later that year,  in May precisely, when the play returned by popular demand at the Stanbic Bank Piazza, I rightly predicted in Mmegi’s sister paper, The Monitor writing, “Pula is turning out to be one of Botswana’s greatest theatre productions”.  After its Broadway debut last week, I am happy to say I have been greatly and deservedly vindicated. I believed Kola picked the best story that identifies our heritage and, to a larger extent, a whole reason why our great forefathers decided to settle on this arid land.

Editor's Comment
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