There we were at Kgosi Seepapitso’s funeral ÔÇô men and women huddled together to mourn the supreme Kgosi of the Bangwaketse. It was at this time as men and women took rounds to speak, that I pondered on the power relations at play. I was reminded of what I have always believed as a first year undergraduate when we debated Achebe’s Things Fall Apart ÔÇô that patriarchy is vicious to both men and women. At one level the social class drama was playing before our eyes. Men and women of standing, those who mattered, were being announced for everyone to hear, that they were here, lest they be mistaken for villagers. “Re na le Rraetsho Rre RaGaone le Mohumagadi wa gagwe Mme Mma Gaone. Bagaetsho re na gape le tautona wa pele Rre Mogae le Mme Mma Nametso.” Then the program would proceed briefly, then “Bagaetsho, Kgosi…. wa … le ene o sa tswa go goroga.” Then, “Re santse re solofetse mohumagadi wa tautona wa pele wa Aforika Borwa, Mme MmaMbeki.” What mattered was whether the MC thought you mattered. Power relations have shifted. School teachers and headmasters or village doctors, no longer matter. Whatever little power they may still wield, such power is largely negligible. Those who matter are those with massive political power ÔÇô I am here including le boKgosi-Kgolo. It was therefore not surprising when the MC announced later, “Re na gape le Rraetsho manyane Mangope. Ke kopa gore a eme.” That intrigued me. It is perhaps only during the funerals of the powerful members of our society that other powerful people are acknowledged and even requested to stand to be recognised. What is interesting people with power and control invite each other to funerals and not just weddings! If one does not receive an invitation, they do not show up ÔÇô they perceive the lack of invitation as unpleasant. How things have changed. Dear reader please journey with me to inspect these sensitive missives, “Ke kwala jaana ke laletsa monngame phitlho ya ga rraetsho yo o re tlogetseng beke e e fetileng. Tirelo e tlaa simolola mo mosong ka nako ya botlhano fa serepa se tlaabo se bonwa. Re ka leboga thata fa o ka netefatsa go tla ga gago mo tirong e e masisi e.”
So the power relations in that Kgotla were not just between the royals and the non-royals. It was a relationship between those with power and property and those who lacked it. Those who lack power ÔÇô ke go re morafe ka kakaretso ÔÇô go solofelwa gore o bo o ntse fa fatshe fa tiro e simologa. No, none of your names will be announced over the speakers! In your dreams! Instead you are requested to clear the way to ensure that the invited guests can make their way to their seats with ease.
The point I am making here is that power relations are not just along sex lines as sometimes argued for by feminists and certain gender issues activists. They are principally defined along class or power lines. A powerful rich woman such as MmaMbeki is more powerful than a cattle rearing Mongwaketse man of Thamatlhogo. Wealth and political power seem to define power relations more than sex lines. This point in many ways is not new. Returning to Achebe, it is the man with means who was “a man”; while a man without means was “a woman”, or an efulefu in Ibo. Manliness in Botswana is still to a large extent defined by possessions ÔÇô including the possession of a woman. In many Tswana cultures an unmarried man is still considered a boy. He cannot be involved in bogadi negotiations, even that of his children. That is why when a young man marries and his father has not paid bogadi, he is required to pay such bogadi for his own mother on behalf of his own father.
Bana ba ba a itheka; ba iintshetsa magadi. The semantic concept of what a man is therefore in many Tswana cultures not along the compositional semantic lines of a male adult human. Manliness includes power and wealth and not all men (i.e. male human adults) are equal. Some are powerful and deserve to be announced to everybody during a funeral; while others are weak and deserve to keep their distance and function as grave diggers and cook for powerful men and women. It could equally be argued that the concept of womanhood is socially complex. A woman is not just a female adult human amongst the Batswana. She is married and a full bride price of cows has been paid for her hand. O batlilwe. Increasingly in Botswana power relations are defined along property and political liness. It is therefore the Member of Parliament and the councillor who get to speak at the funeral. They may not be the richest people around, but they carry much political power. They are the de facto new royals, devoid of royal blood. With the free access to education, it has now become possible for children of society’s to graduate from Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge, while the children of the royals and ministers do with university diplomas. This has resulted with power relations being in a state of flux depending on the context. The statement: He/She is powerful becomes difficult to unpack; for it begs the question: “Powerful in what?”.
