Baskets

The beginning of the weaving process

Hello everyone!

My name is Brianna , or ka Setswana, “Lorato.” I live in a village called Etsha 13 in northern Botswana, near the Okavango Delta. The Etsha villages (there are 13 of them in succession) produce some of the most beautiful baskets and woven crafts in Botswana.

                                                         The Basket Weavers

Palm fronds dyed and ready to use

The Etsha villages were originally settlements for Angolan refugees in the 1970s and they brought their weaving style and expertise with them. The majority of the basket weavers are women, who have learned to weave thanks to their mothers and grandmothers and are continuing the tradition by teaching their daughters. These days, many women in this region practice the art of weaving baskets for daily use, decorative purposes, and as a source of income.









How the Baskets are Made

My friend Katenya standing with one her beautiful baskets

Women harvest dried palm fronds from young palm trees, often traveling into the Delta risking encounters with dangerous snakes, elephants, and other wildlife to collect the materials. They dye the palm fronds using roots of other plants, creating bright oranges, purples, gold, and black materials. Once the materials are collected, the fronds are soaked in water with the roots until they are pliable. Then, the fronds are woven into tights rounds using a large needle. The core is made first, and the design goes over it. A small, open basket can take as little as a week, but large, complicated, or closed baskets will require months to weave.

Basket Styles
There are a few different types of baskets woven by women in Ngamiland. Flat baskets were traditionally used to sift grain products, while round, open baskets were more commonly used to carry things. Closed baskets were used for storage purposes. The patterns used in the baskets are often inspired by those found in nature. Patterns like “forehead of the zebra,” “guinea fowl,” and “running ostrich” are my favorites.

Closed Baskets

Open baskets- patterns include forehead of the zebra, running ostrich,
and ribs of the giraffe

Dikgomo Tsa Mhele

Hello Everyone!

I am still working on writing up a music, and food lesson so in the meantime I wanted to introduce you to a local board game I learned how to play! The game is called Dikgomo Tsa Mhele which translates to "The Cows of Mhele" and is actually a game that has many different versions, some dating back to the 11th century!

The game is played with two players, on a board that looks like this:

This is the board that we use at the library!

This is a board depicted in The Book of Games,
written by the King of Spain in the 13th Century!

or          







Each player starts off with 12 pieces that are referred to as "cows"; this is a very special concept in Botswana since ownership of cattle is a very traditional way to tell a person's wealth and status in the community. The aim of the game is to line up three cows in a row on the points where the lines connect. Each time you are able to make a line of three you get to take one of your opponents cows off the board and add it to your own "kraal", which is the Setswana word for where you keep your cows. If you make a line of three those pieces can't be moved until each player has placed all their cows. There are many different ways to make a line of three:

Once each player has used all of his or her pieces (if you have stolen another players cow, that cow is out of play and not placed on the board again) you are able to move your pieces around the board to make new lines of three. The only rule with this is that you may not jump pieces. The winner is whoever takes 10 of their opponents cows first!

This game has many different names depending on the language and country you are playing in and there is a lot of debate over where is was first created. Mill of Morris in English, Morels in Spanish, Merelles in French, Muhle in German, Molle in Norwegian and Mhele in Setswana. For more historical information on the origins of the game, as well as an alternative explanation on how to play, check out:

http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/rowgames/mill.html
(I would also like to site this website for most of the historical information I have from this post and thank Elliot Avedon for creating it.)

Keep in mind that one of the beautiful parts of this game (besides the fact that it has rich historical and culture diversity) is that it can be played almost anywhere by making the board in the dirt and using bits and pieces as "cows." You can also change the shape of the board, and how many available spots there are to place the pieces.

If you would like to play a version of the game online, check out: http://www.spiele-kostenlos-online.de/brettspiele/brett-spiele/merels-muhle/ (Its in German but easy to figure out.)

Rata Thata!
Claire

Pula!

The Pula is the national currency of Botswana and comes in both paper and coinage. Anything 1p or over is referred to as pula whereas anything less is considered a tebe. Pula in Botswana is to dollar in America, and the tebe is the same as our cent. Tebe comes in 5t, 10t, 25t, and 50t. Pula comes in 1p (coin), 2p (coin), 5p (coin), 10p, 20p, 50p, 100p and 200p (though I am sure there are larger bills in circulation, they are not used on a regular basis.)

"Pula" in Setswana means rain, because in a country that receives between 9.84inches-25.6inches of rain a year, rain is immensely important. 

The 10p note has current President Ian Khama on the front. He is the son of Lady Khama and Sir Seretse Khama and is also the current Paramount chief of the Bamangwato people. A fun fact about the 10p note is that whatever current president is serving, is who appears on the note! The back of the note is the parliament building in Gaborone (the capital.)

 The 20p note has Kgalemang Tumedisco Motsete, who wrote and composed the national anthem of Botswana. On the back of the note is a bunch of mining machines. Mining is a huge part of the Botswana economy and there are whole towns based around mining. My friend Christina, who is a fellow volunteer, works in Jwaneng which is a mining town. I am hoping to get her to put up a lesson plan on mining so everyone can learn more about it. 

 The 50p note has former President Sir Seretse Khama on the front. President Khama was extremely important in Botswana because he helped lead Botswana's independence movement from England. He was both a Prime Minister of Bechuanaland (Botswana's previous name) and the first President of Botswana. He is the father of President Ian Khama who is on the 10p note. The back of the 50p note is the Okavango Delta. The Okavango is a huge body of water that is fed through rainfall in Angola that travels down. It is full of an amazing variety of wild life, and what is known as "Africa's Big 5" Lion, Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Leopard and Rhino.

 The front of the 100p note has three Dikgosis on it: Sebele I of the Bangwato people, Bathoen I of the Bakwena people and, Khama III (great-grand father of Ian Khama) of Bamangwato people. These three chiefs traveled to Britain in 1885 to ask that Bechuanaland Protectorate become independent of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Their request was granted by Queen Victoria, and even though it didn't make Bechuanaland independent, it granted them separate lands. The back of the note shows a diamond sorter, as well as open pit diamond mines. About 40% of Botswana government revenues come from diamonds, and the industry continues to grow. There will be more on Botswana diamonds in lessons to come. 



The 200p note has a teacher ("morutabana" in Setswana) and children to signify the importance of educating the youth of Botswana. The back has zebras, which are not only plentiful in the delta region but are also on the National seal and the mascot of the Botswana soccer team.






So that is a quick overview of the pula notes for Botswana! I hope you found this mini lesson interesting and please feel free to comment. 

Rata Thata,
Claire