David Magang Calls On Batswana to Honour Kgosi Sechele I
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Tags: David Magang, Dithubaruba Cultural Festival, Kgosi Sechele I
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Businessman, David Magang, has called on Batswana to honour Kgosi Sechele I as he solely turned Botswana into a military power that preserved the sovereignty of today’s country.
Magang, also former MP and cabinet minister, took the audience down memory lane at the annual Dithubaruba cultural festival in Molepolole recently. Although Magang felt that Sechele I, whom he regarded as the son of the soil was renowned in Europe and North Africa as well as throughout Southern Africa, that reputation was not pronounced in his own country.
“He has been almost completely forgotten as if he was a mere man who hardly did anything worthwhile for his country,” he remarked.
While one might describe the Dithubaruba festival as an event full of cultural festivities, a lot of times, the rich history of the Bakwena was left out thus shocking the fun loving multitudes whose hunger for entertainment could notbe dismissed. In this way, the real history of the Bakwena ended up eluding the minds of many.
It was on this note that this year the role of the Bakwena in forging this nation was epitomised by Magang in his keynote speech.
Although it is common knowledge that hierarchically the Bakwena sit at the apex of the Tswana race found in six countries namely Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia, Magang said they earned the position by their birth right.
In putting their seniority into perspective, Magang said tswana-speaking people traced their origins to the iconic Phofu dynasty which reigned supreme in today’s Transvaal between the 12th and 14th century. He explained that the Phofu Dynasty achieved greatness under the rule of Masilo, who had two children namely Mohurutshe and Malope. He said Mohurutshe senior was female; hence her brother Malope became heir to the throne.
He further stated that among Malope’s three sons namely Kwena, Ngwato and Ngwaketse, Kwena’s offspring became the Bakwena and that was how his descendants occupied a seniority tribally that endured to this day and to which all other Tswana tribes defer.
With this in mind, Magang argued that while the legacy of dikgosi like Kgabo II, Sechele I and Sebele I could not be forgotten, he said of these, the greatest was Sechele I. In demonstrating this stance, he referred to what he termed “a monumental disservice,” that he said was done to “Botswana’s greatest son and indeed the very giant of the Tswana race as a whole when the three dikgosi monument of Botswana’s most famous kings of the colonial era were erected in 2005.
He said what was noticeable about the monument was the absence on it (the monument) of the one man who was by far more accomplished and much more fundamental to the evolution of this nation than the three Dikgosi namely Sebele I, Khama III and Bathoen I.
He further went on to highlight that historians of repute such as Thomas Tlou, Jeff Ramsay to name but a few, have stressed that had it not been for Sechele, there would have been “no Botswana”.
Meanwhile, a representative from Bakwena ba Phokeng from Namibia Modisaotsile Mokate said they intended to organise themselves and re-trace their origins as well as their culture and celebrate their roots in a manner similar to Dithubaruba.
A delegation of Bakwena from South Africa also graced the occasion. Deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Arts and Culture, Kgopotso Ramoroka pronounced that his ministry had been mandated to register and archive different ethnic cultures in the country.
He therefore called on the elderly to teach and pass cultural values to youngsters so as to preserve culture.
By Lindi Morwaeng
Source : BOPA
