Last week Mr. Duma Boko, a prominent local attorney, the BNF president and the president of the UDC, made headline news all for the wrong reasons. In one publication he was said to be defending Mugabe, arguing that Botswana has no moral standing on which to doubt the results of the Zimbabwean elections. In another newspaper he characterised university professors as both unintelligent and inarticulate & Botswana judges as emotional. By the end of the week Mr Boko had also made front page news in another local publication for failure to pay maintenance for his child to Onalenna Motale.
I have been most fascinated by how many on the University of Botswana campus have reacted to Mr Boko’s accusations. Many reacted with disgust. They charged: “Who is Boko anyway? He is a man who taught at UB for ten years and only managed to publish two articles. How dare he say he could have been a professor had he wanted to just because he had brilliant ideas?” That Boko is an arrogant fellow lacking in modesty and humility and in possession of an exaggerated view of himself is without doubt. He appears as a man who is still dazed by his encounter with Harvard University over some 20 years ago though he isn’t the only one in the country who has gone to Harvard Law School. I am aware of at least five individuals who attended Harvard Law School, one of whom has a doctorate from the University of Oxford. None of them is as rumbustious as Mr. Boko. Mr Boko also poorly understands the requirements for professorship, assuming that they are attainable by simple desire and the possession of good ideas. He is obviously wrong in this regard. Boko’s attack on academics especially by attacking members of the university professoriate is actually an attempt to diminish their academic achievement and indirectly posture himself above them as more intelligent and eloquent than them. Actually Boko may be more intelligent or even more eloquent than professors.
But he is certainly none of them & he lacks the research and publication muscle they possess. I have been to the Bangwaketse kgotla and I have seen incredibly intelligent and eloquent men in possession of minimum education. Therefore there are many men and women of great intelligence who are not professors. Mr Boko also tries to attain importance by association. By claiming to have spent illuminating times with imminent persons such as MIT’s Noam Chomsky, he seems to assume that their grandeur has somehow rubbed on him.
While Boko may be irritating, I think UB academics do need to relax and deal with criticism rather differently. In any case UB academics are some of the fiercest critics in this country. They have criticised government, political parties, parastatals, foreign governments, each other and various persons and establishments. Actually criticism is at the heart of academic life. It is therefore important for academics to deal with criticism differently when it is dished towards them. Mostly, they should ignore it; while some of it they should reflect on it and use it to better themselves.
UB is like any other institution. It has outstanding individuals and ones who delight in and defend mediocrity. Boko’s weakness lies in painting everybody with the same dark brush as if all UB academics are the same. Additionally, in attacking the professoriate Boko pours scorn on the very process of appointing the professors, including the international reviewers who are part of the process as well as the extensive publication requirement. How can the university appoint to the professoriate men and women who are unintelligent? But I gather that what has been most offensive is that Boko was a rather unsuccessful academic when he worked for the University of Botswana. Within the 10 years that he was teaching at the university he failed to demonstrate his academic brilliance through research and publication and failed to progress to doctoral studies.
What has been most troubling though is Boko’s position as a politician. One academic responded that “Perhaps Boko is right that we are unintelligent. How can we be voting for his BNF when he is insulting us? It is only unintelligent people who will reward him with their votes after facing his insults.” Some argue that there is nothing new in Boko’s contradictions. “Here is a man who has never cast a vote asking for our votes; here is a man who knows very little about publications pontificating about professorship”. I do think as the leader of the Botswana National Front (BNF) and Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) Mr Boko is something of a liability. His ego overtakes him sometimes and puts both his party and the coalition in jeopardy. His utterances can be both an irritant and a turn off to potential voters, especially the undecided.
Having said that, those who are familiar with Boko will point to the fact that he delights in causing psychological discomfort. He is a kind of pleasant sadist. Boko is just an enigma.
