It is disheartening to realize that a good number of people in this country hardly ever sing the national anthem.This is mostly not out of choice but because we are hardly ever where it is sung. Believe it or not even at Independence Day many have not sung our anthem simply because activities that used to bring us together at Dikgotla are either not there or they are no longer as interesting. Mostly the same people sing the National Anthem myriad times. This is not because they are more patriotic but because they are always invited to official activities where political leaders are involved. We sure should be doing more otherwise it will soon be extinct. Oh since Independence day was on Sunday we sang this great hymn composed by this Congregationalist son of this soil.
When I reflected on the day, as I kept singing this great and beautiful hymn, something hit me. I realized that singing it to its prescribed notation we say something we do not intend to say though true. This is so because of the notes that account for rona in the first line of the first stanza. As most of us understand some bit of tonic sol-fa, whereby the notes of the major scale are named in an ascending way: doh, ray, me,fah,soh,lah, te, doh I hope I will manage to describe the musical picture painted by notes attached to the said word "rona." This word is a possessive qualificative and it is supposed to refer or qualify us-Batswana as owners of Botswana.
