Tswana Culture Research Articles

Botswana’s Hunting Ban and the Transformation of Game-Meat Cultures, Economies and Ecologies

When the government of Botswana ended its five-year prohibition of commercial safari hunting, comparatively little attention was directed at the policy reversal’s effect on communities that had engaged in non-commercial and subsistence hunting prior to the moratorium. The ban, in force from 2014 until 2019, fundamentally upended and criminalised the game-meat culture and economic systems common to many San groups, especially in the western Kalahari region. Despite substantial policy divergences between the incumbent president and his predecessor, the post-ban institutional framework offers much of the same for communities that articulate a preference, largely ignored by policy makers, for game-meat consumption. This speaks to an elite consensus with regard to conceptions of development and natural resource use. San people frequently differentiate themselves from mainstream society on the grounds of their contrasting meat-consumption cultures and draw a comparison with dominant Tswana cultural and economic norms associated with cattle production. The Botswana state’s development and conservation efforts to end non-commercial hunting and promote cattle farming are interpreted by San communities as policies of forced assimilation into mainstream Tswana culture and society. Cattle production and beef consumption are promoted as a development approach that is rendered ‘modern’ in contrast to supposedly ‘primitive’ hunting practices. Nevertheless, top-down policies that facilitate the continued abolition of subsistence hunting are justified along ecological and conservation lines without fully engaging with localised environmental and social effects of a widespread transition away from game meat and towards cattle production.

The “Kgotla” as a Community Heritage Resource for Mitigating Social Isolation and Loneliness among Tswana-Speaking Elderly South Africans

ABSTRACTStudies of the Tswana culture and language abound. However, incisive studies directed at the Kgotla as a community heritage resource that had been contributing towards social stability mediated by traditional intergenerational relationships among the Tswana-speaking South Africans are not common. This paper examines how the Kgotla’s inter-group communications capacity and capability mitigates social isolation and loneliness among elderly Tswana-speaking South Africans. A systematic review method was used to identify high-quality original research outputs from cultural and intergenerational relationships literature. All studies considered for inclusion in this review were critically appraised, and formed the basis for the narrative synthesis. The evidence emanating from this procedure suggests that despite the undervaluing of the mediating roles the Kgotla plays, it remains very relevant in mitigating social isolation and loneliness among elderly Tswana-speaking South Africans. Based on this observation, it was recommended that more extensive and incisive studies should be directed at the phenomenon studied with a view to recommending and applying it as a veritable community heritage resource that is worthy of research and social policy attention.

Why Did Botswana End Up with Good Institutions: The Role of Culture and Colonial Rule.

Botswana has achieved astonishing economic success and an impressive record of institutions that distinguishes it from many other African countries. This article examines the reasons for Botswana’s strong institutional setup, which is considered fundamental to the country’s economic success since independence. To do so, it will utilize the analytical framework provided by institutional economics. The article argues that Botswana ended up with better institutions than most of ist African counterparts for three reasons: a) Pre-colonial Tswana culture comprised a number of informal institutions which were useful for creating a modern state. Most strikingly, the chiefs’ powers were restrained and the political elite pursued strong economic interests. b) “Light” colonial rule by the British largely left Tswana institutions in place. c) Tswana institutions were successfully merged with modern institutions many of which modelled on European examples.

Narratives on Death and Bereavement From Three South African Cultures: An Exploratory Study

The study aimed to explore how three culturally diverse South African women (n=3) constructed death and bereavement. Data were qualitatively gathered and thematically analyzed. Findings revealed grand narratives (other than western dominance) on death perceptions and bereavement within the Tswana and Islamic Muslim cultures. A westernized perspective played in the Afrikaans culture, much less in the Tswana culture and none in Muslim culture. Further research death and bereavement from other cultural perspectives is needed.

Resisting dominant discourses: implications of indigenous, African feminist theory and methods for gender and education research

In this paper we explore tensions between Western gender theory and research, and post‐colonial and indigenous feminist standpoints, which challenge us to re‐define our roles as feminist‐activist educators and researchers working with formerly colonised and historically marginalised communities. We discuss how African and Black feminist approaches can enable the construction of context‐specific knowledge of African women’s power via relational world views of motherhood, family, sisterhood and friendship. In contrast, the application of Western gender theory and policy in Botswana has tended to reduce women and girls’ experiences to the categories of ‘victim’ and ‘other’. We illustrate how Western male hegemony enters the school through subjects such as religion and can be typically reinforced through Tswana culture, embodied in language and rituals, generating multiple centres of oppression for girls/women in the education system and the public space. The paper explores ethical and transformative ways of approaching this complexity that can account for how girls and women negotiate and resist patriarchal power. Through analysis of empirical research narratives from several gender‐ and education‐focused studies, we explore strategies for decolonising Euro‐Western archival knowledge and challenging dominant, patriarchal, colonial research methodologies. Finally, we outline the role of the activist feminist researcher as transformative healer, who resists dominant research discourses in order to develop processes of social justice and healing in the community.

‘Fat eggs’: gender and fertility as important factors in HIV/AIDS prevention in Botswana

This article examines the response in Botswana to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and some overlooked but key cultural factors that inhibit effective policy implementation. Specifically, this article highlights the importance of gender and fertility as they intersect with ideas of food, fat and social aspects of health in Tswana culture. Using ethnographic methods to understand the role that gender and fertility play in conjunction with Tswana concepts of health, and in particular those that surround ideas of food and fatness can help to improve the multi-faceted responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Botswana.

Rugby versus Soccer in South Africa: Content familiarity contributes to cross-cultural differences in cognitive test scores

In this study, cross-cultural differences in cognitive test scores are hypothesized to depend on a test's cultural complexity (Cultural Complexity Hypothesis: CCH), here conceptualized as its content familiarity, rather than on its cognitive complexity (Spearman's Hypothesis: SH). The content familiarity of tests assessing short-term memory, attention, working memory, and figural and verbal fluid reasoning, was manipulated by constructing test versions with an item content derived from either Afrikaans or Tswana culture in South Africa. Both test versions were administered to children of both cultures. The sample consisted of 161 urban Afrikaans, 181 urban, and 159 rural Tswana children ( M age = 9.37 years). Children generally performed best on the test version that was designed for their own group, particularly on the cognitively and culturally complex working memory and figural fluid reasoning tests. This relation between content familiarity and cognitive test performance supports CCH and disconfirms SH.

Youth and Politics in Botswana

This paper examines the extent and nature of electoral participation in general and that of youth in particular and attempts an explanation. It draws on reports from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and its predecessor, the Elections Office, and on opinion surveys carried out by the Democracy Research Project of the University of Botswana (DRP). It argues that the poor participation of youth in politics in Botswana in general and in elections in particular is rooted in traditional Tswana culture which limits the participation of youth in public affairs. This culture is reproduced by the main socialising agents in society such as the family, the school system, political parties, and the media.

From Sacred Initiation to Bureaucratic Apostasy: Junior secondary school-leavers and the secularisation of education in southern Africa

In the country now known as Botswana, the history of Tswana culture prior to British colonialism in the nineteenth century shows a tribal or pre-urban spirituality, a strong kinship organisation and a systematic approach to the training of youth both informally and formally. This pre-colonial pedagogy defined the Tswana cosmology and the way future adults related to their society as productive members. The European missionaries who came at the eve of colonialism interpreted education and work in a manner that had less continuity with Tswana culture. This trend was developed further by secular educators and institutionalised by post-colonialist, independent Botswana. The Botswana government has been rapidly expanding its formal academic education system. Although practical programmes of education with production like the Brigades supported local development and the transition from the pre-colonial era, they are now facing obsolescence. Thousands of junior secondary school-leavers are being added to the ranks of the underemployed each year, while competition for academic credentials increases. Government reluctance to offer training for practical employment skills reflects a deference to secular Western education and production models and the need to understand better their effects on the tribal culture.

Local Level Dispute Processes in Botswana: The Yeyi Moot Encapsulated

This paper aims to describe dispute settlement processes among Yeyi, a Bantu-speaking people living in the Okavango Delta, North West Botswana. The account is contemporary and focuses on a single neighbourhood, North Valley, which lies in the floodplains in the northern half of the Delta. North Valley is a small egalitarian community which is encapsulated within a larger administrative and economic order. As part of this larger order, it is subject to a plurality of influences which intrude on it from the outside. Its population is well aware of this larger order and strives to maintain a fair measure of independence from it, particularly from Riverside, the local administrative centre. I aim to show how North Valley people actively negotiate their autonomy in a specific institutional context, that of the neighbourhood moot. I describe how they do this, by borrowing and inverting the formal legal procedures and language of the dominant Tswana culture in an effort to preserve and protect local Yeyi values and interests. Their model for Tswana legal procedures is taken mainly from Riverside where, tempered by modern influences, the local government court operates along traditional Tswana lines. With the aid of case material, I illustrate how North Valley elders adapt Tswana idioms, symbols and legal procedures to suit their local circumstances.

Some Notes on Tswana Bogadi

In a general survey of Tswana culture, written for the International African Institute twenty-five years ago, I summarized as follows the main features of the bogadi (bridewealth) system: