"Setswana" culture does not exist; let us explore deeper.
There can be very little doubt if any, that when the British named our country "Bechuanaland" they meant "land of Bakhwana" and not "land of Batswana". By Bakhwana they meant Bakhwa/Bakhwe, more widely known as Bushmen. The most significant pointer to why they couldn't have meant "land of Batswana" is that the people who subsequently called themselves "Batswana", and called their language "Setswana", pushed back against the attempt by the British to label them "Bechuana". It is on record that they told the British missionaries that they were not "Bechuana"; that in fact they were hearing the word "Bechuana" for the first time. Instead, they identified themsellves as just separate tribes - Bakwena, Bangwato, Bangwaketse, Bahurutshe, Bakgatla etc. Granted, the missionaries' record does not say that they identified themselves as Kalangas. But there is nothing strange about that because as the late Old Man Mogomela said "Mokalaka gase morafe; Mokalaka go tewa lefatshe", meaning "Kalanga is not a tribe, by Kalanga we mean the world/humanity".
The pushback went further than the tribes' verbal protestations: Each tribe defined itself to the European foreigners, by the tribe's Royal house naming at least one of their children according to the Anunnaki workgroup identity of the tribe! The names so given were in Kalanga language, as are the Anunnaki workgroup names. The tribal pushback speaks volumes. Firstly, it says that the alleged "Bechuana" understood and spoke Kalanga. Secondly it says that not only were they aware of their own Anunnaki workgroup identities, but that contrary to what they told the British, they knew exactly which tribal workgroup the British were confusing them with. If they didn't know that the British were "confusing" them with "Bakhwana", a separate tribal grouping , they would not have aggressively named their Royal children the way they did: "Si tjele" in the Bakwena Royal house; "Ntathisi" in the Batlokwa Royal housel; "Kama" in the Bangwato Royal house; "Nshoshi" in the Basotho Royal house; and oh! I forgot to include this one in my previous post - "Makaba" in the Bangwaketse Royal house.
Who are the Bangwaketse? The word "Bangwaketse" is a corruption of the Kalanga word "Bangwakhwizi", meaning "those who milk for the Anunnaki". But unlike the Bangwato, who were also milkers, the responsibility of the Bangwaketse was more nuanced - they prepared the first milk shake on earth, by MIXING human excrement with milk for the gods' enjoyment! The Bangwaketse Royal son's name "Makaba" means "mixer". The capital village of the Bangwaketse is named "Kanye", a Kalanga word which means "Go sh!t". If you didn't know , Dear reader, that the word "kaba-kanya" as used in "go kabakanya itsholelo" is a Kalanga word, now you do!
And so, the fact that the "separate" tribes aggressively named their children per their workgroup types shows that they knew who they were being "confused" with - Bakhwana; and that they were not prepared to be wrongly labeled as such. In other words they knew, and so do we now, that by "Bechuana", the British meant Bakhwana, i.e. the Bushmen, and not the "Batswana", whoever that was!
It boggles the mind how, just two hundred years down the line, those same tribes that pushed back against the British for labeling them "Bushmen" can now demand, as they do, that not only the Bushmen, but all other tribes in this country should dump their own identities and assume the identities of those infamous tribes. You see, following attainment of independence by our country the infamous tribes are now forcing all other tribes, including those that currently speak Kalanga, and have never spoken any language other than Kalanga, to dump their languages and cultures , and instead acquire the infamous tribes' "cultures" as expressed through their newly acquired language - Sumerian, aka Setswana. It really boggles the mind!
The tribes that pushed back against the British for labeling them "Bakhwana" belonged to the human/Kalanga subgroup type "Bathuwa", meaning "those who rear cattle". They most likely learnt the Sumerian/Setswana language from their Igigi trainers as animal keepers. Having mastered the language of the Igigi, the Bathuwa coalesced into something of a composite tribe. They translated the Kalanga word "Bathuwa" into Sumerian/Setswana language, ending up with "Barua". We Kalanga speakers corrupted "Barua" to "Barwa", and possibly further derogated the name "Barwa" to "Badzwana". And so when the Bathuwa were faced with the British-originated name "Bechuana", which name they fully understood to mean "Bushmen", rather than fight a futile identity battle against the British, they chose to subvert and hijack the name "Bechuana" to refer to themselves, via the derogatory "Badzwana" that the Kalanga speakers referred to them by. Thus the Bathuwa became "Batswana", a composite group made up as follows from Sumerian speaking tribal members: The Bangwato from the Balindi/Balete; The Bakwena from the Bakhurutshe; the Basotho from the BaSwazwi/BaSwathi; the Bangwaketse from the Batugwa/Batlokwa.
In conclusion, Bathuwa did not speak only Sumerian/Setswana language when the British arrived in Southern Africa a little over two hundred years ago; they spoke Kalanga too, perhaps even more so than they spoke Sumerian/Setswana language.
For some reason that I can't quite understand, president Masisi fails to appreciate that the "Northern tribes" that he claims are in every "Southern tribe" did not come from anywhere else other than the "South". In the case of Kalanga speakers among Bakwena, Bangwaketse, Bakgatla, Barolong, Balete etc, those Kalanga speakers are the ORIGINAL Bakwena, Bangwaketse, Bakgatla, Barolong, Balete etc. Those Kalanga speakers have simply resisted being swamped by Sumerian/Setswana language, and stuck to their language - Kalanga. If people were cars we would be right to call Setswana speaking Bakwena, Bangwaketse, Bakgatla, Barolong, Balete etc, - Difong-kong. That is why virtually all place names where the Bakwena, Bangwaketse, Bakgatla, Barolong etc reside are Kalanga names and not Sumerian/Setswana names.
The pushback went further than the tribes' verbal protestations: Each tribe defined itself to the European foreigners, by the tribe's Royal house naming at least one of their children according to the Anunnaki workgroup identity of the tribe! The names so given were in Kalanga language, as are the Anunnaki workgroup names. The tribal pushback speaks volumes. Firstly, it says that the alleged "Bechuana" understood and spoke Kalanga. Secondly it says that not only were they aware of their own Anunnaki workgroup identities, but that contrary to what they told the British, they knew exactly which tribal workgroup the British were confusing them with. If they didn't know that the British were "confusing" them with "Bakhwana", a separate tribal grouping , they would not have aggressively named their Royal children the way they did: "Si tjele" in the Bakwena Royal house; "Ntathisi" in the Batlokwa Royal housel; "Kama" in the Bangwato Royal house; "Nshoshi" in the Basotho Royal house; and oh! I forgot to include this one in my previous post - "Makaba" in the Bangwaketse Royal house.
Who are the Bangwaketse? The word "Bangwaketse" is a corruption of the Kalanga word "Bangwakhwizi", meaning "those who milk for the Anunnaki". But unlike the Bangwato, who were also milkers, the responsibility of the Bangwaketse was more nuanced - they prepared the first milk shake on earth, by MIXING human excrement with milk for the gods' enjoyment! The Bangwaketse Royal son's name "Makaba" means "mixer". The capital village of the Bangwaketse is named "Kanye", a Kalanga word which means "Go sh!t". If you didn't know , Dear reader, that the word "kaba-kanya" as used in "go kabakanya itsholelo" is a Kalanga word, now you do!
And so, the fact that the "separate" tribes aggressively named their children per their workgroup types shows that they knew who they were being "confused" with - Bakhwana; and that they were not prepared to be wrongly labeled as such. In other words they knew, and so do we now, that by "Bechuana", the British meant Bakhwana, i.e. the Bushmen, and not the "Batswana", whoever that was!
It boggles the mind how, just two hundred years down the line, those same tribes that pushed back against the British for labeling them "Bushmen" can now demand, as they do, that not only the Bushmen, but all other tribes in this country should dump their own identities and assume the identities of those infamous tribes. You see, following attainment of independence by our country the infamous tribes are now forcing all other tribes, including those that currently speak Kalanga, and have never spoken any language other than Kalanga, to dump their languages and cultures , and instead acquire the infamous tribes' "cultures" as expressed through their newly acquired language - Sumerian, aka Setswana. It really boggles the mind!
The tribes that pushed back against the British for labeling them "Bakhwana" belonged to the human/Kalanga subgroup type "Bathuwa", meaning "those who rear cattle". They most likely learnt the Sumerian/Setswana language from their Igigi trainers as animal keepers. Having mastered the language of the Igigi, the Bathuwa coalesced into something of a composite tribe. They translated the Kalanga word "Bathuwa" into Sumerian/Setswana language, ending up with "Barua". We Kalanga speakers corrupted "Barua" to "Barwa", and possibly further derogated the name "Barwa" to "Badzwana". And so when the Bathuwa were faced with the British-originated name "Bechuana", which name they fully understood to mean "Bushmen", rather than fight a futile identity battle against the British, they chose to subvert and hijack the name "Bechuana" to refer to themselves, via the derogatory "Badzwana" that the Kalanga speakers referred to them by. Thus the Bathuwa became "Batswana", a composite group made up as follows from Sumerian speaking tribal members: The Bangwato from the Balindi/Balete; The Bakwena from the Bakhurutshe; the Basotho from the BaSwazwi/BaSwathi; the Bangwaketse from the Batugwa/Batlokwa.
In conclusion, Bathuwa did not speak only Sumerian/Setswana language when the British arrived in Southern Africa a little over two hundred years ago; they spoke Kalanga too, perhaps even more so than they spoke Sumerian/Setswana language.
For some reason that I can't quite understand, president Masisi fails to appreciate that the "Northern tribes" that he claims are in every "Southern tribe" did not come from anywhere else other than the "South". In the case of Kalanga speakers among Bakwena, Bangwaketse, Bakgatla, Barolong, Balete etc, those Kalanga speakers are the ORIGINAL Bakwena, Bangwaketse, Bakgatla, Barolong, Balete etc. Those Kalanga speakers have simply resisted being swamped by Sumerian/Setswana language, and stuck to their language - Kalanga. If people were cars we would be right to call Setswana speaking Bakwena, Bangwaketse, Bakgatla, Barolong, Balete etc, - Difong-kong. That is why virtually all place names where the Bakwena, Bangwaketse, Bakgatla, Barolong etc reside are Kalanga names and not Sumerian/Setswana names.
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