Rampholo Molefhe
24 November 2008
column
Artists in civilised societies are given license to comment on almost every issue that is directly or remotely relevant to development issues.
That as it may, Botswana has to accept that it has never really discussed, in a wholesome way, the issue of 'what really makes a Motswana'.
At independence, writes Elmon Tafa, it was left to a few wives of expatriates and others to depict, by way of national emblems such as the flag, the coat of arms and other national symbols, those things that were at the core of Botswana vision for future development.
A few years later, there was some intermittent discussion about 'national dress' and other things that might distinguish Batswana from other nations, also characterising their values, beliefs and traditions in some symbol that the nation could recognise and believe in.
These discussions were spurious, guided only by a na-ve sense of the country's independence, but not by any awareness of the relevance of that debate to the broader programme of national development.
So, now Botswana is stuck with TV that sells western values, morals and images of excellence and or failure. It has shown everything from Days of Our Lives, The Bold And The Beautiful, Falconcrest and every other kind of Hollywood inspired moral rubbish.
It has also shown pornography on occasion.
Before the advent of television, a good portion of the folk music was unapologetically sexist and pornographic in the feudal way in which Kings and their 'malata' who found amusement in the imagery that was employed to depict what they actually doing in real life.
This crude sense of rural sexuality, based on the superstructure of feudal relations of production permeates the whole society and translates itself into the modern Internet and cell phone culture.
Both, and other forms of technology, have helped to support the obsession of Batswana - perhaps far more than any other of the neighbouring rural societies - with sex.
And so the society in embarrassment, attempts to cloak and legitimise its abhorrent sexuality under the cover of clichés that want to depict prostitution as commercial sex work and illegitimate children as perfectly within the morality of marriage and custom.
In accordance with the story of the proverbial chicken - e e jang e itshutlha - the Batswana then want to try Tawana Lebani for naming the taboo: "I love dick'.
This is a 31-year-old formally educated microbiologist who has not been accused of raping any man, soliciting sex by illegal means or doing any other thing that should be unexpected of the Big Brother 'inmates'.
Really, how do you call a nymphomaniac to order for performing sex at the very place that has been set aside for that purpose. How do you charge a man with immorality for performing multiple sex tricks at the brothel to which you invited him?
I do not know what this woman is apologising about. She was invited to a brothel, and she did everything that was expected of her there.
It is probably her critics who should apologise for using her 'go itshutlha molomo' as a cover up for their horny behaviour, in and outside conventionally recognised relationships between female and male lovers.
Meanwhile, Batswana will look to the presidency and cabinet for moral guidance and promotion of family values befitting of a nation in search of a sexuality that will rhyme with contemporary standards of human civilisation.
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