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.

Phoenix is rising from the ashes...

The Phoenix is rising….

When you read Duma Boko’s article, entitled “The Umbrella is a national calling” in Mmegi (the Reporter) of 16 March 2012, you get the feeling that the Phoenix that is the BNF, is rising. Note how Boko calls BCP President Dumelang Saleshando “Comerade Dums”, and contrast that with Dumelang’s dogs of war, who call him – Comerade Mafikizolo!

Yes, lead he will; and the criminals that have been looting our National coffers had better beware – the Nation is coming for you, with someone who understands the law, in the lead!

Still on direct election of President

I must not be misunderstood to suggest that if a President is highly educated, then he will be a highly efficient President. After all the highly educated President Mogae was probably the worst President ever to befall this country. However, the reasons for Mogae’s bad performance are quite different from Khama’s failures.

Under Mogae the people appointed into critical economic positions knew that he was watching. They could not insolently ransack the treasury or the economy because they knew that he was capable of analyzing their actions and catching them. So, the smart thieves, the kind that easily bring the country to its knees if given the opportunity, kept their dirty fingers from the NDB, the Bank of Botswana and other vital economic organs.

Mogae’s failures have a lot to do with his lack of a constituency. Because he had no powerful backers such as the Bangwato tribe behind his Presidency, he substituted PARTY for constituency. As a result only those who were unmistakably identified with his party, the BDP were ever considered for appointment to vital positions in Government. It did not matter how well one merited appointment to a critical economic decision-making position, if one did not wear a red shirt/blouse and a black skirt/trousers, one was doomed to spend their lives doing mundane non challenging chores. Thus Mogae’s over-dependence on the PARTY, resulted in the country having a bevy of incapable officials, all clad in the PARTY’s colours and all depending on foreign expertise for their survival.

Khama’s failures on the other hand stem from his inability to engage the experts and question the actions of his appointees to public office. To overcome this shortcoming he escapes from the office to go “interect with the masses”.  The smart white collar thieves love this. When he is away in the bush they ransack the NDB and generally cause economic mayhem. Khama’s solid constituency offers him no relief in this, because what he needs is hard, solid educational grounding, which he severely lacks. The sad part is that he will almost certainly win any “direct elections” as envisaged by the Motion currently before Parliament. 

Motion on direct Presidential election is a waste of time

I hear some MP is to present a motion in Parliament calling for the constitution to be amended in such a way that the President of the Republic will be directly elected by the people rather than by Parliament, as is the case currently. I cannot say that I disagree with such a motion, I can only point out that the motion is such an awful waste of time.

Our current problems as a country stem, not from the unpopularity of the President, but from his unsuitability for the post of President of this Republic. Therefore if the constitution is to be amended to address the office of President of the Republic, the office of Vice President, and that of Leader of Opposition, I would suggest that five safeguards be built into the constitution:

1. Minimum educational qualifications should be specified for both the President and the Vice President.

2. Constitutional Mechanisms that enable Parliament to reject any Presidential decree or Executive order by the President, as well as mechanisms that enable the President to veto legislation by Parliament, should be introduced.

3. General Elections should be held on a date uncompromisingly specified in the constitution, say the last Friday of July, every fifth year.

4. Voting should continue to be by secret ballot, but NO BALLOT BOX should be allowed to move until the election officials, including party representatives, have counted AND publicly announced the votes contained therein.

5. The position of leader of Opposition in Parliament should not be subject to an election. The leader of the party with the second largest number of elected MPs, following a General Election should automatically become a Member of Parliament, and assume the position of leader of Opposition. He/she should hold that position until the next General Election, irrespective of defections. If a General election produces a tie in the number of MPs, either for ruling or for opposition, the tie should be broken in similar manner.

I submit that if the above measures become “hard-coded” into our constitution, it will be immaterial whether the President is directly elected or elected by Parliament. Direct election on its own will simply usher in the most popular man, who most likely will be a good administrator, but not a competent operator. I have been to Kgotla gatherings where some old woman, who happens to belong to the President’s party was given unlimited time to comment. Her only original comment line was “You are so pretty, you look just like your father”. The rest of her comment was a regurgitation of the usual platitudes heaped upon the President by the groveling masses, at public gatherings. For crying out loud, why should such a person be given a blank check in determining who becomes president of this republic? I say she shouldn’t, she should instead be given a list of people who have been vetted by the constitutional provisions listed above.

Our country has just hosted an International telecommunication conference of some sort. No doubt the conference was told that our country has installed Internet service points (Nteletsa) for rural communities. What was most likely, not revealed, is how many of these still work and why the rest don’t. You can easily do the maths – how many public telephones, private or otherwise still operate? Granted, vandalism contributed to some of these facilities being discontinued, but I doubt if it all had to do with vandalism – we have an administration headed by a former soldier, whose deficient academic grounding renders him good for nothing except implementation of so-called “Security” around Government buildings, telecommunication lines, etc. It’s time we had a constitution which safeguards our country from such people holding the office of president of this Republic.

Could the gods digest our "earthly" food?

Oh my God, Anubis and his fellow gods were extra-terrestrials alright! They did not have stomachs good enough to digest our food, so they ate our sh!t, sorry. All that embalming nonsense was just to obtain food – from our stomachs. Ok, maybe I am a little excited, but please look at the facts:

1. The name Espaniar for Spaniards is a corruption for the Kalanga word Ba-esi panya, meaning “those who escort you to sh!t”. The Spanish got this name during the building of the Egyptian pyramids.

2. The name Abyssinians is a corruption for the Kalanga word “Abe sinya”, meaning “they (those who) did not shit”. These were black Southern Africans who had migrated to Egypt and environs and evidently did not take part in the construction of the pyramids.

3. Some thirty years ago, Alphonse [may his soul and his wife’s Thembi’s rest in peace] used to euphemistically say that he was going to “talk to the gods” whenever he went to the loo.  You can confirm this with his friends.

So, I submit that Alphonse must have heard it from somewhere in “folk lore” that people used to go to the toilet “to speak to the gods”.  

Yes, Barwa/Baroe were hostile to Bakalanga.

And so the Tswanas/Sothos are junior to the Kalangas, after all. The official Graham Hancock website, describing how the Two Lands of Upper and Lower Egypt were possibly weighed and divided (as the Egytians themselves claim)  in order to achieve peace between their gods Seth and Horus respectively, notes that:

“…In the First Time peace had reigned, before the dispute in which the visionary young Horus was blinded by his uncle Seth, while Horus castrated the worldly, virile older male. For the Egyptians, from at least the time of the Pyramid Texts, this dispute was a mythic equivalent of the opening of Pandora's Box, by which troubles came into the world…”

The Graham Hancock website quotes  an inscription on the Shabaka Stone:

“He judged between Horus and Seth; he ended their quarrel. He made Seth the king of Upper Egypt in the land of Upper Egypt, up to the place in which he was born, which is Su. And Geb made Horus King of Lower Egypt in the land of Lower Egypt, up to the place in which his father was drowned which is "Division-of-the-Two-Lands." Thus Horus stood over one region, and Seth stood over one region. They made peace over the Two Lands at Ayan [location immediately to the north of Memphis]. That was the division of the Two Lands….Then Horus stood over the land. He is the unifier of this land, proclaimed in the great name: Ta-tenen, South-of-his-Wall, Lord of Eternity. Then sprouted the two Great Magicians upon his head. He is Horus who arose as king of Upper and Lower Egypt, who united the Two Lands in the Nome of the Wall, the place in which the Two Lands were united.
Reed and papyrus were placed on the double door of the House of Ptah. That means Horus and Seth, pacified and united. They fraternized so as to cease quarreling in whatever place they might be, being united in the House of Ptah, the "Balance of the Two Lands" in which Upper and Lower Egypt had been weighed.”

Of great significance in the above quote is the word “Ta-tenen”, which is a corruption of the Kalanga word “(Ba)Tatennini”, meaning a paternal uncle, i.e. one’s father’s younger brother. So to the god Horus, the god Seth was Batatennini, meaning that the people of Su were considered junior to the people of Lower Egypt. But who were these people of Su?

From the Southern city of Su, we have BaSuThu, i.e. “People of Su.” These are the Baroe/Barwa, whose god Seth (Sotho?) was an uncle “Ta-tenen” i.e. Batatennini in Kalanga language, to the god Horus of the people in the Northern city of Memphis. So Horus, son of Osiris, was the god of Kalangas in Lower Egypt.

Now we know what the name “Mosu”, a village where Khama III is said to have been born, means – a person from Su. I recently read an article by Michael Dingake in which he warned Bangwato not to attempt to re-impose their oppressive Mephato (regiments) on “subject” tribes. Dingake remembers that Bangwato used to call his father “Rangwane” i.e. junior uncle. Imagine the cheek of rangwane calling rremogolo “Rangwane”!  Unless Bangwato occasionally put on their Bayela (Kalanga) mantle to tamper with their BaSuThu roots, it makes no sense that they would refer to a Mbikhwa (Dingake) as “rangwane”.