Gale Ngakane
24 November 2008
Francistown — "Spare the rod and spoil the child" is an adage that used to be much in vogue in the Botswana of yore. Children were thrashed even for minor misdemeanours.
A stiff upper-lipped Motswana disciplinarian, however, vowed by the other proverb: "Lore le ojwa le sale metsi", and such kind of people seemed to take pleasure from thrashing children at the slightest provocation.
Gilbert Otswaleng, now in his 40s and a construction worker in Francistown, remembers the day his father paid an unexpected visit to his school to find out if he had paid school fees with the three Rands his mother had given him that morning.
He was a nine-year -old in Standard Two then, and after successfully making the transaction, which would cover the three terms, he was given a receipt, which he dutifully passed on to his elder brother who was in an upper stream to give to their elders
Because of lack of communication between his brother and father, the old man came to the school to enquire about the payment of school fees and when Gilbert told him he paid, the father demanded a receipt. The old man could not believe Gilbert either when he told him he gave the receipt to his elder brother.
The father was adamant that Gilbert had used the money to buy "manyonyomane". As a result the old man proceeded to grab the cane the teacher was holding and told Gilbert to bend down. The hapless child was given a thorough lashing in full view of other students.
It emerged that when the father got home, he realised that he had neglected to check the receipt with Gilbert's brother and in the process wrongfully assaulted his youngest son. This realisation came about after he was told that Gilbert's brother had diligently handed the receipt to their mother when he arrived home after knocking off from school.
When Gilbert, bottoms bruised, sore heart and shamefaced because of taunts from classmates walked in from school, he found the father crestfallen and in a remorseful mood.
The old man sat wringing his hands as a sign of contrition without looking Gilbert directly in the eye as he usually did. The old man called Gilbert to his side and stuttered his apology.
"Son, I am sorry. I had to do what I did to you at your school. When I got home, I was told you actually did nothing wrong. You handed the receipt of your school fees to your brother. I am really sorry," muttered the old man.
All Gilbert could do was burst into tears as his father who spoke lovingly to his son, produced a fistful of sweets from his pockets and placed them in Gilbert's palms.
Unemployed Albert Ngulube, who whiles away his time at a Chibuku shebeen in Somerset East, chuckles as he remembers the time when as a small boy in Kalakamati. There was an old man who used to harass them while they were out playing in the narrow paths of their village.
"We were not supposed to go and tell our parents as they would also whip us. But this old man was such a pain. He just would not leave us alone," he laughs, exhibiting nicotine stained teeth.
Ngulube says the old man was a frequent visitor to a nearby khadi or village wine shebeen. Whenever he staggered out after imbibing litres of the opaque traditional drink, he would pounce on the children.
"We used to kill small birds and roast them. Then the old man would come and grab and swallow the meat. Woe be unto anyone among us who would make a noise," he says.
But one day Ngulube and his mates had a plan when they saw the old man in the distance. Instead of killing a bird, they killed a green-headed lizard. They proceeded to roast the revolting reptile.
The old man saw them and started walking towards them.
"As was the case many times before, he did not even ask us as he just bent down and grabbed the sizzling lizard and tossed it into his mouth. We ran away and stood at a distance.
One of us taunted the old man: "That's a lizard you have just swallowed, and then we ran away again," remembers Ngulube who by now is doubled up with mirth.
At the patures, while herd boys looked after their animals, an adult could just come and wade into them with a stick.
"When that happens, you would not dare report the matter to your parents. You just kept quite," says a night watchman at a local primary school.
"Kana, in those days if you were young, say between 10 and 14 years, people did as they pleased with you. It was not only parents who subjected us to beatings, but also our elder brothers and sometimes total strangers," he says.
However, there were times when the tormentors got their comeuppance. Nowadays, however, the issue of punishing children willy-nilly seems to be losing its shine as modern ways of dealing with naughty children are finding their way into the minds of the older generation.
Children's rights organisations like Childline are also educating parents that beating up children is not the only way to discipline them.
The government is about to come up with a law that stipulates how children should be dealt with. A bill on the children's rights is to be debated in Parliament after December 1 according to an official at the office of the Clerk of the National Assembly.
When it is passes into law, some parents will find themselves in the soup should they go overboard when punishing their children.
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