26 Jun 2016

First President of Botswana, Sir Seretse Khama once said: “A nation without culture is a lost nation.”

This is why culture is central to Africans and they pride themselves with their diverse cultures. 

It is also this crucial cultural basis that innovative and multi-national and multi-million dollar industries have been created to solve African problems.

Additionally, communities across Africa and around the world have continuously strived to improve the systematic ways of how they do things and came up with new interventions that seek to improve their lives.

As the host of the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) 2016, government of Botswana, through Brand Botswana, saw it fit to organise a cultural presentation for guests and innovators from across Africa and Europe who were in Botswana to witness and showcase Africa’s innovations.

The guests were intimately exposed to the vibrancy and diversity of the Botswana culture, through; traditional music, traditional dance and traditional cuisine at an IPA 2016 Cultural Night that was held at Molapo Piazza.

The event was meant to showcase fusion of innovation and culture through singing and folklore, with particular emphasis on Botswana as the host country, and also to afford guests an opportunity to exchange their cultural practices.

As guests walked into the event venue, ladies were all given megagolwane, whilst gentlemen were given scarfs made from the same ladies’ megagolwane material, which complemented the event’s cultural aspect.

Giving an overview of Botswana as a destination for business and tourism, Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) chief operations officer, Meshack Tshekedi urged investors and innovators who attended the Cultural Night to consider Botswana as a possible destination to actualise their innovations, as Botswana was one of the least corrupt countries in African and in the world.

Corruption, he said had a tendency of introducing many inefficiencies in an economy. For that reason, he said it was also ideal to do a business in Botswana, because ‘we are the most peaceful country in Africa and amongst the most peaceful countries in the world.’“We are also amongst the most politically stable countries in Africa, we have very modest taxation regimes and we have no exchange controls and foreign exchange restrictions and many more offerings,” he added.

As later in the year, from November 23 to 26, 2016, Botswana will be hosting the Botswana Global Expo 2016, which is the country’s premier business to business exposition, Tshekedi urged the guests to attend the event.

He also extended an invitation to the guests to visit the country’s most pristine destinations and heritage sites, such as Chobe, Okavango Delta, Makgadikgadi Pans and Tsodilo Hills. He also urged them to make an effort the attend some of the country’s annual events, such as the Makgadikgadi Epic, Wesbank Botswana International Air Show, Gaborone International Music Festival and Toyota Kalahari1000 Desert Race.

Further, BITC chief operations officer said Batswana’s cultural diversity had kept them united as a nation, ‘as it’s an integral part of who we are as a nation.’

“It is our culture to be warm and humble, but at the same time very confident and arrogant in how we go about our lives and how we go about doing our business. Ours is a culture of botho as we have the deep sense of another person’s humanity,” he added.

In her vote of thanks, Botswana Innovation Hub board member, Mpho Moremong-Gobe said ‘culture is integral to our everyday lives and it is thus befitting that celebrating such an important thing as innovation in Africa should similarly showcase our culture as a people.’

She expressed gratitude to African Innovation Foundation for having afforded Botswana an opportunity to host IPA 2016.

Moremong-Gobe also thanked partner organisations, such as Botswana government, through BITC’s Brand Botswana, Dimension Data and Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology for consistently supporting Botswana Innovation Hub in its quest to achieve its mandate and organisational goals. Ends