Thursday, November 24, 2011


Seretse Khama: The drama of a royal romance in Botswana

24 November 2011 Last updated at 09:34 ET Help
A play about Botswana's first President, Seretse Khama, whose marriage to a white English woman while he was still a student caused a political storm in the UK and Africa, has been shown off Broadway in New York .
Prince Seretse Khama met Ruth William while he was attending law school in London and she was working as a clerk.
Both the UK and South Africa exerted pressure to have his tribal titles removed, and they eventually managed to do so, but when Botswana gained independence in 1966 he became the new country's president and she the first lady.
The BBC's Leslie Goffe went along to see the play, Blue, Black and White, and to talk to its writer and star, Botswana's Donald Molosi, about this and his other works.
For more African news from the BBC download the Africa Today podcast.

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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

I Will Eat What I Want

Driving from Phikwe, the mining town where we lived, to our home village of Mahalapye in Eastern Botswana, my face was always pressed against the back window. I was fond of watching greener-than-green mophane trees dotted with women’s brightly colored headscarves. The women in the trees were from nearby villages close to the big road and they were shaking mophane caterpillars off tree branches to the ground for harvest. 

Despite being an inquisitive child I could only squirm at the thought of eating these tough yellow and green caterpillars, and so eventually I would extract my face from the window. 

Today I do not live in Botswana but I encounter many Western tourists who have explored
Botswana and they tell me, very seriously, that mophane caterpillars are a Botswana delicacy. And truth be told, I was willing to try mophane before but now that they are litmus for Tswana authenticity even to BaTswana themselves (thanks to Western travel literature) I have no desire to snack on the lovely caterpillar. 

The African’s palate is always called only “cultural” and his taste understood as only “tribal” thereby leaving no room for the African’s individual taste. So, I write now of the truth that I am a proud MoTswana man who will not force himself to eat mophane caterpillars. Simply because they have thorns growing from their body. 

Donald Molosi
Non-FicTion
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Sunday, September 11, 2011

I am so Sad About tHis. Poleni, jamaani.

Zanzibar mourns ferry disaster victims

Rescue workers carry a victim of the ferry disaster - 10 September 2011 Victims of the disaster were taken to Stone Town in Zanzibar

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The Tanzanian region of Zanzibar has begun three days of mourning for the victims of a ferry sinking that killed nearly 200 people.
The boat was carrying about 800 people when it capsized between Zanzibar's main islands of Unguja and Pemba.
Survivors said it was dangerously overloaded with passengers and cargo and was listing when it left port.
The government of the semi-autonomous region has ordered an investigation into what caused the disaster.
It is thought the boat capsized after losing engine power in the swift currents between the two Indian Ocean islands.
The accident happened early on Saturday and by nightfall about 600 survivors had been rescued.
'Ladder removed' Friends and relatives have been identifying the dead, which have been taken to a football ground in Unguja.
The bodies, placed in separate rows of men and women, have been wrapped in black blankets with their clothes placed next to them to help relatives find them.
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Captain Neels van Eijk from Whirlwind Aviation flew out over the ocean to help search for survivors and describes what he saw to the BBC
Rescue workers said the death toll could rise because more bodies were trapped in the capsized vessel, the MV Spice Islander.
The boat, licensed to carry 600 people, began its voyage in Tanzania's largest city, Dar es Salaam.
It took on more passengers and cargo in Unguja before it left for Pemba.
Fearing the boat was overloaded, some passengers disembarked before it left port.
Zanzibar map
"A few of the passengers managed to get off the ship after noticing that it was tilting," said Aze Faki Chande, who Reuters news agency said lost her two children and sister.
"We also tried to disembark, but the ship's crew quickly removed the ladder and started sailing towards Pemba," she said.
The BBC's East Africa correspondent Will Ross, in Nairobi, says carrying too many passengers or too much cargo is a common cause of accidents whether on sea or on land in many parts of Africa.
Survivors have described the moment the vessel foundered.
"I realised something strange on the movement of the ship. It was like zigzag or dizziness," Associated Press quoted 15-year-old Yahya Hussein as saying.
"After I noticed that I jumped to the rear side of ship and few minutes later the ship went lopsided."
He said he survived by clinging to a plank of wood with several others.
Many children were said to be among the boat's passengers.
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