Bakgatla Initiation - (Jolene)

A couple of weeks ago, Renae, Katrina, and I were crawling out of bed at 2:30 AM to have another ‘adventure’ in this culture. Alysa picked us up at 3 AM, then we headed to the village of Mochudi, which is a 45 minute drive out of the city. We were meeting at Bessie’s house and going with her to see the men who were coming back in from their initiation in the bush. Bessie was our neighbor when we lived in Maun many years ago, and she now lives in Mochudi. (She’s the one Travis helped build the house for).
First an explanation of the initiation. The Bakgatla tribe seems to be the only tribe in Botswana that does the initiations anymore, but apparently traditionally many of the tribes did it. They hadn’t done it though for about 20 years – something about the chief they had, had his reasons for not doing it. It’s hard to get answers sometimes to questions! Anyway, they have a new chief, and he has again started the initiations, for women and men. The women’s isn’t nearly as long as the men’s, and it was done sometime in June. The men, however, were out in the bush for about 6 weeks (we heard varying times), and the day they came back in was a big celebration and there were many, many people at the kgotla (traditional place where they meet with the chief when there are issues, or community meetings). Bessie said to be at her house at 4 AM, so we could have a good place to see them coming in, so that’s what we did.
We picked up Bessie , her two children, her sister, and a neighbor, and drove to the kgotla, where we got 2nd row seats. We thought that was great! We weren’t sure what time the men were coming in, some reports were 7 AM, some 9 AM, but in actuality they didn’t arrive until 11:30!! Anyway, people kept coming and coming, and soon the area was full to overflowing. It became quite difficult to get in or out to do anything (like go to the bathroom), so we sat on our chairs from 4:30 am until after 2 pm when everything was over. It got quite hot, we didn’t want to drink much so we didn’t have to get up and go through that crowd, and we were famished by the end. I had brought apples & oranges, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, and made several extra, but those didn’t go very far when I shared them with everyone! I’m always amazed at how the people here can so patiently sit & wait for something to happen. No food, often no water, and in the hot sun. We felt almost sick when we left because of all that, but it didn’t seem to bother Bessie .
Anyway, about the ceremony. At one side of the gathering, all the women that had been in their initiation sat, and on & off sang songs for the rest of us. They were all dressed in the same color dresses & blankets, and it was quite a sight. There was a man walking around with an animal skin on his back and feathers in his headdress, with a whip, who was keeping the crowd in order. If someone stood up too long, or for other infractions (I wasn’t sure what they had done), he would yell at them and sort of pretend to whip at them. I was terrified of the guy!  At one point he made all the people in our area move their chairs back, and then some went front again, and I was totally confused what he was trying to do, but we ended up in about the 4th row.  Which really didn’t matter because we could still see and there wasn’t all that much to see a lot of the time.
The monkey is this tribe’s totem, so they had a person dressed sort of like a monkey come in and do a dance, along with a couple other people dressed entirely in white feathers. The important people – chiefs of many villages all around, sat in a special place under a big thatch roof, and the paramount chief of the tribe sat there, with the leopard skin on the back of his chair. There were quite a few men walking around with skins on their backs and feathers.
When they finally said the men were coming, it still took at least another hour for them to arrive in the kgotla area. They came very slowly, singing and doing this little step dance thing. They all had white ostrich feathers, high in the air and it was really quite a sight. Many of them also had animal skins on their backs, but not all. We had been told that there were close to 2000 men who had been initiated, but I really don’t think that many came in. Anyway, it was a lot of men, and they filled the space up. Coming in ahead of them were three men on horses, one of them being the chief. They were quite regal looking. Then there were lots of speeches by various men, I wasn’t sure who they all were, and it was all in Setswana, so sitting there in the hot sun, holding Bessie’s child on my lap who was sleeping, I almost fell asleep too. But I was really too uncomfortable to relax that much. After a couple of speeches the men would all sing a song, and that was the best part. Sort of a chanting, and the one song they all stomped their feet at the exact same time and it was neat to hear.
What they do in the initiation is supposed to be a big secret, but we were told they don’t sleep very much and they just sleep on the ground. They basically take nothing with them, it’s winter time and quite cold at night. They are taught by the older men how to be men – to be faithful to their wives, to take care of their children, and of course I don’t know what all else. Then they all get circumcised. This is done by a real doctor and supposedly in very sanitary conditions. This year it was a white man that did it, and he was there at the ceremony. They go out in the bush not far from Mochudi, and at times they are close enough for the people in the village to hear them singing. Other men that have already been initiated can go out with them, just for a day or two or however long they want, so at times there were over 5000 men out in the bush. (not sure where they got this number but that’s what we were told).
When we were sitting there for hours in the hot sun, I was thinking that this better be worth it when they finally show up. And looking back, it was. At the time I wasn’t so sure! 