05 Dec 2019

Like other tribes such as Bakwena and Bangwaketse whose cultural festivals have now become key features in the annual arts calendar, Bangwato have also followed suit, holding their inaugural cultural festival recently.

Though the event, dubbed Gammangwato Heritage Festival, was poorly attended, the handful of people who turned up were treated to a variety of activities, among them traditional song and dance, poetic recitations as well as presentations on the history of Serowe, which is the headquarters of the Bangwato territory.

In his keynote address, member of the Bangwato royal family Kgosi Leapeetswe Khama expressed optimism that the festival would, with time, to become an event that would draw masses from across the breadth and width of Botswana.

He described the festival as an opportunity for Bangwato to tell their own story, in their own way.

“The Bangwato story has been told by many people before, most of whom were not part of us. It is crucial therefore that we tell our own story as a people; and that we can do through activities such as this” he noted.

Further, Kgosi Khama hailed Bangwato for their spirit of unity and good governance that he said had prevailed from the time the Gammangwato  was founded.

He observed that  the different tribes making up the Gammangwato community had co-existed peacefully alongside each other for such a long time despite their cultural differences was a key characteristic peculiar to the Bangwato region.

He also spoke of how accommodating of other people Bangwato were, giving an example of how the tribe warmly embraced the likes of Patrick van Rensburg and Bessie Head, who later contributed immensely to the development of Serowe and that of the entire country.

Bangwato deputy tribal authority Kgosi Serogola Seretse, earlier in his welcome remarks, shared his wish for all dikgosi from all over Gammangwato territory to be present during next year’s edition of the festival as the event was not for the Bangwato tribe but rather for Ba Gammangwato, those being all tribes within the Gammangwato territory.

Kgosi Seretse also labeled the poor show by the local dikgosi a disappointment particularly since they had been taken on board when the event was being planned for, emphasising the importance of dikgosi in all matters pertaining to culture.

He said with dikgosi being the custodians of culture, it was unbefitting for them to neither have attended the festival nor encouraged people from their wards to do so.

Representatives of Serowe’s four founding wards or dikgotla of Ditimamodimo, Basimane, Maaloso and Maalosoangwana took the attendants down memory lane, narrating how the dikgotla came into being.

During the event, an official of the Nigerian High Commission Mr Godwin Okoro handed over a P2 000 donation to the organising committee on behalf of the High Commissioner of Nigeria to Botswana. ENDS