Beauty of failure

Last night, as expected, Botswana Television showed us (after two full days) the 2013 edition of Miss Botswana. Disaster was, quiet honestly, the order of the day.

From the contestants to the ever shaking cameramen, all was terrible! And oh! The perfomance itself! Let's talk about the perfomance forehand. Well, to my shock, South African musician, Ishmael (whatever his surname is) is still alive! Glory be to God on this one. Yeah, the guy who made Da L.e.S famous while he stayed, well, lame and infamous. No offence to the guy though. I mean, while he was still hot back in 1990-whatever, he did keep our sisters and parentd on their heels with tracks like "Where were you?". But that was that.

Facebook went mad over this guy as he delivered his lame perfomance. The guy looked so delapilated, in my own view. Bad news. Bad news, I tell you. Just like the show itself. Miss Botswana is going down! And Ishmael was dragging it down some more! It was painful. From the stage set to the throne used. No, throne is not the righr word. That thing was an office chair for real! Apparently, as a joke from one of my Facebook friends, the fictional character from South African soapie, Mawande Memela borrowed them her CEO chair when she left for Cape Town to look for uMzwanele. Cracked me for real!

Bottom line, Miss Botswana was embarassing. A.T.I could have done better. Or L!nxstar. Or my favorite female rapper right now, Sasa Klass. Or Vee. Anybody but Ishmael. Its bad, neh?

But then again. Anyway, good day.

The Black Train of Limkokwing

Recently, I messed up a little when I decided to terminate my scholarship with the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (Botswana), where I was on my first year, semester two for Graphic Design. Yeah, I must admit, the going was tough and Graphic Design proved to be no gun-play for small boys like me. So I decided to quit. Pursue something to do with writing. Journalism seemed the easy option. So I opted for it. 

Well, I am on my way to school to get the course change underway when all of a sudden, I hear noises and see smoke from the direction of the campus, up in Block 7, Gaborone. Okay, so I walk on and in sight, just by the students' gate (yeah, we have our own gate), the Botswana Police Service's elite Riot Squad (or whatever they are called) is busy gearing war with bandits of my fellow school mates. It was crazy, I tell you. That guy who directed 300 (the movie)  could have easily picked up scenes for his next blockbuster right there! 

Students throwing stones, tear gas all over, police officers with riot shields; I had never seen nothing like that! I had two choices though: join the fight or run for my life. The latter seemed a better option, considering my cowardly persona. So I ran. Leaving behind my comrades, the desperate-for-action officers and the lavish Limkokwing top-brass, I ran. 

So what's the root of all this turmoil? Well, the answer is quiet straight forward. Limkokwing ate our money! Yes, "our" money. Mine and all the other students'. We signed a contract with the MoESD when we started our first year. A contract that clearly specified that I would get P1420.00 every month as well as P1300.00 as my book allowance beginning of every semester. Well, there is no such contract, quiet honestly but it's just (if I may put it this way) the way things have always been. But Limkokwing did not, as usual, give me and all my fellow schoolmates my book allowance this year. Why? Because the old man's Black Train has to continue bellowing smoke, that's why! At my cost, it has to! 

The nation is yet to witness another revolution. I will not say any more. Brace yourself. 

Good day.

Witchcraft is Real! Or not?

Boloi. Or simply witch-craft in English. It is a wide spread but rarely talked-about topic that carries a lot of sensitivity around it. You know, with the mention of the word, you can easily send shivers down anybody's spine. Literally! So let's talk about boloi for a little bit.

Well, some places around the country carry a lot of association to the topic. Bobonong, Mmadinare, Tsetsebjwe, Molepolole, E.T.C. These are the most "notoriously" known places where you can go to if you want to catch a glimpse of the topic. They even made a T.V production, Thokolosi, about boloi, that was set (coincidentally?) in Bobonong. It raised the bar on the tiny Bobirwa village and people grew curious. I must say, Thokolosi was some scary stuff and I grew just as curious.

So, boloi. What is witchcraft?  Wikipedia defines it as follows, "Witchcraft (also called witchery or spellcraft) is the use of alleged supernatural, magical faculties. This may take many forms, depending on cultural context". So it involves the use of supernatural means. Unbelievable stuff. So maybe, looking at the fact that these are unusual means, this whole issue (boloi) might as well be a myth! But no, I have done my research and I can tell you one thing: this thing is real.

Tsetsebjwe. Let's talk a bit about the 5000-populated village, also in the Bobirwa District in eastern Botswana. I personally stayed there from 2007 when I started my Form 1. I had heard stories before about the mysteries of the village. One that caught my attention was the "Crying child of Tsetsebjwe". Apparently, there was a child who was murdered for ritual reasons in the past years and due to the child's parents' involvement in the murder, it's other relatives worked their magic and had the child cry every night to haunt the parents. Scary stuff! Even scarier was the fact that one good night, I heard the child myself. Believe me! So boloi had enough evidence to prove its existence in Tsetsebjwe!

Then, still around the Bobirwa are, exists a village called Sefhophe. Yeah, that village where Tumi Ramsden has relatives. Well, still to my own witnessing, in Sefhophe we have a guy who goes around asking for no other monetary value but two pula. I saw that happening myself. The story goes that this guy robbed a lady who had the touch of magic and got away. But not really as the said lady bewitched the poor guy. Next thing the guy knew, he was going around asking for two pula. Scary!

Last but not least, right here in the capital city, we have our own boloi issue to solve. Take a drive across the fly-over past Old Naledi and stop. Walking in the southerly direction, in a trench bridge, we have a guy hanging out around the place, literally! Like our big Brother Jesus on the cross, our guy lies against the bridge all day long!  Hot or cold, he just lies there. I don't have much information on him but apparently, he got bewitched. That's for all for you to go confirm. I'm just too scared to even go any further. 

That's it for now. Until next time, good day.