Resilience against negative connotations :: Mmegi Online

It is possible that a name may have a bearing in the personality of an individual. However, in the case of Tobokani Rari whose first name simply suggests negative connotations of capitulating and giving up, in Ikalanga, the Botswana Federation of Public, Private and Parastatal Sector Unions’ (BOFEPUSU) secretary-general says the name has never instilled that in him. If anything, it has induced hard work in him to defy all odds. Mmegi Staffer RYDER GABATHUSE engages the trade unionist in a Q&A on his birthday week

MMEGI: Tell us about yourself. Who is Rari? Where do you come from and your beliefs?

RARI: I am TOBOKANI NICHOLAS RARI, the fifth born child of Rari Dichaba Madzipisa and Thamani Rari (nee Lungwane), born on 21st March 1969, and as such, Tuesday 21st this week, was my birthday. I have six siblings, three sisters and three brothers, which means that my mother and father had four boys and three girls. My father originates from Nshakazhogwe village in the northern Central District, about 60 Kms from Francistown towards Tutume. He was a subsistence farmer who, at some point, did work as a labourer for the Botswana Railways and his job entailed maintaining the railway line whenever it got damaged. He had no formal education, safe for life skills he acquired through practical life activities.

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