By Mr. Moses Ndiriva Kandjou*
This paper is in support of Penestos Kaikahora Ua Kanbato’s attempt to show the simplicity and poor analytic skills of a research paper authored by a certain Dr. Peggy Gabo Ntseane entitled “Cultural dimensions of sexuality: Empowerment challenge for HIV/AIDS prevention in Botswana”,www.unesco.org/education/uie/pdf/Ntseane.pdf which attempted to address HIV/AIDS issues in Botswana. (Mmegi, Tuesday, 17 April 2012). In this paper, Dr. Ntseane deals with what she calls Cultures that encourage the spread of HIV/AIDS and reverse government’s attempt to fight the scourge. In her paper, Dr. Ntseane mentioned my people, the ‘Baherero’in a bad light, misinterpret my traditions and insults me and my people. I feel compelled to give her a piece of my mind as well and give her one or two free lessons. As a student of History, I would like to begin by laying down the foundation to my rejoinder with a brief historical analysis of my people, and their experiences.
The noun ‘Baherero’ or‘Herero’ is used in some academic circles and many forums to refer to all groups of people who speak similar languages or dialects of the same Language known to the outsiders as ‘Herero’. In Botswana these groups include the Ovambanderu and Ovaherero, who fled from German colonialism in Namibia around 1896-1907. These groups of people settled in different parts of Botswana, including Ngamiland, Boteti, Makopong, Omaweneno, Tsabong, Gabane, Lentswe-le-tau, and Mahalapye among others. As a people who had fled under unbearable conditions, who were scattered and settled in alien communities, who arrived tied, humiliated, hungry and thirsty as a result of fighting a more mightier, well equipped than them enemy, and the most ruthless imperialist thugs of our history, from the onset they became a tool of ridicule and insults, and a laughing stock to many of the so-called main-stream Tswanas.
At their arrival, some tswana groups saw them as lesser beings and wanted to subjugate them. A good example is the Batawana Kingdom where a good number of our people fled. As Thomas Tlou put it, “The question of how to govern the immigrates soon arose, Tawana royals wanting them distributed among their wards to increase their own following, and perhaps, turn some into clients”. (A History of Ngamiland……… page 93). However, they were saved by Kgosi Sekgoma Letsholathebe who saw the danger of doing so, as he was at loggerheads with the royals who wanted Mathiba to replace him as kgosi. Instead Sekgoma gave the Newcomers their own Kgotlas and autonomy from the Batawana Royal Dikgosana. The Herero and Mbanderu Chiefs reported directly to Sekgoma Letsholathebe, and this didn’t go well with many Batawana Royals. They became hostile to our people and were given names like Matamma and other derogatory terms. Many of our traditions were seen as backward; some of our foods unknown to the Tswana were ridiculed and seen as dirt. Insults, lies, ridicules and tongue lashes were the order of the day. When I grew up in Ngamiland, I remember that Herero and Mbanderu boys were ridiculed and shunned upon because they were circumcised unlike the other groups. They would say “dilo tse di pindilweng tse”, translated “these castrated things”… sometimes we would be told that we smell ngondivi, a type of butter made from cattle milk. Anything that our people did differently from the other groups was an evil. Our women were insulted in many ways. Stories were created to insult our females. I would like to assume Ngamiland was just a microcosm of all the other communities in which our people found themselves. Many other stories can be found in many Herero-Mbanderu communities all over Botswana.
But, as we grew up, we interacted with other communities, and the world became more civil, many of these things evaporated with education and knowing one another as communities. The younger generations became more accommodative and got to know each other better. The derogatory stories became minimal.
After so many years, a new school of thought is developing from people who call themselves scholarly researchers, one of them being Dr. Peggy Gabo Ntseane an academic doctor in the Adult Education department of the University of Botswana, my centre of learning. As mentioned earlier, the Doctor authored a paper entitled
“Cultural dimensions of sexuality: Empowerment challenge for HIV/AIDS prevention in Botswana”. In this paper, which was presented at an international HIV/AIDS Seminar in Chiangmai, Thailand, Dr. Ntseane brings forward what she perceives as cultural practises from some Botswana communities which encourage the spread of HIV/AIDS, and among them is a story of my people. She claims that
“the Baherero have a unique sexual practice traditionally associated with the belief that ‘for every member of the clan who dies, there must be Otusira or’ replacement’.”(Page 8). She goes on to claim that the night before the burial there is free unprotected sexual intercourse festival among a group of chosen relatives to replace the deceased.
This is not news to my ears, I once heard such nonsensical stories, but it never crossed my mind that, a whole academic doctor would come up with such story and claim to have researched. This made me to begin questioning the research methodologies used by the learned Scholar. What surprise me about this research paper, by a learned scholar, presented before an international gathering, are the research methodology and her choice of informants. Her sources are unknown and not even mentioned by their age as done for the other groups in the same research paper. The doctor chose to use funny tittles like ‘One female youth’, ‘another said’. Uhu! Thaakaa! Is this the work of an academic doctor? I don’t know whether this was a deliberate omission to protect her informants, or she didn’t have informants at all. With her display of lack of knowledge in the ‘Herero’ language, as shown by her failure to know what the word Otusira means, there is a high likelihood that the learned doctor might have picked some people from the streets who claimed to know our people when in fact they had very little knowledge or were hell bent on ridiculing us. If not, one is forced to believe the doctor’s research methodologies were doctored to fit her poor hypothesis and situation, to help her present a ‘scholarly’ paper before an international gathering. She cared less because to her the people she was writing about were a lesser people and had very little to tell about themselves, they are savages, barbaric, and all they know is sex. I believe a seasoned researcher, of an academic Doctor’s position, would know that the choice of informants is a very crucial aspect in research.
Though I am not an academic Doctor and won’t claim heavenly knowledge in Research, my little knowledge in research informs me of the different research methods visa vie the type of information one wants to acquire. One thing that I came across in research circles is anthropological research. Some information is not easy to get or prove otherwise from a people unless you live among them, studies them over a certain period of time, and experience what they do. I think Dr. Ntseane could have got better information on this topic through anthropological research. My question to the learned doctor is; did you take time to go to a ‘Herero’ funeral to take first hand information? If yes, how many such funerals did you attend? My supervisor, during my forth year History Research at UB, Dr. Kofi Darkwah informed me that as a researcher, you can’t risk relying on only 1 informant, or source of information to judge a whole community. A research must consult several sources to prove his or her information. If she did not attend any funeral(s); what informed the Doctor that what her informants told her was true?
My other assumption is that population studies would help to inform in this regard. If every deceased member of the ‘Herero’ community is replaced, then the population of the ‘Herero’ will have increased and surpassed some groups, as we are the only people who practice this. What do the censuses inform the Doctor about the ‘Herero’ population as compared to other communities? Furthermore, with the current situations and statistics of HIV/AIDS in Botswana, if indeed this practice is true, the ‘Herero’ will be among the most affected. What do the HIV/AIDS statistics inform the Doctor about the effects of HIV/AIDS among the ‘Herero’? A learned scholar would think of these possibilities and use such to get strong information to back her paper.
We don’t owe any one an explanation as to what happens at our funerals, but it is public knowledge that we give our departed relatives a great deal of respect and mourning. However, let me pinpoint that, almost all the ‘Hereros’are relatives. This means when the news of death spread, we converge in large numbers to bid farewell to our relative. This means to avoid accommodation crises and bothering the close relatives when we are suppose to bring help to the family, we have devised a strategy for everyone to bring along their camping equipment. Otusira were such equipment and of recent they have been replaced by tents. We may not know what happens inside the camps at night, just like in any gathering, but it is not our tradition to turn our funerals in to mating festivals as Dr. Ntseane put it. Our tradition is that, during the mourning period, before and after the funeral our females are given time to mourn. They converge in a house and give respect to the departed. In the past, our mourning periods, especially of elderly people in society, men in particularly could take months. Relatives would camp at the deceased’s homestead and mourn till such a time that they will feel they have mourned enough and have done all the necessary arrangement and traditional rituals. But the ‘replacement’ was never part of our ritual. However, the mourning process could not mean life has stopped. Other activities will continue to take place including relationships and marriage. Sometimes, some people would fall pregnant at their own will during this period. Not that it was a traditional must to do so. I believe at my age if this was true, I would have had the pleasure to partake in some of the festival. But up to my late 30s, I have never been invited to any, yet my people die time and again. The Dr. got it all wrong.
Dr Ntseane has demonstrated a great deal of disregard and hatred on my people. In her paper, when talking about the other ethnic groups like Bangwato and Bakalanga she demonstrates respect and humility and refers to their education to young people as ‘sexual education’, but when it comes to my people she puts it as ‘sex education’. I would like to believe the two are different. When talking about the Baherero she claims, “Sex education…is also offered to young people by grandparents…. For girls it starts after her first menstrual period. The girl is confined to the room for a week where grandparents tell her about sex, womanhood and how to ensure male sexual pleasure”. When talking about the kalanga in the same paper, the Doctor says, “Both the family and societal norms are in place to socialise, regulate and control sexual behaviour of members. For instance, grandmothers start engaging in sexual conversations (note that here it’s not sex conversations) with girls from the age of 15…… discussions usually center on the areas such as potential sex partners, sex and health issues, and … when to say no to sex.” (Page 5). My point is when talking about other ethnic groups Dr. Ntseane shows respect, but when talking about the ‘Baherero’, she is disrespectful and paints a picture of a careless, disorganised and promiscuous community. She depicts us as people without morals only obsessed with sex. People, who know no boundaries of hygiene, respect for their bodies and sexual morality. I would say, she paints a picture of an animal kingdom where our young ladies are taught nothing but how to satisfy their male counterparts. She has conclusions about us, and she puts them on paper, pretending it’s a research that should be trusted, and even feeds the garbage to an international forum. And she wants this unpalatable and fabricated fairytales to earn her recognition as a great researcher and Scholar. This is pathetic and sickening.
Ntseane goes ahead and claims that our people encourage unprotected sex. “As one female youth put it ‘we are told by our grandparents and male sex partners that sex from Moherero to Moherero should be unprotected……’”this is a blue lie and disrespectful. Like Kambato said, we are a morally upright people and highly educated just like any other ethnic group. We have among ourselves people in high positions of NACA, Medical Doctors and former PS in the Ministry of Health, who I think could shed light to our communities on these issues. Even in History there have never been such practises. Among our people, we believe in and still encourage cross-cousin marriage and we are not apologetic about it. However, our arranged marriages are not forced marriages as the likes of Dr. Ntseane may want people to believe. And mind you, our traditions encourage morality and no sex before marriage, though in this era like any other people, such practices maybe ignored by the new generations.
This work is shameful and pathetic, to come from the pen of an Academic Doctor who is trusted with the minds of the youth of this nation. It doesn’t take a researcher to notice the simplistic nature of the Doctor’s paper. The paper is an insult to my people and to the University of Botswana. The paper has no footnotes as a research paper should be and like I mentioned earlier, the informants are unknown, which leaves one to wonder if indeed this is a scholarly work or the creation of an ‘armchair researcher’.
To address this issue further and give the public the benefit of a debate, I challenge Dr. Peggy Gabo Ntseane to a public debate. Let the pen and keyboard roll and if she wants it, a panel discussion will do. Besides that, we demand a public apology from Dr. Ntseane, on paper and on Radio and National Television, failing which; we shall engage the University of Botswana and other authorities. I rest my pen and keyboard for now.
*Mr. Moses Ndiriva Kandjou is former Secretary for Herero-Mbanderu Student Association (HEMSA) at UB, and former Mbanderu Youth Association of Botswana (MYAB) Secretary for Culture. He is currently BOSETU Chairperson for Bobirwa Region and sits in the Education, Recruitment and Training Committee of Bosetu. Mr. Kandjou is also Teacher of History at Matshekge Hill School. He writes in his personal capacity.
