FEATURE: Notable Motswana (25 Dec 2008)

I have had the pleasure and honour of portraying him on stage and I hope to have the pleasure and honour to portray again, on film. 

His is a heroic story of indomitable faith and vision even with the political opposition he faced from present-day Zimbabwe and South Africa for his inter-racial marriage, and it is not hard to see why his human values have touched the world over and his country Botswana to this day. Our first president, my hero, Sir Seretse Khama.

Seretse Khama was born in 1921 in Serowe, in what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate. He was the son of Sekgoma Khama II, the paramount chief of the Bamangwato people, and the grandson of Khama III, their king. The name "Seretse" means “the clay that binds together,” and was given to him to celebrate the recent reconciliation of his father and grandfather; this reconciliation assured Seretse’s own ascension to the throne with his aged father’s death in 1925. Wanna know more? Click below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seretse_Khama

Merry Christmas! A friend of mine Sne S. wrote a brilliant poem and I thought I would share it on this blog. Here it is:Dreamers...

Merry Christmas! A friend of mine Sne S. wrote a brilliant poem and I thought I would share it on this blog. Here it is:
Dreamers...

I see what is not before me. Hear voices in the silence. The world is my reflector and the mirrors pierce my organs. Sparkling titillation.

You think of me,

Approaching-

Jagged glass protruding from each orifice

You cower

Down.

For comfort, you tell yourself.

I see.

But what of us dreamers?

Eye sockets in-verted

by glass

Do you judge our glazed expression? Think us vacant

Charmers.

This is pure

allure.

Walk around in our breath.

A child sans ploy. An adult sans image.

Very, very, veritable.

For me, for me, formidable.

FEATURE: Notable Motswana (22 Dec 2008)

She is my dear friend, she is former Miss Universe and one of the most intelligent people I have ever met and she is a Political Economist and an actress at the same time. She was one of the best athletes at my high school, and Botswana's pride and joy. Mpule Kwelagobe.

Mpule Keneilwe Kwelagobe of Gaborone, Botswana was crowned Miss Universe in May of 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago.She was the first Miss Universe Botswana and the first Miss Botswana to participate in the Miss Universe pageant.

Since being crowned Miss Universe 1999, Mpule has been recognized and honored as a human health rights activist, especially for her fight against HIV/AIDS and advocacy for youth and women to have greater access to sexual reproductive education and services.

HAMBA, JUBA! ( GO, DOVE!)

Sometimes I am serious. This is one of those rare times when prudence moves out of feeling's way, and anger chills my heart into stone, and briefly become deaf to God. And briefly I want to say that if I cannot amount to anything of worth in your eyes, it is neither my fault nor necessarily true; if my art negates my critical, intellectual and scientific faculties as far as you are concerned, fine; if calling you invites you to insult our callings, convictions and couth, you need not worry about any more unwanted invitations; if our laughter is a lack of dignity, we have nothing to apologise for; if my privateness be a curse and your judgement be friendship, then this love we had for you has just begun to keep a record of wrongs. If you're a dove, I beg you to take your thoughts to flight and leave us in peace. 

Yours,

Me and my friend.

From bbc.co.uk

UK caused cholera, says Zimbabwe

Robert Mugabe has said the West was plotting to use cholera to invade

The cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe which has left hundreds dead was caused by the UK, an ally of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said.

Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu described the outbreak as a "genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by the British".

On Thursday, Mr Mugabe said the spread of cholera had been halted.

But aid workers warned that the situation was worsening and the outbreak could last for months.

In his comments to media in Harare, Mr Ndlovu likened the appearance of cholera in Zimbabwe to a "serious biological chemical weapon" used by the British.

The Zimbabwean minister for information blames Britain for the cholera outbreak

He described it as "a calculated, racist, terrorist attack on Zimbabwe".

Mr Mugabe has already accused Western powers of plotting to use cholera as an excuse to invade and overthrow him.

Earlier on Friday a senior South African Anglican bishop said that Mr Mugabe should be seen as a "21st Century Hitler".

Celebrating Sir SERETSE KHAMA

I have been performing a stage show on the controversial of Botswana's first president Seretse Khama's marriage to a British woman in the late 1940's. Some of the articles on the show are below. I will put up clips once the DVD is out. http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=6&aid=11&dir=2008/November/Tuesday25 http://www.berkshirereview.net/theater/dialogue_one_08.html http://www.advocateweekly.com/inberkshires/ci_11026128 http://62center.williams.edu/62center/event.cfm?eid=174

Cheers,
Donald.

Nervous About Response to Obama...but happy.

A few things make me nervous about Barack’s winning. Here is a few on my mind right now:

- The celebration and jubilation that is buzzing through Kenya is great but is its magnitude misplaced? If it is in fact appropriate then I hope that it does not give way to ridiculous expectations upon the Obama Administration vis-à-vis US-Kenya relations etc. That makes me nervous.

- The state of African-Americans – I hope that the African-American will not now walk around with extra padding on their shoulder because this is a step towards the process of leveling the field as opposed to tipping the scales in the opposite direction to the status quo.

- The White Americans – I hope they don’t feel too complacent by having voted for a Black president and actually start acting the way their vote suggests they are beginning to think about racial politics.

- The Foreign Black Student From Botswana: I hope everyone will stop trying to drag me into false solidarity based on color.

That said, CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT OBAMA!!!

RANTING: Barack's Glory Casts A Shadow on Me

No rain on Obama, but read on.

Barack Obama is on his way to becoming the first Black President of the US. As a political scientist and someone interested in world politics I see this as a miraculously good thing in many ways including symbolism of progressive thinking of the American people, the changing of America’s face to a world angry at and sometimes hateful towards the US etc.

That being said, I do not have an emotional response towards the outcome of Obama’s run. I do not even use such words as “victory” to describe it. Whose victory? I may love Obama as a leader but truth is though I may live in America but I am still a foreigner looking in on American politics. They do not make me react on a personal level as opposed to an intellectual one of a voyeur. And this distant reaction of mine has earned me a few odd looks from the Americans I speak with who expect the opposite.

WHY cannot they understand that I will not sing praises for Barack based on the fact that he is Black and so am I? Given the History Barack’s presidency will be making, will American people assess their understanding of a compartmentalized understanding of identity being the basis for phony solidarity? I respect the man as a leader, not for the fact that he is my color.

B O R D E R S

I recently had an interesting talk with my friend Chenjerai about borders. He is from Zimbabwe and I am from Botswana and so naturally we spoke about borders' cultural impacts pertaining to Southern Africa. ''You see, my brother, look at the map of Zimbabwe - it is like a teapot and you know British people like their tea,'' he joked about why it was in the interests of the first world to keep the borders intact.


He opined that they needed to be erased because they were not drawn by the southern Africans and they divided ethnic groups and were designed to keep the people there under colonial control, and so borders weakened the region's voice in world politics. He called what we know as countries in that region today as ''constructed nation states''. It is the classic divide and rule argument.

This got me wondering about how borders have exclusified languages or dialects...I hope there is such a word as exclusify, but what I mean is if a Shona person spoke Kalanga with a Shona accent in Botswana they would probably get flak for it, and if I as a Kalanga speaker have taken flak for speaking Shona ''funny.'' Shona and Kalanga are in some respects like Texan English and the English one would find in Wales, so they are not completely dissimilar. Once upon a time, they were the same language but a border ran through it and now it lives between them.

Now everyone holds onto their version of the language and makes it an exclusive mode of communication that the speakers of the other versions have no right to. Would this have happened due to natural migration without set territorialism through borders? I don't know. And is exclusivity bad? Does it assert new notions of identity and embrace that new cultures form over time?

I am still ruminating on this subject and what my fascination means, so feel free to scribble your thoughts aboutr borders in Africa...