I would have liked to participate but I had been assigned to provide the music. One of the themes of the seminar was 'the role of the poster in resistance'. Wally Serote, with whom I would have liked to sit a lot longer and discuss the 'Freedom Park' at Tshwane, spoke about the wider theme of culture and resistance.

I had contributed an article to Mmegi in which I attempted to place Botswana in the broader context of the anti-apartheid struggle and the liberation movement aimed at decolonisation of the African continent and southern Africa in particular.

My argument is that 'culture and resistance' then as now, could never have been the work of South Africans, by South Africans and for South Africans alone; that it was by its very nature an international project of, by and for the oppressed peoples of the world, manifesting itself in under conditions of settler colonialism and racism in southern Africa.

A protectorate administration was the particular way in which British colonialism manifested itself in Botswana.So we should be able to say that culture and resistance through MEDU was about mobilising the cultural resources of the African peoples of the southern tip of the continent in order to buttress the nationalist struggles for national emancipation, at the same time realising that colonialism was but the most recent form of expression of international capitalism perhaps more appropriately referred to as imperialism.

So, the liberation of South Africa, like the liberation of Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Angola, was inextricably intertwined with the freedom of the Zambians, the Batswana, Lesotho and Swaziland among the 'Frontline Sates'.

MEDU activity in 'culture and resistance', contrary to what the tourist historians and parochialist nationalists of South Africa claim, was a project and the work of progressives - nationalists and working classes - of the countries of southern Africa who wanted freedom from British, Dutch, Cecil Rhodes, German and Portuguese colonialism in southern Africa.

First, the newly independent Botswana hosted a 'jazz' indaba at the Gaborone 'National Stadium' in 1967 which brought together the creative music ensembles of South Africa from Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban and Pretoria, including Phillip Tabane's Malopo - more popularly known by the misnomer of Malombo - having just won the Castle Lager Jazz Festival prize for 'best group'.

I believe the Chris McGregor big band which later took Louis Moholo, Dudu Phukwana and Johnny Dyani to England was present. The Jazz Ministers, Jazz Dazzlers appeared. Bra Sello left an indelible mark, later featuring on the now defunct national stadium public address system that announced the first international match that brought Seretse Khama to the presidency of Botswana.

The festival was a milestone event that set up Botswana as the alternative venue for protest art in the region, providing the cultural boycott with an avenue of expression for arts practitioners in the culture and resistance movement.

Rather than perform in South Africa, international artists could come to Botswana to augment the efforts of the cultural boycott and to support the resistance movement against settler colonialism and apartheid.

In that unpublished article, I also point out that the Southern African Students Movement, with Geoff Dumo Baqwa as spokesperson for the cultural desk, brought Letta Mbulu, Jonas Gwangwa, Caiphus Semenya, Dudu Phukwana and their friends at the Jazz Crusaders including Cecil Barnard (Hotep) to Botswana 10 years later. They toured from Francistown's Mophane club, through Serowe to the Gaborone Capitol Cinema.

Whereas the 1967 festival opened the gateway to the 'free world', the 1977 tour signalled the homecoming of the South African artists in the Diaspora.

Jonas Gwangwa insisted on returning permanently to find the exiled vestiges of Dashiki, which collaborated with Bantu Steve Biko's South African Students Organisation (and the later Black Consciousness Movement) performing with Bonjo Keipidile and Rampholo Molefhe at the National Museum and Art Gallery in Gaborone, and in Molepolole for Paulo Frere whose literacy training methods contributed greatly to the SASO and BCM programmes for 'black consciousness'.

MEDU therefore, found a cultural ferment against apartheid and colonialism in Botswana, on which to build towards the monumental 'Culture and Resistance' festival of 1983 which brought the likes of Dennis Brutus, Keorapetse Kgosietsile -I am not sure about Alex La Guma- and the entire kaleidoscope of resistance artists of South Africa in the main, and Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, to the University of Botswana and the National Museum. Wally Serote and Thami Mnyele featured prominently in the organisation.

Much happened in between. Loshalaba, Reetsanang and the UB Travelling Theatre group under the mentorship of Prof Bob Leshoai thrived. The South African Defence Force raid on Gaborone in 1985 attempted to undo the work that was done, killing Mnyele and 11 other South Africans and two Batswana women, injuring several others.

Botswana's nascent cultural renaissance wilted. Five years later Nelson Mandela was released from 27 years of prison life to lead the first 'non racial, non sexist, democratic government of South Africa in 1994'.

Southern Africa is ready for the project of 'Culture and Social Renewal'.