Dithubaruba Cultural Festival is fast approaching as it is billed for August 31st and this year the venue is Ntsweng, the old location of the Bakwena capital before it moved to Molepolole. Dithubaruba showcases Kwena culture. After visiting the Kgosi Sechele I Museum where there is a hive of activity in preparation for the festival, I came to realise that there is one piece missing from the history of this tribe; Kgosi Sechele's cannon. This is the cannon that David Magang glorifies in his book, The Magic of Perseverance. In this book Magang talks about Kgosi Sechele in a deeply reverend way and one can tell that indeed he is a man he adores mightily. This is what inspired me to begin a thorough search for information regarding this article of war.
In a Mafikeng museum sits an old relic of war which for some reason has changed many hands and in the process traversing seas and crossing borders. This is King Sechele's cannon. I arrived here quite early in the morning and my mission was to conduct a reconnaissance of the location where this cannon is held. It is now in the hands of the museum manager Mr Sello Mashile. The first question I posed to him was why this cannon was here instead of Kweneng. He was not aware of the fact that the first African to own this weapon of war was Kgosi Sechele. He was only aware that it belonged to Kgosi Montshiwa of Barolong. He plainly declared that he was not informed of the history of any of the artefacts in their possession beyond the famous Mafikeng siege. In this museum this important piece of history is known to belong to Kgosi Montshiwa, given to him as a trophy from Kgosi Sechele, whatever that means.Another story that is making rounds here is that this cannon was sold to Kgosi Montshiwa for only 20 oxen. In fact the two tribal leaders were friends and Sechele attended Montshiwa's funeral just three days after his death and this pushes for the theory that Monshiwa borrowed this article of war when the Boers were giving him sleepless nights. Another theory originating from Kweneng is that Sechele pawned it for an unspecified number of horses that he badly needed at the time. So there are several theories here and my mission is to explore them all and arrive at a reasonable conclusion on how this cannon ended up in Mafikeng as well as the origins of the weapon. Power Kawina who is the manager of Kgosi Sechele I Museum says this cannon is full of mystery. This article of history is well-preserved and remains in pristine condition, both the wood (which has been replaced) and the metal tubing of the cannon, thanks to a dry Mafikeng weather. One wonders if we could have something to show if this relic of war was left here in Botswana because of our lack of enthusiasm towards our historic past.
