21 Mar 2016

 The Badeti of Pole arrived in the North East district from Rakops in the Boteti area in search of jobs during the construction of Cecil John Rhodes’ Cape to Cairo railway line, a project, part of which passed through eastern Bechuanaland.

Recounting the history of this community, which forms part of the wider Kalanga tribe, Pole resident Retired Colonel Sebolai Setume said upon arrival after their three-year journey, the Badeti of Pole settled southwards of where Pole is presently located.

Ret. Col Setume, who was speaking at an event to celebrate the opportunity by the village to host the roving torch recently, noted that a few years after arrival, some Europeans who were demarcating the border line between the then protectorates of Bechuanaland and Rhodesia advised them to move back inland so that they would not be left on the Rhodesia side of the border.

It was after they had moved back to their present location that a certain white man helped some of them to secure jobs at the railway line in Tshesebe where recruitment was being conducted, he stated.

Elaborating further on the Badeti journey, Ret. Col Setume informed the gathering that the Pole community was on arrival under the leadership of Kgosi Chikomba, whom he explained had four wives and whose families were known as the Hubona, Moesi, Mazwiduma and Nlanda households.He said one of Kgosi Chikomba’s children was named Nvimi, (meaning a ‘seeker’); this being to signify that the Badeti’s journey had been to search for jobs as well as a place of abode.

He said yet another, of Kgosi Chikomba’ sons was named Hubona, meaning ‘to see’.

The name, denoted from the Kalanga phrase ‘enda wu bona’ which in Setswana means ‘go tsamaa ke go bona,’ Ret. Col Setume observed, was a result of the chief’s recognition of the fact that embarking on such a long journey had resulted in his people seeing and experiencing a lot of things that they would only have dreamt of had they not left their original place of abode in the Boteti region.

Earlier when welcoming guests, Kgosi Clinic Ketlogetswe of Pole expressed gratitude for the opportunity afforded his village to host the roving torch.

He said the significance of the torch in asserting the unity of the people of Botswana could not be over-emphasised hence the need for all Batswana to partake in such a historic event. Ends