Keep your culture, we don't need it.

I beg the indulgence of this blog's followers. My Internet bandwidth is now so heavily constricted that my blog administrators really have to bend over backwards, and "manually" enable me to post. For their help, I am eternally grateful.

There have been at least two occasions when the citizens of Botswana (Batswana) needed to feel like a united and proud nation. On both occasions Professor Thapelo Otlogetswe wrote articles that went against the grain of national sentiment. The first occasion was during preparations for the latest "Son of the Soil" festival. Professor Otlogetswe wrote a war "poem" in his column in the Telegraph newspaper. The poem praised the war gallantry of the Tswana-speaking tribes and ignored the Kalanga speaking tribes. The impression created was that the Tswana speaking tribes are more deserving of the title "Son of the Soil" than are Kalanga speaking tribes. After reading Otlogetswe's poem, I decided that even if I were anywhere near the venue of the festival, I would not attend.

The second ocassion was the recent campaign in Kigali Rwanda by Botswana's candidate, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, to succeed Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as African Union Commission Chairperson. All Batswana needed to "own" and embrace the candidacy of Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi. For this to happen we as Batswana needed to feel united and proud to be one nation. However, Professor Otlogetswe's article titled "Why Setswana must be made Botswana's official language" in the same Linguist Chair collumn of July 13 Telegraph newspaper, does nothing to foster such a  spirit of nationhood among our people.  He writes "...For full national unity to occur Batswana must not only be united by a flag and a national anthem, they must be united by a common language and culture..." The language and culture referred to here of course are the SeTswana language and culture.

To show how impracticable Professor Otlogetswe's recommendation/prescription is let me quote from Dr. Jeff Ramsay's collumn "Back 4D future". In the Monitor newspaper of 11 July 2016, under the title "The orphan and the ants part 15 - The howling wind of Tshosa", Jeff Ramsay writes "...The wedlock of Sechele's parents thus conformed to the Setswana ideal of cross cousin marriage - "Ntsala wa motho ke mogatse: ngwana wa rrangwana nnyale, kgomo di boele sakeng" ("A man's cousin is his wife: child of my paternal uncle marry me so that the cattle may return to the kraal")..."

Dr Ramsay's article attests to the culturally acceptable practice by the Tswana tribes, especially the royalty among them, to marry their first cousins (children of their paternal uncles). In the Kalanga culture that I am aware of there is one English word that describes that practice - incest!  As a Kalanga, I consider children of my paternal uncles to be my brothers and sisters - no different from my own mother's and father's children. Only a mad Kalanga would sleep with, or marry his/her paternal cousin.

So how does an incestuous culture become an adopted national culture? There is simply no way that that can happen. Professor Otlogetswe should just forget about forcing his language and incestuous culture on us Kalangas; end of story!

Page of horror

The "Opinion/Analysis" page in the Telegraph newspaper of July 13 is, in my opinion a piece of horror; not because of Sonny Serite's excellently written appeal for support for the Botswana candidate to the position of Chairman of African Union Commission; not because the said candidate, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, is facing a tough battle from other contenders; but rather because in spite of such a desperate need for national unity in our country at this time, the paper has chosen to include on the same page a most reactionary appeal by Professor Thapelo Otlogetswe, titled "Why Setswana must be made Botswana's official language".

I read through Serite's appeal before scanning the page to Otlogetswe's column. When I reached the end of Serite's article, I felt that he had "spoken" for me. Then my eyes scanned past Ma-Moitoi's picture and across to Otlogetswe's article. At this time I would rather not describe how I felt. Suffice it to say that I caught myself wondering aloud "Is this what her chairmanship of the African Union Commission will  strive to achieve for my country?".

At the end of the vote for African Union Chairman, I wonder if Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi will consider Professor Otlogetswe's article to have been a help or a hindrance.