Unpacking The Botswana Education Curriculum (II) - A Silent History (A Reflection)

But what is our actual history? Besides the accounts usually given in chronological order of how the year went by, but rather what was substantive in those years, that we can draw from, to validate our existence and experiences, if that is what we are looking for?!

Our history – pre colonial history that is – does not have the borders that initially rendered parts of our now Botswana, Goshen and other parts Stella-land Republic, eventually, Bechuanaland protectorate, before collecting us together, while violently separating us, and rendering us “Botswana”. It is the silence around all this and more, that I think is at the root of our misunderstandings and growing pains. There is silence about the initial absence of borders; borders that we were to later spend years constructing and entrenching. Silence around seeing ourselves before colonialism, and respecting those whose land we are actually now enjoying.