02 Feb 2015

Having decided to move this year’s Son of The Soil event from its usual date of March to January, people were skeptical that it would not attract its usual number of crowd, but it was not to be as people turned out for Botswana’s celebration of culture.

Son of The Soil has over the years provided a glimpse into Botswana’s culture and everything that comes with it.

The day started off with people having chicken feet, chicken intestines, and chicken necks much to the delight of visitors from the United States of America who seemed to be shell shocked that people could eat chicken intestines.

Festivities then got full underway with traditional games among them morabaraba, chama and diketo. The event seemed to have also turned into a little fashion haven for those that like going all out with traditional gear.

Ladies were clad in different traditional leteise and men were also not to be left out as they wore their different leather traditional regalia.

One has to mention that visitors from the United States of America also took the dress code very seriously as they wore their different cuts and were very impressive in how they embraced every aspect of the culture that was on display.

When it came time for the traditional beer to be served, song and dance erupted as women sang their hearts out as it is tradition. The traditional brew seemed to be everyone’s favorite as people took turns gulping away at the very tasty and well prepared traditional beer.

Even though people were impressed with the traditional beer, some felt that it would have been even great if other types of traditional beer could have been served too.

Other traditional brews such as that made from morula fruit, watermelons and wild berries (moretlwa wa Setswana) are just some of the brews that some people felt should have been there as well.

One lady from the USA said the traditional beer tasted like olives and went on to say that she has never seen such excitement for beer.

Some of the prominent people at the event included former Vice President of Botswana Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe, former Cabinet Minister Professor Sheila Tlou and former Director of Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) Ms Festinah Bakwena.

Speaking in an interview at the event, one of the organizers of the event Mr Pontsho Pusoetsile said culture is very important and needs to be celebrated.

“We need to celebrate our culture and in turn we are passing it on to our children and showing them that their culture is not something to be ashamed of,” he said.

“As Bana ba Mmala we are very proud of the leadership role that ‘Son of the Soil’ cultural event has been building in the cultural preservation space. We want to continue to grow this area nationally,” he added.

He said the overarching theme for the next 10 events is ‘Kwa Re Go Yang’, is meant to show that culture should be one of the pillars for national development. 

“We strongly believe that development must be anchored on a strong national identity,” said Mr Pusoetsile.

He said the sub-theme for the 2015 event ‘Bana Ba Kgaupe Ba Laelana Go Sale Gale’ is meant to be clarions call for the nation to introspect culturally. 

Mr Pusoetsile said it is meant for Batswana to sit back and say ‘have we retained the good elements of our culture in the last 50 years, and what are we going to take along from a cultural perspective, as we move into the next 50 years of our journey?

He indicated that he was impressed with this year’s turn out and promised that next year it will be bigger and even better.

Before the main event on Saturday, Bana ba Mmala also hosted a cultural workshop for other organizers of similar events from across the country as they got the chance to listen to cultural thought leaders on how best to preserve culture and move forward.

The workshop was another building block on top of the research that organizers of Son of The Soil have been conducting annually on cultural themes and they will also publish a booklet on the subject as time goes on. ENDS