Honorable David Magang Appeals Government and Private Sector to Promote History

 

Honorable David Magang appeal to the government and stalwarts of indigenous Botswana enterprise to join the bandwagon and help bring about an explosion of historical chronicling in the country from across the board through avail funds for Researchers.

 

He also said such a seismic shift in their view of history would certainly make our beloved founding President Sir Seretse Khama smile in his grave in that the ensuing cornucopia of historical literature would reverse the stigma so that they we’re no longer “a people without a past and a people without a soul but a people with an amply illustrated past and a people with a soul or substance” said Mr Magang during a public lecture held under the theme “A Nation without a Past is a lost Nation-Sir Seretse Khama’s Vision of Botswana’s Development” held at University of Botswana Conference Center on August 17, 2017.

 

“Contrast with South Africa, where the private sector is typically the prime mover in initiating literary projects from which they do not even directly benefit most book projects of a biographical nature in South Africa are bankrolled by the private sector long before they arrive on the desk of the publisher” said Mr Magang. He further said their own, home-grown  pillars of the private sector should emulate their counterpart across the Limpopo, who even when based here in Botswana and making money from Batswana continue to support book propositions in their home country whilst giving  theirs a cold shoulder.

 

Mr Magang also advised University of Botswana authorities, to name their buildings and other constituent facilities officially known by numbers instead of being named after national heroes who contributed either directly or indirectly to the independent of Botswana such as David Livistone, Charles Willoughb, Anthony Silly and Peter Focus. He also commended the recent re-naming of the hospital at the UB after the recently departed Sir Ketumile Masire which he regard as a signal on the part of the university authorities intent on making amends in this regard.

Throughout history, there have been both great feats of success and horrific failures and studying history will helps avoid the pitfalls of yo   re and build on our accomplishments, said Mr Magang.

 

The lecture, was hosted by UB, through the Department of History, draw on Botswana’s founding President, Sir Seretse Khama’s appeal for Africans to break-away from the shackles of mental oppression, and become masters of their own destiny by writing their own history. It also interrogate the famous speech, and how it was subsequently misread or misunderstood, in order to be able to explain Sir Seretse Khama’s vision of Botswana’s development with the country’s history as a cardinal aspect of nation-building.