Boycott the session of the "Culture" Inter-Governmental Committee Convention in Botswana

 The Patriot on Sunday newspaper of 11th December 2022 reported that Botswana has won the bid to host the 18th session of the Inter-Governmental Committee Convention for Safeguarding the Intangible, Cultural Heritage in a year’s time. The report further states that the Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport, and Culture announcing this at a press conference, said that the convention’s aim is to safeguard oral traditions and expressions, performing arts, etc. The report shocked me. How does a country that has outlawed the use of what was the most widely spoken language when the European colonialists arrived here in the late nineteenth century, the Ikalanga language, even get considered as a possible venue to host such a cultural convention? And it is not just Ikalanga language that is being eliminated from the national cultural endowment. 

Before the arrival of Europeans Ikalanga was the most widely spoken language, for the simple reason that virtually all the different tribes had evolved from speaking it. In almost every tribe you would find old people, especially in traditional ceremonies, speaking Ikalanga. This was not limited to Southern Africa. Old people as far north as Ethiopia, the Sahel spoke Ikalanga. But in what has now been named “Republic of Botswana”, a language of animal herders, a language closely related to Sumerian, has now been declared the SOLE national language; this despite the fact that there are more than twenty other languages, Ikalanga included, that continue to be spoken in “Botswana” today.

Language is the most important vehicle if not the only one, used to “safeguard oral traditions”. Surely the evaluators of Botswana’s bid should have known that. They should also have known that Botswana is probably the only multi-lingual country in Southern Africa that is actively preventing all other languages except the Sumerian- related Setswana language from being used on its broadcasting services.  The win by Botswana to host the Convention is therefore fraudulent. Botswana does not even qualify to be considered for the bid in the first place. Most, if not all the countries surrounding Botswana recognize and use several of their languages on their airwaves.  Even more annoying about Botswana is that the so-called national language, Setswana, is a foreign language in Southern Africa. How it invaded our part of the continent is not quite clear. However, given that it is the Sumerian language after all, one can only suspect that it trickled in from Egypt, where its dialects, namely Arabic and Coptic continue to be spoken today.

As a Kalanga speaker in Botswana I totally reject the hosting of the Committee Convention for Safeguarding the Intangible, Cultural Heritage here in Botswana. I sincerely hope all the other speakers of the close to a hundred other languages spoken in and around Botswana will boycott the said convention, unless it is moved from Botswana to a more culturally inclusive country.

The really important thing to remember is that President Mokgweetsi Masisi has ALL the powers that President Seretse Khama had. Ikalanga, along with all the other national languages, was banned from national use by Seretse Khama. Mokgweetsi Masisi has the power to undo that at the stroke of a pen! He doesn’t want to. It’s as simple as that. Look what they did to the Domboshaba cultural festival. It was a place where Kalangas were reclaiming their language and culture. Young Kalanga people were driving all the way from Gaborone to Domboshaba, near Francistown, just to have one or two days of speaking their language, and often enough, to find marriage partners who shared their cultural experiences. Barwa (Setswana speakers) who run the country, destroyed all that. Now they want us to go sit in OUR Kgotlas, speak THEIR language, and reveal to them what our ancestors taught us in our language!