Wednesday 25th March 2015 will remain etched in our memories as a dark day for Botswana because parliament voted to approve in to law the Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2014 (no. 28 of 2014) with twenty-one ‘Yeses’, ten ‘Noes’ and one abstention. It is now upon President Lt. Gen. Khama to sign to make it operational. Whoever thought of the Societies (Amendment) Bill 2014 especially concerning raising the threshold of registration of religious organisations from 10 to 250 which has been reduced to 150 at Committee Stage is inspired by the devil. For me it has not come as a surprise that the President Khama led government will attack the church the way they are doing. It was just a matter of when will it take place. I knew all along that when Lt. Gen. Khama becomes President the spiritual battle will reach its climax. It is clear now that the battle lines have been drawn and I want to assure the Khama led government that they are declared war on an institution which is going to defeat them. The telltale signs have been there all along that as a nation we are headed for a spiritual confrontation which is just a precursor of the battle of Armageddon. The battle of Armageddon refers to the final war between human governments and God. These governments and their supporters oppose God even now by refusing to submit to his rulership.
There are numerous signs that indicated that something is brewing behind the scenes. When President Khama was still Vice President the Daily News of 20 February 2006 carried a story “Khama delivers divination shells” (http://www.olddailynews.gov.bw/cgi-bin/news.cgi?d=20060220) from which I take the liberty to quote extensively to show his spiritual operations.
“The most interesting and out-of-the-ordinary request made last October was from a traditional doctor, Setabosigo Keorapetse. He wanted his MP to bring him divination shells and a whisk (ditaola le seditse). Other requests included donkey carts, sewing machines, farm implements, sponsorship for several courses and ovens to run bakeries. Alas, all the requested items were delivered in person by Khama at a kgotla meeting held at Dimajwe, about 120km northeast of Serowe on Friday. Before handing over the gifts, Khama told Keorapetse that the task was daunting, saying he even travelled at night to find them. “O re neetse tiro ee bokete. Re lekile. Re tsamaile thata go bona dilo tse. Kene ka raya badirela puso gore ba seka ba bo ba di tshwara ka gore fa ba ka ditshwara ba ka nna le mathata, go tshwara dikgosi fela,” he said, meaning that he cautioned public officers against touching the divination shelves lest they get themselves into trouble, as only dikgosi could handle them.
“Re tsamaile thata le bosigo tota re bata tse di bogale gore di te di go thuse fela thata.” (We travelled a lot even at night to find strong ones that could be of great help to you.) According to Khama, the Bangwato Kgosi, who is on loan to politics, some of the divination shells were sourced from a river in the Boteti area; the big ones were from the top of a hill at Mosu, where the late Kgosi Khama was born; and the others from overseas. Soon after he was presented with the gifts, Keorapetse went straight to the yard, with three old huts, which he lives in with his wife, seven children and extended family members, and BOPA followed him after the meeting to get his comment. The Khama magic appeared to be working, as the delighted traditional doctor said he was satisfied with the present. He nevertheless said he was only short of beads.”
The question that comes to one’s mind is, how did Lt. Gen. Khama find those “divination shells” and “fly-whisk” without knowledge of the craft. In other words there is no how he could have achieved that without the assistance of a ngaka, if he is not a ngaka himself.
Rae Graham’s narration in the book “White Woman Witchdoctor, Tales from the African life of Rae Graham” explains how as a white woman witchdoctor got her bones and other paraphernalia that is used in witch-doctoring.Graham in explaining how he got some of her bones said that:
“And he opened his hand and placed in to mine a bone from the antbear- a fairly large nocturnal animal, like a bear with a long snout. This bone, plus the one from a springbok, you never get yourself. All others you have to find, but this two must be given to you when you are deemed ready, not by your own teacher but by another member of the profession who makes the decision… My inyanga friend appreciated my level of expertise and saw and felt my knowledge, and he wanted to be the one to give the honour”. (Graham:p.190)
The way Graham explains how she got her bones goes to show that when you reach a certain knowledge and expertise you need an inyanga who is more knowledgeable than you to give you the bones that you cannot get for yourself. I want to argue that this is exactly what Ian Khama was doing in Dimajwe kgotla when he gave out divination shells to a witchdoctor.
When I first saw the story “Khama delivers divination shells” in the Daily News I could not believe it and contacted the late Mable Kebotsamang, who wrote the story to ascertain its veracity. She confirmed to me that what she wrote was what actually happened explaining further that the witchdoctor in question was sent for training in the Tswapong area by Lt. Gen. Khama himself and the divination shells and the fly-whisk were the conclusion of the training.
John Mackenzie in Ten Years North of the Orange River from 1849-1860 ; sums up how the knowledge of bongaka is acquired as follows:
“Admission to the profession is to be obtained on the payment of a fee, and going through a course learning under one or more of the initiated. An ox is the usual fee on entrance. The instruction is called “teaching to dig”, because most medicines and charms are obtained from plants which are dug up in fields. So the Bechuana lecturer takes his pupil or pupils with him to the open country one day and to the mountains next, and shows him where the healing plants are to be found. In the course of time he communicates to his pupil all his own knowledge.” (p.381)
Another illuminating sign that the spiritual battle was looming is that in June 2008 (not long after his inauguration on April 1) President khama appointed a Kgosi Puso Gaborone led ‘Joint Advisory Committee of Ntlo ya Dikgosi and Botswana Council of Churches on Social Values’ whose first two recommendations under ‘ The role of the church and other religious institutions’ are:
Registration of religious bodies be removed from Societies Act through promulgation of New Religious Organizations Act with stricter requirements for registration of such bodies.
A regulatory body Religious Organizations Council with semi judicious powers be established to regulate registrations of religious bodies and pastors and requisite disciplinary among religious organizations and practitioners.
The intentions against the church have been laid out early in Khama’s administration. The Societies (Amendment) Bill 2014 is a culmination of that exercise. The treatment of the church in the Act is so different from that of other societies that it is as good as having been ‘removed from Societies Act through promulgation of New Religious Organizations Act with stricter requirements for registration of such bodies’.
Still in 2008, Khama draped Kgafela II with a leopard skin during his coronation and the explanation of why Khama was agreed upon is contained in Kgafela Kgafela II 2014 book ‘The King’s Journal- from the horse’s mouth.’
‘In the end, we agreed on Botswana’s president, Lieutenant General Mr Ian Kgama Seretse Kgama. My reasons for this choice were informed by the guidance from the Ancestors ( Badimo) I was told of an energy interaction that should and would take place between President Kgama and I, on the draping ceremony and that such energy activity would serve to shape the future history of Botswana in a manner that would gradually reveal itself… His father before him (Sir Seretse Kgama) was heir to the throne of the Bangwato Kingdom. Sir Seretse Kgama was the first president of Botswana. He and my father, Kgosi Linchwe II, were intertwined in their lives back in the 1960s and 1970s, as will be seen in the stories of The King’s Journal. My great-grandfather, Kgosi Linchwe I, similarly intertwined with Ian Kgama’s great-grandfather, Kgosi Kgama I, of Bangwato back in the 1890s. As such, it was revealed to me that there were issues from the past, in the spirit world, that required resolution. I was told that President Ian Kgama and I had to spiritually log on to an energy field on my coronation, and that the coronation ritual itself would provide a conducive environment of magic for the necessary intertwining of souls to take place. There had to be some kind of soul entanglement within the ritual of the coronation, which required special proximity of body and heart of the two subjects of the ritual, namely President Ian Kgama and myself. The soul entanglement would kick-start the essential work of fixing unresolved issues of the past whilst paving a new future. As such much of the events that have played themselves out in the public domain in Botswana since the coronation ceremony are intertwined with, or owe their origin to, energies that were exchanged at that moment of the draping (p.59-60)
Kgafela’s description of his coronation clearly shows that there is a lot of spiritual activities involved which Khama participated in. This activities are against the teaching of the word of God such as Badimo guidance, unresolved issues in the spirit world, magic and spiritually logging on to some energy. When Kgafela mentions events playing themselves out in the public domain since his coronation, immediately what comes in to mind is the whipping of pastors in Mochudi which resembles the current persecution of the church by Societies Amendment Act.
As a Christian I have been monitoring the spiritual dimension to the way Lt. Gen. Khama operates which though public most people are not aware of or choose to ignore. Lt. Gen. Khama’s spiritual operations are similar with the way his great grandfather Sekgoma I operated in the 1860s and 70s as Bangwato chief in Shoshong which were diametrically opposed to that of Khama III.
A record of the spiritual clash between Sekgoma I and Khama III are captured in three books ‘Ten Years North of the Orange River from 1849-1860′ by John Mackenzie; ‘Twenty Years in Khama’s country and pioneering among the Batauana of Lake Ngami’ by James Davidson Hepburn and Bessie Head’s ‘A Bewitched Crossroad: An African Saga’.
History records that in 1860 Khama III became a Christian which brought him in to a collision course with his father Sekgoma I who was ‘high priest or sorcerer’. Khama III who was the firstborn of Sekgoma I refused to lead Bangwato young men to initiation school as the eldest son and heir because he considered such ceremonies anti-Christian. It is mentioned that the clash became so violent that Sekgoma disinherited Khama III and the two fought for chieftainship in 1872 which Khama III ultimately won in 1875 and became Bangwato chief until he died in 1923. The missionaries record that in this clashes of the kingdom of darkness represented by Sekgoma I and the Kingdom of light by Khama III, a lot of people lost their lives in the gun battles that took place in Shoshong.
Hepburn notes that when Khama III first defeated his father in 1872 “The following Sunday (August 1872) Khama III inaugurated his reign by holding a Christian service in his courtyard, and announced that henceforth only such services should be held there” (p.11).
Bessie Head further reports Khama III as having said “My people, Jesus that king of kings rules here…” (p.40)
The point I am making is that the throne (kgotla) that Ian Khama rules Bangwato from was established by Khama III with JESUS CHRIST as the foundation from Shoshong to Old Palapye and finally in Serowe. History shows that in relocating the Ngwato capital from Shoshong to Palapye and finally Serowe, Khama III, ensured that the church was the first building erected before he even built his own house. No wonder Khama III was not only the longest serving Bangwato chief but played a major role in Botswana attaining protection from Britain. He laid a solid christian foundation for the present day Botswana which Lt. Gen. Khama’ government wants to destroy.
Mackenzie in page 371 said:
“The “bogosi” or chieftainship is hereditary among the Bechuanas. A chief generally unites in his own person the offices of a king, supreme judge, commander-in-chief and high-priest or sorcerer. Sekhome exercised the functions belonging to all these offices, and was held by his admirers to excel in them all”.
The missionaries record that Sekhome was feared even by neighbouring tribes as a great sorcerer.
Khama III by being a Christian was renouncing especially his expectation of becoming ‘high-priest or socerer’.
McKenzie states that ‘As a ngaka or priest, the chief is supported by a class of men (lingaka) who not only practice the art of healing but are professors of witchcraft, and have taken degrees in rainmaking’.
(Mckenzie:p.381).
McKenzie further notes that: “But while lingaka have thus their own private practice, there are also certain public duties devolving upon them in virtue of their profession”. This “public duties” among others include rain making and “lighting of fires”.
Explaining the ceremony of lighting fires McKenzie said:
“Again, each fireplace is supplied with three stones, upon which the pot rests when being cooked. It is held that these may become unclean or impure, and need to be changed, not by the owner of the house, but lingaka or doctors…The fires themselves become impure, and the lingaka order them all to be put out. The priests then go round with lighted sticks, which have previously been charmed. Having seen that the hearth has been thoroughly cleared out, they relight the fire from the pure source which they carry with them for the purpose.”
(P386).
TO avoid doubt in the minds of critics and those who think the white missionaries despise our ‘culture’ by calling it pagan, McKenzie has a footnote in page 386 where he states:
Mackenzie notes that “In Pagan times in Scotland it was the custom every autumn, on what was afterwards called Hallow-eve, to extinguish all fires in the country. Next morning the people were supplied with holy fire, which was kindled and consecrated by the Druids.” (Druid is a Scottish priest which is an equivalent of ngaka in Setswana)
McKenzie relates an incident where one day a priest appeared at his house in Shoshong “carrying in his hand a lighted stick, which had appearance of having been smeared over with ‘medicines’, to perform the fire-lighting ceremony.
“I civilly declined the assistance of this priest, telling him that my fireplace was regularly swept, and as to all other impurity, I trusted to the mercy of God in Christ Jesus,” he said. (p.387)
I am quoting all this to show the probable significance of the fires that Lt. Gen. Ian Khama used in his early years of his presidency to light at different dikgotla throughout the country as was shown in the media especially Botswana Television. The explanation that Btv gave of this fire-lighting ceremonies by Lt. Gen. Ian Khama was that he wanted to spend the evenings with the old people around the fire learning histories of different tribes!! Why would the whole President personally light fires through-out the country just to learn history? What a weird way of learning!! My interpretation is that this fire-lighting ceremonies by Lt. Gen. Ian Khama are similar in nature to those done during Sekgoma I’s times and as such Lt. Gen. Ian Khama is playing the role of “high priest or sorcerer”.
In that light was not surprised by the Midweek Sun article ‘Botswana’s reluctant rainmaker” of 17 January 2013 which stated that:
“Forget global warming. The reason why Botswana has experienced long dry spells and low harvest yields over the years is because Bangwato Kgosikgolo – President Ian Khama, has ignored his calling as a rainmaker. No one knows this ‘fact’ better than traditional medicine man and secretary of Botswana Dingaka Association, Ngaka Monthusi Sekonopo who says Kgosikgolo Sekgoma I revealed this to him in a dream. http://www.themidweeksun.co.bw/news/4032-botswana-s-reluctant-rainmaker.html
In conclusion I want to state unequivocally that we have reached the climax of our spiritual battle. Why is the Khama led government not concerned about the influx of foreign inyangas who even boldly advertise themselves as ngaka ya setswana/setso go tswa ko Zimbabwe or Malawi etc. yet government is not thinking of regulating them.
What concerns me the most is that the understanding of most Christians has been darkened, to the point where they just dismiss President Khama as one of those white men who knows nothing about issues of badimo, ditaola etc. Some have even suggested that Khama likes joking and we should not read much in to his ‘fire-lighting’, coronation of Kgafela and delivering divination shells.
In Psalms 11 “when the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do”? If we allow the christian foundations of this nation to be destroyed the spititual challenges such as Satanism are going to increase. Let us Arise and shine. Ntwa e bolotse. Forward ever backward never!
