Look what Kenneth Koma spent his life telling us!

I am angry. Actually, I am hopping mad, because my fears have been confirmed. Our country is the worst managed country in the whole world. In my view, a good measure of how well managed a country is, is the degree to which its wealth is equitably distributed among its citizens, or equitably generated by its citizens. I have just read an article entitled “Mining: The super-rich and the poor” by one Roman Grynberg in the Friday 27 April edition of Mmegi. I quote:

“…The three most unequal countries in the world are Namibia, South Africa and Botswana (CIA factbook)...”

Given that both South Africa and Namibia have only recently (compared to Botswana) emerged from institutionalized inequality engendered by, and enforced through apartheid, what the above statement really says is that the most unequal country in the world is Botswana. This is the painful truth that I wish Basubiya politicians would tell Basubiya in Chisubiya language; Bakhoe politicians would tell Bakhoe in their different “Khoisan” languages; Bakalanga politicians would tell Bakalanga in Ikalanga language, Bayeyi politicians would tell Bayeyi in Shiyeyi language, etc. etc.

Perhaps then, the various nationalities would understand why their languages are not allowed on the country’s airwaves – to hide the truth about just how unjustifiably deprived they, and the poor Tswana language speakers, really are. Perhaps it would make our people understand that instead of “a shining example of democracy in Africa”, what we really have is “a disgusting enclave of enforced deprivation in Africa”.

After we attained Independence, the new mining investors dutifully respected the mining agreements that they had signed with the Government, and turned over the nation’s share of the mining profits to Government. It was Government who screwed up. Realizing that the new-found wealth represented raw economic power over all things living within their borders, the Government wielded the wealth as a stick to beat into submission anyone who dared question the wealth’s skewed distribution. The victims included opposition political parties, individuals, non-governmental organisations. The wealth has been held in trust, as it were, for one entity – the ruling elite. Consequently, those who have been denied their share of the national wealth, have had no choice but to join the ruling party as members. This is the reason for the much vaunted “stability” of the ruling party. The reality is that the national wealth is being used by the party which has been in power since independence 46 years ago, to sustain itself in power by sheer brute economic repression of the masses of our people.

I refuse to believe that if the national wealth had been handed over to our kings, rather than to Government, the level of inequality would be what it is today. After all this inequality did not exist before or during colonial times, when our kings, in their limited ways, had power over our wealth – the land! I believe this is what Kgosikgolo Kgafela ii is trying to open our eyes to; pity that our politicians can only roll up their sleeves for the imminent fight at Mahalapye special congress! Fighting over what, one may ask oneself? 

The Tuareg?

The Tuareg…

Is it coincidence, I wonder?

When the Bakhwa (Bushmen), residing in the Central-to-Northwest Districts of Botswana say “Tuare”, they mean “People”, and more specifically “their people”. I wonder if this suggests that there is a link between them and the Tuareg of North Africa.

This crossed my mind because the habitat of both peoples is quite similar – the Kalahari semi desert in Botswana and the Sahara desert in North Africa. Perhaps those who speak the language of either the Tuareg or the Bakhwa  or both can research further on the linkage.

BACK TO THE NARMER PALLET, TOP REGISTER OBVERSE SIDE…

I wrote that the register, in Ikalanga language, declares “BIGANI MIHOLO PASI; SHE WABO SHE, ZHISHUMBA GULU, TETSHI WENYU MENGWE, MALOBA HANGO MBILI DZAKA SENGA GUNGWA (nile) KA DZI HANGANYA KA BAKA KA-MABUNDE, WOYO!”

Which in Emglish translates to “Bow down your heads to touch the ground; Welcome Mengwe, King of Kings, the biggest lion, your master, the one who defeated the two lands that carry the Nile and united them into one Federation of MaBunde.”

I wish to add a detail that I had not noticed when I wrote the above. The official carrying a pair of sandals behind King Mengwe has an inscription which consists of flowers (MALUBA) and just below the flowers, a head (NHOLO, plural – MIHOLO). This changes the phrase “ the one who defeated the two lands” to the phrase “the one who defeated the heads of the two lands”. The Ikalanga language rendition becomes “…MALOBA MIHOLO E HANGO MBILI DZAKA SENGA GUNGWA (nile)…”

Kalanga speakers will have noticed by now that so far I have been using a dialect of Ikalanga that is spoken in South Western Zimbabwe, around Plumtree and (I believe) Dombodema. I have no proof that this represents the sole version of Ikalanga language that the ancient Egyptians spoke. In fact I am now in trouble due to this. In most versions of Kalanga, the “head of a land” or “king” is called “she”, while in the Plumtree version, they drop the “s” whenever it is followed by “h”.

   

While reading “An esoteric interpretation of the Narmer Pallette and the Narmer Macehead” by Dr. Douglass A. White, I learnt that the figure being smitten by “Narmer” with a mace, on the reverse side of the Pallette has an inscription “Wa Sha”. I also learnt that the HORUS-guided head above that figure represents the expression “Sha”. I think this proves that the Kalanga version spoken by Ancient Egyptians was not always the Plumtree version. The “Sha” in the above expressions is pronounced “Shay”, and written “She” in Kalanga, meaning  “king” or “head of a land”. Therefore the MAIN register on the reverse side of the Pallette, records that Mengwe is striking “SHE WA (BO)SHE”, meaning  “King of King(s)”. The King of Kings referred to here is undoubtedly King of Lower Egypt (Delta) as shown by the papyrus reeds, and HORUS.

Still on the reverse side, bottom register we see two figures running and stumbling. The left figure has an inscription of a wall, while the right figure has what at first appears to be a “knot of some kind”. In fact it is not a knot at all; it is “two raised arms clenching an axe and ready to strike”. This must be a hieroglyph for “ku rwa” meaning “to fight” in Shona language, or “ku gwa” in Kalanga, proper.  Shona language (spoken in Zimbabwe) is a dialect of Kalanga that developed among the soldiers who were deployed between the Southern Su-thu people, also known as “Barwa” and the Northern Kalangas proper. The bottom register therefore depicts the people south of the WALL (Shabaka stone) who were in the main Barwa/Basuthu running for dear life from General (Narmer)Mengwe/Meno.