Cultural Excursion to Kanye and Manyana (Aug 13-14)

This past weekend, about fifty of the international students went on an arranged "Cultural Excursion" to visit a kgotla (public meeting place in a community), historical rock paintings, a game park, and the Livingstone tree. We stayed overnight in a village and were told some things about traditional life in an African village. This traditional life does not really exist anymore for Batswana. Many things began to change after Botswana achieved independence in 1966 and began to rapidly develop economically with the discovery of diamonds the following year. As is the case for many nations, people moved from the rural areas to the cities in search of jobs and adopted more modern views about marriage, social roles, and family.

Some traditions do remain, however. One example is that in a kgotla, women have to wear skirts that cover their knees in the meeting place. This was a bit of an interesting thing to prepare for because the kgotla visit was one of the first things we did on Saturday morning. The bus arrived at the village and most of the girls then had to struggle into their long skirts or dresses in an awkward fashion. During the visit, we also learned that the practice of paying a bride price at a marriage is still common, the standard for this particular clan being eight cows and a goat. It is not seen as "buying the bride," per se, but as showing appreciation to the bride's family for raising such a good woman. Some of the other traditions regarding gender were that certain chairs made from leather and wood were reserved for only men (no other reason was given, just that they were for men) and men are always served first. One benefit of the sexism for women is that if they are convicted of a crime, they cannot be caned because we are considered too delicate. The only punishments available to us are fines and jail time. Here are some pictures of the compound (you can click on them to make them bigger):

The thatch roofed building is the kgotla where all the meetings of the village take place, including weddings, trials, and such. I'm not sure what the large modern building is, but they had a conference room and a statue of a crocodile.

This is the group walking towards the kgotla.

This is a crocodile. I'm not sure if "Thy will be done," is a national slogan of some sort, but the picture behind the statue is Botswana's president, Ian Khama. Many stores and businesses have his picture hanging on their wall. Interestingly, Ian Khama is the grandson of the first president of Botswana, Seretse Khama.

That's me in my long, kgotla-friendly dress.

After the kgotla, we went to see the statue of one of the famous kgosi of the village. It had just been unveiled the day before. The statue overlooks the whole valley, so that the late kgosi, Kgosi Bathoen II, can watch over his territory.

Statue of the late Kgosi Bathoen II.

The next stop was the reservoir on the way to lunch. Apparently it was built from 1939 to 1941 by the community, not by a government organization. Now, the water is very much polluted, so people are not supposed to fish (though they do anyway) or swim in the water. Not that one would want to swim here because of all the trash left by wanton partiers on the shore and floating in the water. Below, you can see the beer bottles bobbing in the water. Also, the trees that were planted along the shore are not native to Botswana; they are invasive and compete with native plants.

Next, we had lunch at a hotel that was playing CSI Miami on the television (American media is everywhere, especially the music). Then we headed off to see some old rock paintings and a cave that supposedly had housed a pregnant wife of the chief during a war between tribes in 1851. My friend Martha and I crawled a bit into the cave before Tebogo (one of the Motswana that work in the International Student office) got nervous and told us to come out.

Walking up to the paintings.

This is our guide explaining the paintings to the group.

This is an "abstract" painting, the meaning of which researchers have been unable to identify. 

That loop is the symbol for a snake.

Here is an antelope of some sort. The horns are faintly discernible.

These are people! The one on the left is carrying something on his/her back.

These are some sort of animal, the guide said they have not been identified because of the strange way the heads are shaped.

This is inside the cave that the pregnant wife of the chief lived in for a few months. It is named after her.

The roots of this tree grow about 30 feet down the side of the rocks. Its hard to capture how amazing that is on a camera, but it was really neat to see in person.

 After the rock paintings, we went to the Livingstone Tree under which the missionary Livingstone was supposed to have come to preach and convert the locals. One of my friends told me that Livingstone himself never actually converted as many people as he is credited for. He only converted one man, who then went and converted most of the people in the area. So, indirectly he is famous for his work. The guide said that he does not know how old this tree actually is, but he knows that it was large in 1850 when Livingstone saw it. It is a wild fig tree, as I remember. Sadly, the tree looks like it is not in very good shape. The leaves do not look very healthy and many of the branches are cracked or breaking. It is still a very neat looking tree, though!

This is the center of the tree. Its all cracked, as you can see, and doesn't seem that healthy.

Moe took a picture of me.

This is Moe. He's a vegan and works in the international office.

This is a close up of the leaves.

Next, we went to a "cultural village," where the residents sort of put on a show for us about traditional practices in an African village. The most entertaining part of the whole presentation was when we were taught traditional dances. One of the men brought me out into the center and had me doing a twirling sort of dance with him. Then one of the older ladies dragged me out again later to teach me a harvest dance. The funniest dance was actually fairly raunchy; it was a dance meant for teenage girls just coming into their beauty. It involved the girl backing up towards the men with her hands on her hips, then turning around to face them with her hands placed on the side of her breasts with her fingers splayed like feathers.

(This post isn't quite finished, but I will post it now and add more later.)