05 Oct 2015

 As the whole nation celebrated Botswana Day the spirit of celebration was so evident that it could be felt in the air. As it is now the norm, most urban areas were vacated as most people made their way to their villages to celebrate Botswana’s 49^th anniversary with family and friends.

 The village of Molepolole was packed as people made final shopping sprees. The celebration mood heightened everywhere as multitudes lined up at ATMs to cash money to indulge on food and drinks with family and friends. The main road and major shopping centres were overflowing with jubilant citizens.

However, as the whole village went abuzz in the spirit of independence, the celebrations at the main kgotla were not so well attended, as people slowly lost interest in the now familiar routine of traditional dance, poetry and dikwaere. This may be attributed to the fact that the current generation, unlike previous ones prefer variety such as come-togethers, parties, drinking sprees and family -chill sessions.  The other reason why the main kgotla looked deserted maybe was the fact that the economy of most families have improved so much that they prefer to buy food, cook and eat together in the comfort of their homes. 

This was not the case in the pre-independence era as most families were relatively poor and as such could not afford to buy themselves delicacies; hence provision was made for the entire morafe to eat together at the kgotla, and in their respective wards.

This was also reiterated by Mothusi Lekalake in his speech when officiating at the independence celebrations.  He alluded to the fact that in the period prior to Botswana’s independence,Bakwena suffered the consequences of the colonial administration’s hut-tax. 

In celebrating this year’s independence, Lekalake has therefore called on Bakwena to look back and retrace their steps and remember where they came from and also agree to start taking pride in the building and preservation of objects and monuments that proudly and unapologetically proclaim their uniqueness and boast their achievements.

For his part, Kgosi Kgari III explained that this year’s independence is a curtain raiser to next year’s 50^th independence celebrations.  Ends