Correcting the name "Sebina"

I was listening to the radio sports bulletin the other day when the announcer tried, not very successfully to read the name Tjizwina, presented as the name of the village officially known as Sebina village. We Kalangas have never liked the Tswana name Sebina. The village is called Tjizwina by the vast majority of its inhabitants, who are Kalanga-speaking. But it has to be remembered that when an attempt was made to change the official name of the village from Sebina to Tjizwina, the attempt failed; the villagers stuck to the Tswana name Sebina. So what exactly is the correct name of that village?

The correct name of that village is the Kalanga phrase "Tjibi zina", which means the same as the Tswana "Sebi leina" , or (when shortened) "Sebi'ina". In English both mean "Sinning name". But wherein lies the sin? To figure that out you have to go back to the origin of man. The first holder of the title "Tjibi zina" belonged to the human work-group responsible for tying together the feet of cows during milking. In Kalanga the tribe is known as the Bakaya; a single member as Nkaya. The name reference "Nkaya" would have sounded very much like the name of the Anunnaki god "Enki". In Kalanga the god's name was rendered "I-Nki" or simply "Nka", meaning "the giver of life". And so the tribal work-group title of an Nkaya coincided with the name of the god Enki, and it was therefore considered a sin to use the title Nkaya/Nkaa  to refer to the tribesman. But what could people do? It was not as if it was a personal name, in which case it would have been swiftly changed. The "name" was actually a job title, and nothing could be done about it; sickening though it was to vocalise it in reference to a mere mortal. So a solution was worked out - simply refer to the human as "Sinning name", which in the Kalanga became "Tjibi zina".

The name "Tjibi zina" was probably the first casualty of the takeover by Reptilians, of humanity's affairs. Tjibi zina's work-group the Bakaya, was one of four work-groups collectively called the "Bathuwa" in Kalanga. The Reptilian Igigi who put the four workgroups together, to start the milk economy, referred to the four groups as "Barua" in their language, Sumerian/Arab/Coptic/Sotho/Tswana. The Kalangas gradually shifted from calling them "Bathuwa"  to calling them "Barwa", a corruption of the word "Barua". The four Barwa work-groups are the Bakaa, Bakwena, Bangwato, and Bangwaketse. The Reptilian Igigi viewed humanity as no more than milk workers; oh, and wives of course! But crucialy, they spoke to humanity in their own reptilian language - Sumerian/Arab/Coptic/Sotho/Tswana. Consequently humanity moved to adopt the language of their new gods, presumably as some sort of status symbol. This is the language which has corrupted the Kalanga base in almost every language on earth, from Shona to Mandarin, from Korean to English, from Japanese to Russian, from Khwe to Hawaian and Swahili.

And so the correct name of the village officially known as "Sebina" today is the Kalanga "Tjibizina" or the Tswana "Sebina" depending on your language preference. It is possible though that the Kalanga "Tjibizina" might initially have been abbreviated to a more palatable "Tji'zina", which name eventually "sound-creeped" to the current "Tjizwina".

Credit is duly given to Albert Malikongwa's poem Mitetembelo ye Baka Madandume, where I first learnt of the name "Tjibizina".

Reading ancient Kalanga right

The ancient spelling of Kalanga words is markedly different from modern spelling of the same words. This leads one to not understand many Sumerian record references that one would otherwise understand were the words written in modern Kalanga spelling. The most common difference is that the vowel was often omitted , especially at the end of a word. Some of the names of gods that the Sumerian records refer to  are certainly Kalanga language words.

The name of the goddess "Inanna" should be read "Inanana", meaning something "sweet", like pussy.
The name of Israelite priests - the "Essene", should be read "I si-sene" or "I sa-sene". Both pronunciations mean the same thing - "celibate". The root is "ku sena" which as we recently showed, means "to go under (something)" as in the case of the word "Sinai" or "tjisena nyemba".

Free-speech muzzling law

Some people may be wondering why I shut down my “nkalangaunozwida” blog. Well, there are several reasons, most significant of which is the imminent tabling of a “cybercrime law”. This is a draconian piece of legislation. In the guise of outlawing criminal behaviour such as online child pornography, cyber stalking, cyber bullying, the law will effectively silence not only social media, but mainstream news media as well:

“A person who wilfully, maliciously or repeatedly uses electronic communication of an offensive nature to disturb or attempt to disturb the peace, quiet or privacy of any person with no purpose to legitimate communication, whether or not a conversation ensues, commits an offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding P20 000 or to imprisonment of a term not exceeding one year, or both.”

The strife that is expected to characterise the next general elections in 2019 as a result of the Government outlawing use of a paper ballot at elections, and replacing such ballot with an electronic voting machine (EVM), is the probable reason why draconian legislation has to be aimed at computer use.

A strange facet of the legislation is the recurring phrase “by means of a computer or a computer system…” It is as if the intention is less about outlawing criminal activity than it is about outlawing use of a computer.  For example, it has always been a crime to “insult another person on the basis of race, colour, descent, nationality, ethnic origin, tribe or religion” regardless of the method by which such insult is uttered. The proposed bill’s pronouncement:

“A person who, by means of a computer or a computer system, insults another person on the basis of race, colour, descent, nationality, ethnic origin, tribe or religion commits an offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding P40 000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both” 

clearly shows that the computer and not the act per se, is being targeted for outlawing by this law.

In this day and age there is hardly any human activity that is done without use of a computer or computer system. Cameras, phones, note pads all have computers embedded in them. The law proposes to outlaw taking of photographs at accident scenes, purportedly to protect families of accident victims from seeing their maimed or killed relatives on social media before they are “officially” informed by the police. What this means is that relatives will first have to apply for police permission to take photographs at accident scenes. If the supposed “police” were somehow implicated in the “traffic-accident” you can imagine how difficult it would be, especially for relatives, to get permission to photograph such an “accident” scene! In a continent where “Intelligence Services” routinely arrange the demise of opposition activists in “traffic accidents”, outlawing of cameras at “accident” scenes might be just what the doctor ordered; for the “Security Services” of course.

Some people may wonder why there seems to be little or no civil society opposition to the proposed draconian legislation.  Close examination reveals a carefully laid out plan by the ruling party to blackmail the parliamentary opposition into helping pass the bill with very few, if any obstacles. There has been a rumour doing rounds in the press, that some prominent ruling party political leaders are in possession of illegally acquired and highly compromising extra-marital sex videos of some prominent opposition political leader/s, which videos they are threatening to release into cyberspace just before the 2019 general elections. Given such a scenario it is understandable why the concerned opposition political personalities and their supporters would be keen to support the proposed “anti-cybercrime” draconian legislation. The ruling party has almost literally grabbed the opposition by the b…..ls.

And so dear reader, this blog “myikalanga.blogspot.com” hereby falls silent too.

Maybe it's all fake news.

Suppose Spain imposes direct rule on Catalonia and then "suspends" it! That is what my friend says seems to be in the pipeline. I just laughed at the suggestion. I mean we are looking at the possibility of people dying here, aren't we?

And so this blog falls silent for good.

If you look at my Introduction and my Interests on this blog, you will see that the blog has achieved its objectives:

I have gone far back into history and (hopefully) helped bring you and me closer together.

I have, I believe, successfully traced Tswana language back to its Martian past, and thus debunked the myth that Sumerian/Coptic/Sotho/Tswana language has been spoken by Earthlings longer than Kalanga language.

None of the above would have been possible had they not commanded that I fall (ndiwe); had they not protected me for close to seventy years. Their most cryptic act of course was to suggest "hey demigod, how about fulfilling your mission now?"

And so, this blog falls silent for good.

My apologies, technology is playing tricks on me; it's not this blog that has fallen silent, but "nkalangaunozwida.blogspot.com". The blog "myikalanga.blogspot.com" may continue for a while longer.

Tswana language is killing our nation

It is no secret that our people are no longer able to speak English fluently. This form of acquired illiteracy is most evident among Kalanga-speaking ministers or should I say "deputy ministers" as that is where most of the hand-picked Kalanga political surrogates end up.

You see, Kalangas have to contend with learning two foreign languages - Tswana and English, whereas Tswana speakers only have to learn English. The result is an unbearable load of an unnecessary language. There is nothing wrong in learning a national language such as Kalanga or Tswana or Mbukushu, as long as the aim is to be able to converse/communicate with fellow citizens in our country, but it is quite unacceptable to be required to master that language, unless it is your own language. What I am saying is that non-Tswana speakers should not be required to learn Tswana at all, unless they want to be professional linguists. There should most certainly be no requirement that to get a job at Botswana Television one should speak Tswana, let alone be "fluent" in Tswana!

We Kalangas can win this fight for our language, for our right to bring up our children under our cultural tutelage, by not only refusing to speak Tswana at official gatherings, but by speaking our language at any gathering where a Tswana speaker uses Tswana. If a Tswana speaker rises in Parliament and speaks in Tswana language, then let a Herero rise and address same Parliament in Herero, let N-Khwa rise up and address same Parliament in Tjikhwa, let a Subiya rise up and address same Parliament   in TjiSubiya. Let the people refuse to bow to this insane imposition of Tswana culture on them.

Why is it that in the South African Parliament one can speak Zulu or Tswana or Afrikaans without adverse repercussions? We non Tswanas must throw off this yoke. This is after all our land! We cannot, and we should not expect any political party to have the courage to advance this course on our behalf. It is our fight.

Dump EVM case; take to the streets.

I am a computer, dear Reader; so are you. We both follow a logical process to arrive at decisions that we make. Almost daily we are "hacked" by those who successfully deceive us, albeit temporarily. Sometimes we need external inputs (leakers of otherwise inaccessible information) to recover from such hacks. Sometimes other recovery algorithms kick in to raise enough doubt to force us to investigate and "plug" the hack-hole. And yet we are the most sophisticated computer known to man, i.e to us!

So if the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) is a computer (and only Gabriel Seeletso thinks it is not) there is no  disputing the fact that it can be hacked. There is no need to prove that fact. A computer made by man is infact a hack into the brain of man! And if it is a hack into something more sophisticated than itself, it stands to reason that that something will not have any problem whatsoever hacking it (the computer) as long as access to the computer by the brain is provided.

Access by the brain to the EVM is fundamental to the "correct" functioning of the EVM. Left on its own, the EVM would probably not know that Jack has voted and that the person now waiting to vote is Jill and not Jack again! Some human input will have to constantly tell the EVM to "reset and get ready for next voter". Therein lies human access to the EVM; therein lies a potential hack opportunity. Even if it was to be assumed that the EVM will be so sophisticated as to be hooked to face-recognition software, there is still the human access necessary to extract the vote tallies. That is an opportunity for a hack.

That a computer can be hacked is not reason enough for a judge to rule that the EVM may not be used in the 2019 elections. Why this is so, is quite obvious. If the litigants manage to get hold of the exact model of EVM that is going to be used during 2019 elections; get hold of an expert who successfully hacks the EVM; then the EVM manufacturer can simply assure the judge that come election time, that particular "hole" in the EVM software will have been "plugged". And once revealed, that particular hole will most certainly be plugged. But that does not mean that there are NO other holes left. Most importantly, a judge may want to know if litigants would not want to fly in an aircraft with autopilot installed, just because such autopilot is controlled by a computer and is therefore susceptible to hacking.

What I am saying here is that no further effort should be expended in trying to "show" that a computer can be hacked. That would be wasted effort. The litigants' effort should instead be applied to show that the use of EVM would be unconstitutional in other ways. For example, the EVM is going to eliminate the "problem" of spoilt ballots.

To my recollection spoilt ballots have always been a feature of past elections. They were counted and reported.  A  ballot is not always spoilt unintentionally. Given a list of candidates, all of whom are unacceptable to the voter, a voter "abstains" by spoiling his/her ballot. It is a legitimate act by the voter, and therefore it is constitutional. How then is the EVM going to elliminate spoilt votes without infringing on the constitutional rights of voters?

I know next to nothing about the intricacies of our constitution. However, I believe that our contitution has to be constitutional. Contradiction? No. You see, our constitution, i.e. the real (unwritten) one was forged in the streets of Francistown and Mochudi in the late 1950's - early 1960's. Some of us are old enough to have witnessed that struggle; -bo- P.G. Matante; -bo-Podiephatshwa; -bo-Tumelo; -bo-Bobby Mack (who later became a judge in Zambia). They marched in "Sotoma". They sang; they got whipped; they were incacerated. Those were our parents fighting for our freedom, for our independence.

If, as seems to be the case now, the written constitution subsequently veered off from the expectations of those who sacrificed so much for its attainment, then the people should take to the streets once again to reclaim their freedom, to kick out the EVM and its proponents.

As I have pointed out before, there could be a well calculated, sinister motive behind the rulers' insistance on the use of EVM in 2019. They could just be buying time; buying time so that none is left for implementation of the recommendations made by the African Union Election Observer Mission, following the 2014 general elections. Whether or not that is the real motive of the ruling party is open to debate. However, the legal route (and not a political one), that was embarked upon to fight the EVM debacle, played right into the hands of the enemies of our democracy! Now all they have to do is wait while the legal route saps the nation's energy to protest and resist.