27 Mar 2023

Supa Ngwao Museum, a public institution dedicated to human history, art, and culture in the City of Francistown, has showcased its much awaited Francistown history documentary titled; Untold Stories:
A History and Diversity of Francistown.

The one-hour film and Chapter One of the documentary, launched at the Francistown Civic Centre on Friday, aims to celebrate the rich history of the second city and the diversity of its cultural heritage.

The documentary features some of the notable heritage landmarks such as the Phillip Matante International Airport Hanger situated at the Eastern end of the airport and has since been transferred to the custody Botswana Defence Force.

This old metal steel hanger, which has now gathered rust, has been there from time immemorial and was used by Witwatersrand Native Labour Association Agency as a recruitment centre.

The hanger played a critical role in the facilitation of trade in the SADC region as it gave temporary accommodation to recruits from Angola, Namibia, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Nyasaland (Malawi) and

Tanganyika (Tanzania) on their way to and from South Africa and the rest of Africa.

Another landmark is the Riverside cemetery, which is the final resting place of the founding father of the Botswana People’s Party and Botswana’s first ambassador to the United Nations, the late Phillip Matante.

The Monarch Gold Mine, which is possibly the first commercial gold mine in the Southern African region, also features in the documentary.

Other landmarks include the old train station and its steam engine, old jail national monument near Botswana police canteen, which has a history of racial discrimination, the Baobab tree planted by the former and late President, Sir Ketumile Masire in 1987, the Muslim church, the Anglican Church of Saint Patricks adjacent to the Francistown City Council and Lubengula street.

Featuring casts include senior citizens and prominent residents of Francistown in the likes of Molefe Dima, Pule Senatla, Kalanga musical artiste, Ndingo Johwa and Peter Matante, the son of the late Phillip Matante as well as the late Reverend Mosimanegape Mothibi.

Others are Botswana Tourism Organisation Francistown general manager, Tebogo Sebuso, principal curator, Matlhodi Segokgo, television personality and tour guide, Tsaone Bikitshane and Omphile Kgotla from Botswana Accountancy College.

Speaking at the launch, Supa Ngwao Museum curator, Geoffrey Matheakgomo said the concept was to unearth and showcase rich history of Francistown and its diversity in order to improve the city’s tourism sector.

He said the other objective was to improve the living standard of the residents by promoting heritage tourism in the second city.

Matheakgomo said countries across the globe continued to benefit from heritage or cultural tourism for booming economies.

Most interesting, he explained that the first gold-rush in Southern Africa began in Francistown and that the documentary was also intrigued by the history of Bakalanga people.

“Francistown, which began as a booming gold mining town in the 19th century, comprises the Bakalanga and other tribes,” he said.

Matheakgomo said the documentary was expected to boost Francistown’s cultural tourism.

He said Supa Ngwao Museum, which is the custodian of the Francistown history and surrounding areas, believed that residents of the town could utelise the history to make a living because gold, which used to be the main source of employment, was now depleted.

For their part, invited guests said the documentary was a good initiative and suggested that producers should incorporate English sub titles for the benefit of the global world.

Commenting, Johwa appealed for the improvement of sound because there was a lot of background noise.

He submitted that in developing it further, producers must involve as many people as possible because a lot of information had been left out in the documentary.

Johwa also asked the documenters to go beyond Francistown to areas such as Domboshaba ruins where a lot of history remained undocumented.

“There are a lot of heritage sites in the north, which can be collected and documented,” he disclosed.

The production of Francistown History documentary was sponsored the US Embassy in Gaborone to the tune of P115 000. ENDS