05 Sep 2016

Multitudes of Bakgatla ba ga Mmanaana including the Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi thronged Moshupa main kgotla to celebrate dikgafela on Friday.

Elderly women covered their shoulders with shawls of a matching colour and pattern while donning German print skirts commonly called leteisi. 

Most men wore animal hides of a maroon and white ox, which is the male version of Bakgatla ba Moshupa’s totem referred to in the vernacular as Babina kgomo e naana. 

 It was a marvel when master of ceremony called different wards to bring in harvests to Kgosi Kgabosetso Mosielele.

They brought unprocessed grain, followed by traditional sorghum brew.

The business communities, government and private sectors exhibited at the event while choral music, drama and traditional choirs formed part of the day. 

The Vice President, also Member of Parliament for Moshupa/Manyana constituency, applauded residents of Moshupa for reviving dikgafela. 

He said he was happy the way his electorates cooperated. Masisi said Moshupa constituency was good for tourism and agricultural activities and encouraged them to keep up the spirit of togetherness.

He urged farmers and tractor owners to be alert and prepare their farming equipment for the coming ploughing season since they were expecting good rainfall. 

He said government was ready to distribute seeds freely.   

The guest speaker was the Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Kgotla Autlwetse who said Batswana should guard against losing their cultural values under the pretext of modernisation.

He encouraged Bakgatla to work hard in working together to revive culture. 

He said dikgafela assisted Batswana to have food in future. 

He said it was important to assert the cultural values, publicize and popularise cultural products both nationally and internationally through varied programmes such as artistic performance and marketing.

 It was through cultural expressions and identity that “we can obtain economic diversification, create employment, become united and proud of ourselves”.

He said dikgafela sought to foster awareness among Batswana on the importance of culture and its socio economic values. 

He reiterated the importance of culture in all spheres of development, and challenged every Motswana to realise the importance of his or her contribution to cultural development.

He said dikgosi should be respected all the time. He encouraged Batswana to plough because the country is currently running short of sorghum and said they depended on importing it from other countries which is too expensive. 

He said only vegetables are found enough in the country. He said government introduced various agricultural programmes to assist farmers to produce enough food. He also encouraged them to commercialise agriculture. 

Kgosi Kgabosetso Mosielele of Moshupa said culture was dynamic as it changed with development, and sometime with the influence of other cultures.

He said youngsters should be taught in schools at grassroots level to know their culture. 

He also said some children took the day of dikgafela as holidays, adding that it was a respected day just like independence.

Kgosi Mosielele said he was concerned at how Batswana seem to be too eager to abandon their cultural values in favour of foreign ones and  appealed to the government to assist dikgosi to mould the nation.   

 He said dikgafela are celebrated with traditional brews (bojalwa ja Setstwana). He alerted them that 50 years of independence celebrations are just around the corner appealing to residents to get ready for the celebrations.

Kgosi also said his tribe wants to revive regiments and initiation.He said they wanted to start next year by the month of July. Ends