08 May 2022

Culture enthusiasts have praised Sekhutlwana sa Bannye for promoting the Setswana culture by hosting a successful children’s cultural event at Rakola lands on Saturday.

The event held under the theme; Go Nosetsa Matlhogela, loosely translated to signify promotion of culture from the grassroots, was filled with fun cultural activities for children to enjoy.

Adopting a child-centric approach, the organisers made sure children were at the centre of all activities of the day with presenters Michelle Gaolatlhe and Reatile Tladi directing the proceedings.

The day started with a tour in the bush where children were shown ant hills and some wild plants and trees and were also taught how to milk a cow. 

They also indulged in traditional games and cuisine and learnt some olden practices and skills. 

Addressing participants at the event, Director at the Department of Curriculum Development and Evaluation, Bona Guta commended Sekhutlwana sa Bannye team for exposing culture  to children, saying the objective of the event was clear, ‘to impart culture on our children’.

Subsequently he indicated that the Ministry of Education and Skills Development was committed to ensuring the integration and infusion of cultural aspects in the school curriculum in  order to impart knowledge, skills and values. 

He stated that culture ‘gives children a sense of direction on self identity and whom or what they aspire to become in life’.

Further, he said culture reinforced the spirit of Botho and natured responsibilities as well as patriotism. 

He said as such culture had been perceived to be a source of livelihood as well as a form of entertainment.

He emphasised the need to impart cultural values to children while they were still young as such a practice would not only help in preserving culture, but also in uniting the nation.

In their endeavour to provide quality accessible and relevant education, Guta said government recently approved languages policy in education to promote culture through the use of local languages in schools from pre-primary to Standard Two level.

For his part, Vice Chancellor for Botswana Open University, Daniel Tau applauded the organisers of the event for having realised the need to ‘go back to our roots’.

He said programmes such as Sekhutlwana sa Bannye demonstrated that slowly, but surely young people in this country realised that somehow their parents took a wrong turn and along the way, lost direction where culture was concerned. 

He said he was pleased that young people’s efforts in resuscitating their culture would one day bear fruit. 

He also observed that song writers and musicians these days sang in their mother tongue, which was commendable as that demonstrated willingness to promote culture.

He highlighted that for any nation to develop, its cultural values needed to be kept in high regard. 

Thus countries such as China, Japan and many others in the west were so advanced because they valued their identity and cultural practices.

Kgosi Oscar Mosielele of Bakgatla ba ga Mmanaana was of the view that it was time government recognised non-formal education ‘to move the country forward’. 

He expressed concern that Setswana culture was slowly diminishing. 

He, therefore, implored government to introduce policies that would enforce teaching of cultural practices in schools.

He also urged parents to instill best cultural practices in their children at family level in order for them to grow up into responsible citizens. 

He pledged his support to the programme and urged others to follow suit.

One of the dignitaries from South Africa, Psalmist Nche  appreciated the programme, urging Batswana to ensure that they preserved the Setswana language and culture, which he said was slowly dying. 

He urged parents and government to support the programme so that it realised its objective. 

For his part, the coordinator of the event and also the founder, Edwin Moroka said his team  realised that there was a gap in Setswana language teaching, particularly in analysing poetry, writing Setswana compositions as well as the proper use of idiomatic  expressions. 

In addition, he said children were often left out and not catered for in other cultural events, a gap the programme intended to close.

Sekhutlwana Sa Bannye is a call-in radio programme aired on Duma FM every morning from 6:45 to 6:55am.

It targets children aged 16 years and below, who participate by answering questions on different topics to promote the use of Setswana language. ends