I have been looking, really searching for young funky Batswana who are excellent in English and yet passionate about their language ÔÇô that is, literally flawless in their Setswana competence; able to speak Setswana without, or with minimum, code-switching.
Such a combination is extraordinarily rare amongst the young and the old of this country. That is fairly understandable since most of our young are either very good in English, funky and modern but totally hopeless in Setswana. Or they are really course and rustic and cannot put a grammatical English sentence together; they have no clue about email, internet, blackberry, and cannot distinguish “to discuss” from “a discus” but when it comes to Setswana they are almost impeccable.
Their knowledge of Setswana idiomatic expressions, colours of animals, diseases and names of trees is impressive. For them, the languages are mutually exclusive. This is a false dichotomy of the moment amongst Batswana in general and it has crystallized amongst our youth and parents alike.
The belief is that an excellent knowledge of English cannot be accompanied by an equally outstanding knowledge of Setswana. This false assumption was this past weekend disproved from an unlikely but an appropriate bunch ÔÇô a group of refined debaters from some of Gaborone’s tertiary institutions. The event was organised by Debate Masters Associations ÔÇô one the most organised University of Botswana-based associations ÔÇô under the leadership of Justice Motlhabani, of the Big Brother Africa fame ÔÇô “the shortest, most argumentative housemate and the first to be evicted from the Big Brother2 house”.
The invitation to the debate pointed out that: “The Setswana debate League has been developed to revive and sustain the Setswana language and to prepare a platform for students to speak and communicate in Setswana. It is also meant to promote debate through one of Africa’s popular languages. This comes as part of an initiative to echo our national identity particularly the use of classical-standard Setswana.
Our language is our culture and our heritage. Language is the key to identity. Having a clear sense of identity is important for self-esteem and stability.”
Additionally, the invitation argues that: “The Setswana language Debate League has been created to encourage people to speak Setswana in their daily lives, to be proud of the Setswana language and also to preserve this lovely language from the danger of decline or turning into some strange modern language that would make it lose its wonderful beauties.”
Debaters dealt with motions which dealt with contemporary issues such as: Go fitlhelela tekatekano ya borre le bomme; bomme le bone ba tshwanetse go ntsha bogadi and Segosi ga se na mosola mo pusong ya batho-ka-batho. I don’t know what I had expected from these city slickers ÔÇô but certainly it wasn’t outstanding Setswana.
I was prepared for much code-switching and code-mixing. I had expected to hear what MLA Kgasa used to call Seteransefala. But I was terribly wrong. I was pleasantly surprised. From the very first round I was blown away. Young and feisty speakers took to the podium in excellent Setswana to debate a variety of motions.
For a moment I felt parliamentarians and councillors should have been invited to see this. Or perhaps the Honourable Nasha and her assistant, the Honourable Moatlhodi should have been invited to see bana ba bone ba dira dimakatso.
The debates followed the British Parliamentary Debating Format ÔÇô where speakers are free to interject and pose question, these being known as Points of Information (POIs). Speakers spoke for about five to seven minutes.
The debate consisted of four teams of two speakers each with two teams on either side of the case. Because of the style’s origins in British parliamentary procedure, one side is called the Government while another is referred to as Opposition, and the speakers take their titles from those of their parliamentary equivalents (such as the opening Government speaker, called the Prime Minister).
Each side had an opening and a closing pair. If debates in the Setswana language could be maintained, it is clear that over time they will prepare young debaters at secondary and tertiary institutions for the rough and tumble of parliamentary debates.
And such debaters could weigh the quality of the various members of parliament and council objectively. More importantly, if debaters develop sufficient confidence to debate in Setswana their confidence to join politics will be enhanced since they could see themselves building formidable arguments in freedom squares and in the National Assembly itself.
For me, it is clear, the renaissance is here! The tide is swelling and rising and it would be almost impossible for anybody to diminish it.
There are broad winds of change sweeping through this desert terrain. These winds began with the work of musicians who demonstrated the power of the Setswana language to function in hitherto ignored domains, such as music. Let’s face it, although English is an international language ÔÇô there are domains, such as music, where it really doesn’t matter much. Batswana musicians who sing in the national language generally make more money than those who sing exclusively in English.
The Debate Masters Association has demonstrated that if we individually do our part, regardless of how small it may appear, we will restore dignity to the national language.
