Culture In Botswana Research Articles

The evolution of museum culture in Botswana towards multi-layered architectural heritage conservation

The role of museums in Botswana has evolved from collecting ethnographic objects and exhibition development to architectural heritage conservation. This paper explores the evolution of museum development through case studies of the National Museum in Gaborone, a regional museum Phuthadikobo Museum in Mochudi, and a privately-owned Botswana Telecommunication Cooperation (BTC) Museum. The study examines exhibition practices in these museums by discussing the limitations of traditional methods of exhibition and argue in favour of a multi-layered exhibition method. Both the National Museum and Phuthadikobo Museum have now transformed into cultural institutions which now undertake architectural heritage conservation projects. These project are include the national museum project which re-creates three huts representative of vernacular architecture of different tribes which we argue is a heritage-making project. The Phuthadikobo community museum proposal for an open-air museum that conserves the existing buildings in-situ and addresses the intersection of heritage conservation, a sense of history, intangible heritage, and lived traditions. Situated within the debates on museum development and heritage conservation, the paper considers how museum development in Botswana could address the challenges of museum exhibition and the questions on heritage authenticity.

The Role of Confucius Institute in Shaping China’s National Image in Botswana: Case of CI Students

Abstract The purpose of this article is to examine the role of Confucius Institute in Shaping China’s National Image in Botswana in the case of CI Students. The Confucius Institute at the University of Botswana (CIUB) is employed as a case study which is identified as the most active Chinese soft power instrument in Botswana. The paper uses a qualitative research method to help better understand the benefits and limitations of CIUB in creating China’s positive image in Botswana. Primary data is obtained from questionnaires whilst secondary data is derived from journal papers, thesis, and books. The study is framed by soft power theory to assist in learning how China utilises its soft power to improve its image in Botswana. The analysis revealed that CIUB has been fruitful in promoting Chinese language and culture in Botswana impacting positively on China’s national image. The findings of the study show that CIUB has the potential to clear some negative perceptions about China in Botswana. However, the limitation as indicated by the study is that CIUB does not have wide coverage of the population of Botswana as it targets mostly students. It is suggested that CIUB as a single tool cannot fully address all the concerns affecting China’s image.

Flea market voices on literacy in Botswana

This paper presents the views of some flea market vendors and clients, especially those whose voices are never heard, on the literacy and education issues that affect Botswana. Although small, the sample of respondents used for this study is representative of the kinds of people that populate flea markets. However, a large percentage of the respondents are male, thus indicating that male voices are dominant even in this setting. The findings of the study, which are similar to those in the literacy literature on Botswana, include the following: children lack interest in reading; parents have not been involved in their children’s reading development; and there are inadequate library and other resources to support a reading culture in Botswana. Some respondents advocate direct teaching of reading to their children, procuring reading materials for them and sending them to good private schools as ways of improving their children’s reading. Overall, the study shows that there is need to complement the top-down approach with the bottom-up approach, as there are valuable lessons policy makers can glean from canvassing the views of those in non-traditional government structures such as the flea markets.

Tswanarising global gayness: the ‘unAfrican’ argument, Western gay media imagery, local responses and gay culture in Botswana

This paper is a strategic intervention in the debate over the value of globalised gay identity for emerging sexual minority communities in the South. Focusing on self-identifying gay men in Botswana using semi-structured interviews, it explores their views of what characterises ‘modern gay culture’ and relates these to international media clichés of a glamorous, stylish, hedonistic gayness. I argue that identifying with what is so visibly a Western image of gayness exposes sexual minority communities to the most dangerous of the justifications for homophobia in Africa, the argument that sexual dissidence is a neo-colonial conspiracy to subvert ‘African values’. The ‘unAfrican’ argument has to be taken very seriously, not only because it taps into the intense, conflicted emotions at the heart of the post-colonial condition, but also because it contains an undeniable germ of truth. This poses a dilemma, since global gay discourses, including the media clichés, are an important source of inspiration for African sexual minorities. A communication activism strategy is proposed to undermine the unAfrican argument by cultivating and asserting the ‘tswanarisation’ of gay culture in Botswana that is already taking place. A similar strategy may also be effective in other African societies.

Aspects of Culture and Meaning in Botswana English

Using samples from local newspapers, letters and public speeches, this article argues that English assimilates to and reflects the Botswana culture through borrowing and semantic modification. It discusses those terminologies and expressions that depict the cultural values of Batswana in the usage of English in Botswana. Two types of borrowed items are discussed: those depicting old traditional practices that cannot be translated into English ( kgosi and mophato) and those reflecting recent socio-political experiences in Botswana including the HIV/AIDS threat ( tebelopele and omang). The people's culture is also expressed by items such as brigade and the lands that have been semantically modified.

Building a Culture of Peace in Africa: Toward a Trajectory of Using Traditional Knowledge Systems

This article purports to study the peace project in Africa, using African social formations and traditional knowledge systems, by taking Botswana as a case study. It focuses on three aspects of Botswana culture: bogosi (chieftainship), ethnicity and botho (humility). Although the concepts are interrogated from a Botswana perspective, they have wider applicability in sub-Saharan Africa. This article will first explain these concepts, and then discuss their relationship to peacebuilding and development. Africans need to appreciate the endurance of traditional systems of governance despite the application of modern political institutions and processes. The article concludes that building a culture of peace should be filtered through social values that are culturally embedded. As Africans engage with culture and ascribe it a role in peacebuilding, they must take cognisance of its limitations and shed the negative aspects of African culture. More profoundly, building a culture of peace should be based on a recognition and tolerance of other people's cultural heritage.

Dividing the Commons: Politics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana by Pauline Peters. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1994. Reviewed by Dan Bauer

Dividing the Commons: Politics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana by Pauline Peters. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1994. Reviewed by Dan Bauer

Dividing the Commons: Politics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana. Pauline E. Peters

American AnthropologistVolume 98, Issue 3 p. 689-690 Dividing the Commons: Politics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana. Pauline E. Peters Nancy E. Horn, Nancy E. Horn Cambridge Consulting Corporation Office of Women in Development Agency for International DevelopmentSearch for more papers by this author Nancy E. Horn, Nancy E. Horn Cambridge Consulting Corporation Office of Women in Development Agency for International DevelopmentSearch for more papers by this author First published: September 1996 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1996.98.3.02a00680AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Volume98, Issue3September 1996Pages 689-690 RelatedInformation

Dividing the Commons: Politics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana

Dividing the Commons: Politics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana

Dividing the Commons: Pontics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana. PAULINE E. PETERS

<i>Dividing the Commons: Pontics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana.</i> PAULINE E. PETERS

Dividing the commons: politics, policy, and culture in Botswana

Debates about resource allocation and development strategies in Africa tend to polarise between those who invoke theories justifying privatisation everywhere and those who cite failed projects and culturally specific understandings to question its feasibility in Africa. Adherents to these positions generally talk past one another. Dividing the Commons is a study of the political and cultural dynamics of privatisation of rangeland in southern Botswana that provides a way of advancing debate. At the centre of the book is an examination of syndicates, groups of cattlemen who own and manage boreholes (deep wells with motorised pumps), from the 1930s to 1994. Changes in herd and range management, increasing numbers of cattle and boreholes, and the contradiction between private water sources and a communal range have all combined to promote private claims to pastures. The Tribal Grazing Land Policy put into practice since the mid 1970s has intensified the shift to privatisation. Pauline E. Peters shows how the current grazing land policy, like the water development policies of the 1930s, is part of an historical process through which resources are allocated, wealth created or destroyed, and some interests promoted at the cost of others. At the heart of the dividing of the common range are struggles over meanings, cultural contestations over the definitions of property and the priority of rights. Peter's analysis provides the basis for a stringent critique of Hardin's tragedy of the commons thesis, one of the most influential paradigms of our time. She also demonstrates that the models used by analysts and policymakers to interpret or direct change in Botswana's range are just as much cultural and political products as are the practices and ideas of the Tswana cattlemen and syndicates. Dividing the Commons should be of interest to students and specialists of African studies, politics and political economy; development studies, pastoral resources management, and property relations; and the history and theory of anthropology.

Dividing the Commons: Politics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana

Dividing the Commons: Politics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana