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Botswana: 'For Whom is the Name Meant?'
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
18 April 2008
Posted to the web 21 April 2008
Patricia Maganu
Gaborone
A deputation from Tachila Nature Reserve, here to tell the villagers about a proposed park, is mistaken for a government delegation and given a bloody nose for reneging on a promise to make land available to the people of Shashe Bridge. Staff Writer PATRICIA MAGANU was there
There was midweek drama here as representatives of Tachila Nature Reserve found themselves entangled in a knotty situation they must have underestimated when they visited Shashe Bridge to brief the villagers about the establishment of a wildlife park near their village on Wednesday.
In these present times, any talk about land rubs people here the wrong way. Apparently. And as they say, If you want action, go to a small village! The unwary representatives suddenly stood objurgated for reneging on their promise to avail land to the villagers. Or for delaying in the fulfillment of that promise.
At one point, it appeared nothing could be done to temper the fury of the villagers as they accused the wretched emissaries of trampling on their rights. The villagers said government had promised to give them land after it bought 15 ranches from Tati Company in the North East District. There was the rub: the people had mistaken the miserable emissaries from Tachila for 'Disingenuous government People'.
They complained that government was not giving them land even as it was opening parks for wild animals and trees. One villager, Solly Tamohla, said the name of the proposed park, Tachila, which means 'we will survive', was the height of sarcasm, land being a basic factor of production and a survival need they did not have.
"How does it apply to us when we have neither land nor food?" Tamohla protested. He wondered why animals were being prioritized ahead of people. Lems Hubona, who could not seem to contain his anger, said although the park might be a good idea, the representatives were bringing the news at a wrong time. "Where are the ranches that were purportedly bought for us if we are now being told about Tachila Nature Reserve?" he demanded. "There is no land in the North East," he raged on. "We were hoping for land from the government, but we about to give up now. We have been denied so many things, including ploughing fields and grazing land."
Hubona said it was unfair of government not to apprise them of the ranches government recently bought from Tati Company. And, once again, the irony of the name: "What is so beautiful about Tachila if people are starving and animals are being placed first?" he queried.
Grace Phala also found the name to be contumelious. "Tachila means 'we will survive'," she pointed out. "But we obviously won't. So for whom is the name meant?" Phala then answered her own question: "This name is relevant to the wild animals that will surely survive," she said. "Not us. For us the opposite is the case."
Forty-five minutes later, it is mutatis mutandis, the question of mistaken identity having been somewhat resolved. And Phala is still holding forth: In her view, people would have been more receptive to the nature reserve if they had already been allocated land on the farms recently purchased by government from Tati Company allegedly for them. "We do not have ploughing fields," she said. "Not even a graveyard. Our livestock does not have pasture." At this stage, board member Themba Mguni managed to get a word in, first edgewise. He explained that Tachila Nature Reserve is a non-governmental organisation given land for the proposed park by Tati Company and that the organisation was not going to take any of the land acquired by government for the villagers.
"Your land will come," Mguni said as he gained confidence. "Tati Company is a private company which can choose whom to sell to or not sell to."
Advising the villagers to raise the issue of delayed allocations with their community representatives, he appealed to them to support the park as it would provide employment and income for their children.
Another Tachila representative, Bernard Mhotsha, told the villagers that it was important to distinguish between Tachila and the 15 ranches government had acquired for them. Mhotsha said the nature reserve was another way of diversifying the economy. Towards the end, the local councillor Peggy Senthufe explained - rather superfluously - that "these people are not from government". She aptly acknowledged that the villagers were frustrated by lack of land.
"They have a problem," Senthufe said, turning to the Tachila representatives. "They have no land for ploughing or for grazing, and their cattle are dying. So when you announced this project, they understandably got frustrated."
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She promised that she would apprise them of allocations in due course. Whereupon the villagers appeared to be mollified. At least most of them, and at least for the time being.
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