On this day, Kathy and I hired a car and driver to take us to a couple points of interest near Gaborone, the Mokolodi Game Preserve and Bahurutshe Cultural Village. The Mokolodi Game Preserve is a 30 square km nature preserve south of Gaborone. It was formed in 1991 as a preserve and a center for environmental education. There were already a variety of animals living in the area, including warthogs, steenbok, and kudu, when the preserve was set up. Zebra, giraffe, eland, ostrich, hippos and rhinos have all been reintroduced. We were driven around part of the preserve in the back of a pickup truck outfitted with seats and saw ostriches, kudu, warthogs, wildebeests, and zebra. We also saw a large group of giraffe. (Groups of giraffe are called jennies—how cool is that?) We saw a cheetah in an enclosure—they have two at Mokolodi that were injured and are there for rehabilitation. There were also elephants that were under the care of elephant handlers. No lions, though.They are doing good work at Mokolodi, but it was all a little too tame after having been to northern Botswana.
We left Mokolodi and drove to the Bahurutshe Village to find out about traditional Batswana village life. Madeline had visited the cultural village with her ACM group in January and had recommended that we go there as well. The purpose of the cultural village is to preserve Batswana tradition, and while it is great for tourists, it also is aimed at local school groups, to help them understand their past and their traditions in this rapidly changing, rapidly urbanizing society.
When we drove up to the collection of rondavels that comprise the village, there was a small group of elderly women ululating a welcome. I had expected other tourists to be there, but Kathy and I were the only people there. There were five or six elderly women and one old man there to facilitate the program. After it was explained that if we were following tradition, I would sit in a chair and Kathy would sit on the ground, we were both seated in chairs in the shade of an acacia tree. Then they performed a traditional wedding with song and dance, showed how the bride would go to live with the groom’s family, and help with the daily chores. The chores included pounding sorghum into flour, and spreading fresh cow manure on the doorstep every morning (with her hands—yes they really demonstrated that). They also demonstrated traditional games that the people of southern Africa play at social occasions and by the fire in the evening.
One game is morabaraba and is played mostly by men. Morabaraba is played on three concentric squares scratched into the dirt that are all connected at the corners with diagonal lines. Rocks, bottle caps, or similar objects are used as game pieces and are called “cows.” Each player in turn places a cow at the intersection of two lines. When a player has placed three pieces in a row (called a “mill”), he may “shoot a cow” by removing one of their opponents pieces from the board. Cows in a mill may not be shot. Once all the players have placed all of their cows, each player in turn may move cows from one intersection to an adjacent one to form mills. A player wins when their opponent has only two cows left or can’t move.
According to Wikipedia, Morabaraba is derived from the English Morris and is based on a European game called “Nine Man Morris”, or alternatively Mills or Merrills in English, which was introduced by European settlers. This game ultimately came from a Roman game. Merellus, in Latin, means gaming counter.
A game favored by women is diketo, and requires timing and dexterity. Diketo, in principle, is like jacks. To play diketo, you draw a circle on the ground and place a bunch of pebbles within that circle. Each person takes turns tossing a large pebble, called a mguni or goon, into the air while taking pebbles out of the hole and placing them in a prearranged pattern (first one, then two, then three, and so on) on the ground before catching the large pebble. If you manage to get all the pebbles out, you continue by putting them back in the circle. If you manage to get them all back in, you’re done and you shout "Ndavala!" ("I'm finished!").
Finally, there was singing and dancing. Kathy was invited to participate. I, thankfully, was not. Then it was time for dinner. We were served seswaa (pounded beef), chicken, bean leaves (which were just that—the Batswana grow a large variety of beans, some for their leaves), bogobe (sorghum porridge), bread (which is not traditional), and some fresh greens (they called it lettuce, but if it was, it was not a lettuce I’m familiar with). The food was enjoyable, but bland. There doesn’t seem to be much variety in the traditional diet. It is centered on beef and either bogobe, or in recent times pap, plus a few vegetables. Disappointingly, they don’t seem to use much in the way of spices—quite different from other warm climate cuisines.
Visiting Bahurutshe was a good way for us to understand and appreciate the cultural background that formed the base for the modern Botswana that we were experiencing. I had hoped for mopane worms to be part of that experience, but they were not offered.
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