The story of Hope: Botswana’s Story

When I was landed for the first time in Gaborone, Botswana in December 2005, I found that the place was dry because it was summer time but not enough rainfall during that time. The lands were so sandy and no single grass was growing. Some trees around my place seemed dying. However, people were so welcoming by their beautiful smile and greeting me: “Dumelang” (greeting)

A day after my arriving in Botswana, rain was falling heavily. People were happy and I could see a bigger smile on people’s face. They were talking about going to prepare their fields and planting water melon, corns, sorghum, pumpkins, and sweet reeds. It was life. I happened to see a group of donkeys were playing happily running after each others. Life had come. And after a week, grass were coming out plentiful on the sands and trees became green.

 Botswana is semi-arid desert country with a well known desert of “Kalahari”. Kalahari derives from the local language Tswana “Kgala” meaning “great thirst”. The rainfalls in Kalahari are around 110 mm to 500 mm per year. Botswana has around 8 dry months and around 1 to 4 wet months.  It shows that Botswana has a very little rain falls in a year. Because of the very rarely rainfalls in this country, people see and perceive rain as a blessing from God. Every year every village and town held special prayer asking for rain. There is a month of prayer for rain. The cry of hope for the rain runs in the veins and hearts of the living creatures on this land.

During the dry months, especially when coming to the end of the dry season, everything seems to die: there seems no life at all on the ground; a single grass cannot be found on the sands; trees are dying; animals look unhealthy. Kgala “great thirst” is in this land now. Land is in great thirst; seeds are sleeping and waiting for water; trees are standing dry longing for water; animals are gasping to quench their thirst; people are longing for water; living beings are crying for rain. But because of this great thirst, people of this land have hope as Thales of Miletus, a pre-Socrates Greek philosopher said, “hope is the only good that is common to all people; those who have nothing else posses hope still”.  The feelings of being poor are being in still in their whole being during this time. They have many cows and goats but in this time they feel poor. They own big lands but there is nothing they can do with their lands. But what they have is hope; hope for water and hope for rain.

Thus, in the olden days when English saw this country having nothing and nothing to benefit for, they saw that this land was without hope for them. Then, they left and gave the country back to Batswana.  This was a beginning of hope for the country to build a hope and to become hope for its people. Botswana used to be the poorest country in southern part of Africa and now the economy and its development is one of the best in Africa. They used to have nothing and what they had was only hope. Moreover, just a year after the independence, the great contains of diamond were founded in this land. Non living things brought up a hope for living beings. However, the finding of this precious stone was a great hope for Botswana, the people in their deepest hearts were still longing for PULA.

PULA is the very word and the only word that is used to close a speech from many public leaders in Botswana. It tells us that PULA is very important. It is not only the name of the Botswana’s currency and Setswana for rain but also it shows a depth meaning, that is, blessing.

Pula (rain) is blessing and Pula (money) is the blessing. Pula is blessing for dry land; it is blessing for the dying trees; it is blessings for resting seeds; it is blessing for sick animals; it is blessing for Batswana. For Batswana, rain is life and rain is blessing. It is not coincident to say that Pula is “Madi Ya Botswana” (Rain is blood of Botswana) or (Money is the blood of Botswana). This means that like blood that becomes the source of life of a living being, Rain is the only source of their life to bring life and to bring energy and strength for all living creatures.

Hope is about looking at the positive side of life even surroundings are negative. Hope is the only light that can brings changes in life. Hope is what we count our days of struggle as ways of growing. The story of Botswana’s hope is our story of recognizing that in God’s time the blessing (PULA) will come. I hope for PULA.