allAfrica.com: Botswana: Etcetera II - More Statues (Page 1 of 1)

Since the unveiling of the statues of those three nattily dressed gentlemen in the Central Business District in Gaborone, it has been only a matter of guessing when, not if, one or other of the tribal groupings would decide that they too needed a statue of one of their more revered past leaders.

My own bet would have been on one of the lesser groups wanting to promote its identity after years of assimilation and/or subjection and the Basarwa/San were at the same time, the most likely candidate but also the one with the least use for a statue - somewhere in the CKGR, presumably!

As it is, I would have been correct in thinking that it would be a tribal group whose identity is felt to be threatened but wrong in anticipating that the initiative would come from one of the minority ethnic groups because it has been the Batlokwa, in danger of being swamped by Gaborone, who have been the first to react. They, according to a slightly confusing, recent article in the Gazette have decided to erect statues of their Dikgosi in the kgotla in Tlokweng, and this project is soon due for completion. I find this latter claim rather surprising because the process of creating statues is difficult and few people in this country yet have experience of it. But that said, I do not wish to dampen anyone's enthusiasm because the initiative is not only of real interest but as with almost anything to do with local history, full of irony.

Yes, as the Gazette states, and as everyone hopefully knows, the city of Gaborone is named after Kgosi Gaborone who died in 1932, perhaps aged 112. If there is to be a statue of him, it must presumably be modelled on Duggan Cronin's well-known photo - are there any others? Perhaps less well known is the fact that the Batlokwa Tribal Reserve only came into existence soon after Kgosi Gaborone's death because prior to that happening, the Batlokwa had been paying £150 annual rent for their land to the British South Africa Company with 15/- being paid annually by every able bodied male. If there is to be a statue of Kgosi Gaborone in Tlokweng it should therefore be facing directly towards the three Dikgosi in the CBD and in particular towards Kgosi Sebele who gave away to the BSACo (British South African Company)the entire Gaborone area including Tlokweng, and made the Batlokwa refugees in their newly adopted country. In those circumstances, it is more than ironical that Gaborone should have taken its name from the Kgosi of the Batlokwa and not from the Kgosi of the Bakwena.

According to the historical times, the name Sebele Stadt for the old town would not therefore have been so surprising or untoward. But consider other ironies. Gaborone has just the one museum but has chosen to display photos of neither Sebele nor Gaborone. In fairness, this is a national rather than city museum and its chosen theme is man and his environment which does tend to cut out both gentlemen. Indeed it cuts out the history of Gaborone altogether. Curiously, Maseru has done things the other way around. It doesn't have any kind of museum, either national or city, but it does have an excellent book by David Ambrose on the history of Maseru. We have yet to put together something of similar quality for Gaborone. But holding on to the statue idea for a moment - it must be obvious that very quickly and throughout the country, Tlokweng's statue initiative is bound to be replicated throughout the country. It happened with the kgotla maobo and it happened again with the presentation of gifts to the retiring President Mogae. No place wanted to be left behind. The national statue competition - which could certainly include tribal totems - will prove exceptionally interesting. But let's hope that this time around local sculptors will be involved and that they will be allowed to use materials in addition to bronze.

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