05 Oct 2014

While everyone is interested in fishing in the Lake Ngami, there are other opportunities that can be tapped into to improve the lives of the community in the area.

Speaking during the Tourism Day at Sehithwa recently, Dr Susan Keitumetse said the areas in which the community trust was planned to operate in had rich history and archaeology.

She said it represented a rich cultural identity of the people in the villages of Sehithwa, Toteng, Kareng, Bodibeng, Kgwebe Hills, Legothwane and Botlhatogo.

The research scholar (Cultural Heritage Tourism) from the University of Botswana said the area carried a variety of subjects spanning hydrology, tourism, cultural heritage, water that would give the community an opportunity to develop their lives using cultural heritage resources.

Dr Keitumetse said historical documents such as those by Peters (1972) show evidence of linguistic heritage that point to the fact that local communities interacted with the lake in many ways long before the famous missionary, David Livingstone visited the lake in 1849 and documented it and this shows an opportunity in terms of development.

She said Lake Ngami is situated around several villages and this characteristic provides a huge opportunity for cultural heritage tourism development, focusing on archaeological heritage in localities such as Kgwebe Hills, associated with Basarwa (Chief Kgoba), Bayei (Chief Sankose) and Batawana (Chief Letsholathebe).

Dr Keitumetse said the area has other heritages associated with the Matebele war era, which shows much more in-depth human-interaction with Lake Ngami beyond just fishing activities.

She said the archaeologies and histories can be researched and incorporated as part of the heritage that informs the existence of the Lake.

“From such researches, communities can be able to form community groups such as community foundations/trusts/associations, whereupon they can develop heritage tourism trails that are toured by tourists,” Dr Keitumetse said.

She said the development of a tourism museum will become necessary to exhibit the fishing and fish processing activities as tied upon the archaeological and historical heritages of the places surrounding Lake Ngami/Nxabe/Nghabe.

Dr Keitumetse advised and encouraged the resident of Sehithwa to take care of resources that lies in the area so that the young generation will utilize it in the future. Ends