Botswana Letter
Big brother
Naomi Mitchison
Many a Botswana is desperately proud of his little country and proud also of being an African. But there are tough discouragements for such people. I went to a topping-out party at a quite small village, Oodi, where that talented Swede, Frobenius, has started a small spinning and weaving factory to produce his tapestries which will presumably fetch Lurcat prices. It was a gorgeous party, meat and porridge in big cauldrons, and excellent home-brew. There was singing by spinners, weavers and school children and plenty of dancing. Yet the village, several hundred of it, although completely Botswana, might have been any southern American poor black rural community, so pervasive is the influence of ragged trousers, ancient shirts and boots, shapeless print dresses and aprons.
Other African countries have got past this stage. Ghana and Nigeria look splendid in national dress, men and women both. Ethiopia is different again and unmistakeable. Tanzania and Zambia revel in African prints, though the panache of the west coast headdress has not yet been equalled by the ladies further south. But in a country such as Botswana the national costume was of dressed game-skins, and did not cover those parts of the anatomy which the missionaries disapproved of. Genuine or nominal Christians were bundled into seemly clothes and there on the whole they have stayed, though the new printed and batik cottons, mostly from Serowe, have caught on, not only with the tourists and volunteers. Here, the designing and printing was originally set up by a Swedish volunteer, but now it all goes ahead with designing by a Botswana artist, often partly based on the plaster work with which many women still decorate their courtyards.
The only other local costume, here in Mochudi, is a wrap-around apron skirt, in patterned dark blue cottons — so-called German prints, though I notice they are mostly made in England. It has a flounce and two rows of stitching and is one of the few pleasing hangovers from Mission days, though another is the tight bodice and flowing — often unavoidably — dirty, patchwork skirt: Clothes are only an indication of something in the unconscious, something that induces the ladies of Gaborone, the capital, to wear stockings or tights in the hottest weather. In vain one tells them that this would be unheard of in the most aristocratic and exquisitely clothed society of India, where a gold embroidered family sari could buy up any Gaborone trousseau. No, no, people who wear sandals at all times are marked down as volunteers, teachers, advisers and the like — or me. Perhaps we manage to escape the grip of South African advertising and South African influence on more than clothes.
There is a great sale of skin lighteners, mostly containing mercury, which often leave painful scars; it is no use saying 'Black is Beautiful' or even writing it in class. Anything from Johannesburg is automatically OK and of course for many things, from water pipes to tractor spares to soft drinks to laboratory or pottery glaze materials, you have to go to South Africa. Thousands of pounds cross the border weekly on drink sales, though it is hard to get that simple fact into people's heads; everyone drinks beer and they have rather lost the taste for home-brew which is a rather different kind of drink, though the imported corn-beer, chibuku, is on the same lines but not as good as the local kind when well made. Spirits are very expensive but
carry status. As to tractor spares, unhapPilYi is a tale of pushful salesmen who get farril interested in large and expensive tract which are bound to break down and dr° have spares in Botswana. It is not possible to get tea, coffee or f from Zambia, nor Kenyan cheese or jam; are in the South African customs union. groceries, hardware or materials all CO from there, or from Rhodesia. The cost, living is much higher here than in Zant and far higher, for most things, than the Or Yet the nearness to the Republic i1e°. something worse than this. I am not writ about the familiar old Special Branch with !I easy ways of infiltration, nor the fact letters, crossing in sealed bags, do someh° from time to time get opened or disapP° No, it is the fact that many of the older peril have worked in South Africa or lived, children, with their families in Mafeking Rustenburg, now part of the Tswana Bant° tan; they have experienced apartheid. Th have probably reacted against it, but if Y, have been told for years that you are infer' if everything around you makes up an vironment on two levels and yourself Pr manently on the lowest, it is bound to have effect. You lose your confidence; you can° take decisions without differing to a wh,,it even if you consciously don't want to. I may hate Afrikaans but you are not conIP tely at home in English, the other white la,' guage. English is a difficult language to les! genuinely, especially for someone used to t very different concepts of African languagi and yet all secondary education and examinations are in English. Meanwhile, le, people write Setswana correctly and inde0; there is still considerable controversy over tt orthography. It is not yet a language WI status. All this means discouragement'„ gradual, steady battering down of pride a' hope and above all initiative. Those who regret the passing of what °J clearly good, have the feeling, again the res° of white South African domination, that 0 must just put up with things. When the 11 springs, that's that. Yet there certainly 1s,.8 active minority who not only resent this, 19 are trying, for instance, to build up local dustries which will cut out some dependence on South Africa; when this sufficiently advanced there may be a chalr in fiscal arrangements. The new road to t, north may, in a couple of years, open thil up with Zambia, which is anxious not on1). trade but to have some share in the exploit' of Botswana's minerals, at present alln,° wholly controlled by America or South Africd although the Botswana government has 111° a reasonably good bargain and will get a lot money out of them. h je There is a factory at Ramoutsa W.' provides nurses' and also school uniforta from about £1 to £2 according to size a° employs some twenty girls, thus saving, considerable import. Of course they are stiho completely non-African school uniform; b„ then, this matches most of the education ali: appears to be what teachers and parer' want! Yet one can feel certain that if Big Brothiei, were to feel culturally and economica threatened — and how close these two C°0 cepts are — measures would be taken. S0tirit Africa already publishes magazines and str, books for the semi-adult market, all vehu:. 'African,' with handsome black heroes, ,i'er studiously free from any nasty political 0`,.,14 tones and a good medium for advertising..4 doubt they are profitable. For the moment lie Brother is very strong; the outward stil,„e hides some less pleasant things behind back. But in ten years time? Who knows?
el Lady Mitchison, the authoress, has he Tribal Adviser to Bakgatla, Botswana, lizer 1963. She lives in Scotland but describes recreation in Who's Who as 'elsewhere.
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