Balete men claim they might go crazy or die if not allowed to go for Bogwera

 

A group of Ramotswa men who say they want to be allowed to go to Bogwera find themselves stuck with traditional medicine smeared on their bodies after Judge Tshepo Motswagole threw out their urgent application on Tuesday.

Maphalaola a Pitse Cultural Association and 17 other men dragged Paramount Chief of Balete Kgosi Mosadi Seboko as well as her assistants Kgosi Tsimane Mokgosi and Motlhanka Mokgosi to court for refusing to let them go to Bogwera.

However, the Judge dismissed the case with costs, saying the applicants failed to satisfy the requirements needed for the case to be heard on urgent basis.

Bogwera is an initiation school for men practised by Batswana as part of their culture to prepare boys into becoming men.

When Motswagole asked lawyer, Tlotlo Tlhankane of Rockfall Lekgowe Law group representing the applicants in court this Monday why his clients were not obeying the wishes of their Kgosi not to go to Bogwera this year, Tlhankane shared that his clients said they had already begun preparing for initiation school.

And some of the preparations included smearing themselves with traditional medicine and drinking some as it is usually done in the Balete culture.

They said they did so because Kgosi Seboko had said there will be Bogwera this year only to change her mind on the 25th July 2023 and her last minute change came as great inconvenience to them.

It is not clear what exactly the men had applied on their bodies that they call 'medicine,' but it is common practice for men preparing to go for the Bogwera initiation school to apply letsoku, a mixture of fine red clay and animal fat, on their bodies, leaving their skins with a reddish glow. Kgosi Tsimane could not confirm if that is what they meant by 'medicine.' The lawyer told court that his clients fear that with the already taken steps, there is no how they cannot proceed to initiation school as the medicine taken means they cannot mix with members of the society.

Unconfirmed fears are that the men might die or fall sick or even go crazy.

Motswagole then asked why the men continued to drink the medicine when they had been told that there would be no Bogwera, saying had they listened to Kgosi Seboko, they would not be finding themselves in a situation where they cannot come out of where they are gathered and mix with the rest of the society.

The judge also questioned why the men had to sit on their rights and only come to court two weeks after they were told that there will be no Bogwera this year.

Defense Counsel Tshiamo Rantao said that it was not true that the applicants learned on 25th July that there will be no Bogwera.

He said Kgosi never said there will be Bogwera this year, the only thing she said was that initiation schools of Bogwera and Bojale will resume as Balete had now successfully wrestled for their land which government wanted to take from them.

And on the 18th July, she made it clear that there will be no Bogwera, meaning that the applicants are not being truthful in saying they only learned that there will be no initiation school on the 25th.

During court proceeding on Monday and Tuesday this week, only lawyers of the applicants were present in court while on the other hand, Balete who are in support of Kgosi Seboko had thronged the Kgotla in large numbers to support her.

Reached for comment after judgement was delivered on Tuesday, Kgosi Tsimane said they are not sure what the applicants have smeared on themselves.

“We are really not sure what they did to themselves that is prohibiting them from coming out of where they are gathered. If they had done things the right way and according to our culture, I would be confident that all can be undone.

“So we are not sure what they did which they say might kill or make them go crazy,” he said.

He said what usually happens is that a day before departure, they call a traditional healer who performs rituals to protect the men as they head out to a secret place.

“What we do is not even a secret. It is performed at the kgotla, not in someone’s yard or house, once the healer is done, the men head out and will stay at the secret place for one month,” he explained.