I read an article last week Sunday in The Sunday Standard written by Mr Thabo Seleke titled “chieftaincy in a modern state.” I found the article interesting , not only for the truth it articulated, but because it takes this beautiful nation of Botswana to a crucial debate which this nation cannot afford to avoid any longer than we have since independence : the future of Bogosi in Botswana ?
The time for political rhetoric, without a definitive position on this key social issue, must now come to an end. Batswana deserve to know in clear unequivocal terms where each politician stands on the issue of Bogosi. The issue should and shall necessarily take centre stage in the next elections as I have opined before. The reason for this is simply that the institution of Bogosi does not belong to the politicians and a few elites for them to do as they please with it, but it belongs to Batswana. It sits at the core of who we are. With this background in mind I would like to add my comment to the debate under this theme “who will speak for you against the greatest threat to national security of modern times if you have forsaken your Dikgosi?”
The greatest threat to national security of modern nations does not come in the form of some nondescript Muslim hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan or Pakistan as we are often been made to believe(Bush and other ex Us Presidents are Christian but you never label them terrorist, but have killed 100 thousands of innocent souls all over the world). These are only fabled enemies of the state when the true enemy is wearing a suite and sitting in the boardroom of the office next to yours: the multinational corporations and politicians they have corrupted to serve their interests.
Not all multinational corporations represent evil, but many do. If one were to read the best seller of John Perkin: confession of an economic hitman, you will have a fairly good idea of what I am talking about and understand how some multinational corporations have virtually destroyed Africa and other third world countries economically, socially and politically through the corrupt political leaders of such countries, all in the name of profit for the corporations and temporary material wealth for those they have corrupted.
In their blind pursuit of profit, nothing matters; be it the environment, health of the people, quality of life for the people, and most frightening, the future survival of the people. We are most familiar with destruction of the rainforest or marine life by these corporations and other terrible interferences with the environment in manners that threaten the very existence of affected societies and sometimes the entire human race itself.
Some of us have now woken up to the carnage carried out by pharmaceutical companies with their dangerous medicines and vaccines which have now been exposed even in international forums such as the European Union and law Courts in Europe and America. The latest fraud upon the human race at the hands of the pharmaceuticals is that concerning the H1N1 vaccine scandal. Have the owners of these pharmaceutical companies and their families been vaccinated with this vaccine? I leave that one to you to find out. I can assure any reader that he will roll over in shock from his chair at what he will discover on this scandal by simply goggling H1N1 scandal in the internet. As the multi corporations abuse and sometimes kill the people out of their common ignorance arising largely from none or poor education, the question lingers as to who should speak for the people and provide them with some degree of security? We are guinea pigs, everything new is tested on the motherland. Why?
ÔÇó Is it the elected leaders? Your guess is mine. You only need to look at the recent Masire ÔÇô Debeers scandal recently exposed by the media to have your answer. Well, the elected leaders say in their campaigns that they will speak for and protect you. But then consider the corruption exposed by the media every day and the whole host of laws that have not been passed by parliament so far when democracy screams for the legislation of such laws.
ÔÇó Is it the media? They do a good job sometimes. Unfortunately their otherwise good job is often compromised by business considerations as opposed to the truth. They survive on adverts. They have said so in their cases against government when the government made the decision to throttle their life line by denying them Government patronage through adverts. The adverts are sponsored by the same multinational corporations and the same elected leaders who run government.
ÔÇó Is it the NGOs. Well, here your guess is mine again once you consider this: NGOs must get money from somewhere in order to survive. Aid money almost always has strings attached to it, even when given to governments. Most, if not all the NGOs that are visibly active and influential get their funding from the same multinational corporations with very long and tight strings attached to the aid. I sometimes watch, with pity for this country, how one visibly active and influential NGO in Botswana continues to promote the dreadful propaganda of some pharmaceutical companies on drugs that have been rejected elsewhere in the world, whilst at the same time advertising a culture that stigmatises sex with fear of such great proportions as to threaten the very existence of Batswana race. No doubt we shall throttle ourselves into extinction if we have so much fear to procreate and increase our nation.
ÔÇó Is it some foreigner like professor Good who will speak for us? Well, we have seen what happens to such apparently overzealous foreigners. They are kicked out of the country forthwith, even against international standards which Botswana has subscribed to.
ÔÇó Is it the ordinary Motswana? The ordinary Motswana does not have the time, money or energy to study the slippery manoeuvres of these multinationals and how they dine and shine with our elected leaders. He is too busy making ends meet in this world of institutionalised slavery that robs Motswana all of his time he would otherwise utilise to think for improvement of the quality of his life. Often he has little education to even appreciate the complexity of the abuse happening in front of his eyes.
So who then will speak for you? I am proposing to the reader that it is only through our beloved Dikgosi where the voice of the helpless masses can be heard and promoted into resistance against this threat to our national security. Dikgosi have performed this role from time immemorial. They stood against the physical oppression of colonialism when such was the national security threat of the time. They have stood against the post colonial spiritual assault upon the cultures of black people all over Africa, when such was, as it still is today, a national security threat to our very existence. Remember that “a nation without a culture is a lost nation without a future”. I cannot think of a national security threat greater than one that obliterates a future of a whole nation through destruction of its culture. It is time that we see the notion of national security beyond guns, bombs, 911, Bin laden, Islam, violent crime. We must urgently see it for what it is, by feeling with appreciation, the meaning of words such as those I have quoted.
Of late, the public has been witnessing the emergence of well educated Dikgosi standing tall against the present spiritual assault upon Setswana culture by colonial philosophy that has extended into post-colonial Botswana. The same Dikgosi have demonstrated the strength to stand against multinational corporations such as those involved in the alcohol industry (the shebeen issue in Kgatleng)
I do not forget that last year the same DiKgosi stood up and attempted to unite the people of Botswana against the injustice of extra judicial killings when the plight of Batswana was voiced through scattered political rhetoric of various interest groups. The initiative sadly failed because Batswana, especially those in the cities have lost the spiritual ability and power to unite.
The role of Kgosi in the modern state is therefore to serve as the guardian/protector of the people against modern day threats to national security of the people of Botswana. His weapon is knowledge and culture, in its true meaning to denote the way of daily life of Batswana and not in the ceremonial material ways often displayed. Dikgosi must therefore be fully empowered with resources and independence of thought in order to discharge this godly function.
