Language, culture and beliefs 

Alot of Tswana people live in southern Africa; 3 million in South Africa and 1 million in the nation of Botswana. In South Africa, many Tswana live in the area that formed the numerous segments of the former homeland, Bophuthatswana, as well as neighboring areas of the North-West Province and the Northern Cape. Tswana people are also found in most urban areas throughout South Africa.

Tswana culture, social organizations, ceremonies, language and religious beliefs are similar to that of the other two Sotho groups (Pedi and Sotho), although some Tswana chiefdoms were more highly stratified than those of other Sotho groups or the Nguni. Tswana culture is often distinguished for its complex legal system, involving a hierarchy of courts and mediators, and harsh punishments for those found guilty of crimes.

Like many neighboring Nguni peoples, the Sotho traditionally relied on a combination of livestock raising and crop cultivation for subsistence. Most Sotho people were traditionally herders of cattle, goats, and sheep, and cultivators of grains and tobacco. In addition, Sotho were skilled craftsmen, renowned for their metalworking, leatherworking, and wood and ivory carving.

Also like the Nguni, most Sotho people lived in small chiefdoms, in which status was determined in part by relationship to the chief. Unlike the Nguni, Sotho homesteads were grouped together into villages, with economic responsibilities generally shared among village residents. Villages were divided into wards, or residential areas, often occupied by members of more than one patrilineal descent group.

The village chief (a hereditary position) generally appointed ward leaders, whose residences were clustered around the chief's residence. Sotho villages sometimes grew into large towns of several thousand people. Farmland was usually outside the village, not adjacent to the homestead. This village organization may have enabled the Sotho villagers to defend themselves more effectively than they could have with dispersed households, and it probably facilitated control over ward leaders and subjects by the chief and his family.

The cattle kraal is central to most traditional Tswana villages and is the focus of life. Tswana believe in voluntary work on behalf of other families, especially during the ploughing and harvesting seasons. This form of voluntary work is known as letsema. The South African government has presently adopted the word letsema to encourage its citizens in volunteerism. 

Sotho villages were also organized into age-sets, or groups of men or women who were close in age. Each age-set had specific responsibilities; men organized for warfare and herding, depending on age-set, and women for crop cultivation and religious responsibilities. An entire age-set generally graduated from one task to the next, and the village often celebrated this change with a series of rituals and, in some cases, an initiation ceremony. In the past initiations into adulthood were elaborate ceremonies lasting a few months, in which girls and boys were taken separately to the bush in the winter. The boys were circumcised. Increasingly, funerals have become the most elaborate life-cycle rituals.

Tswana groups are noted for their capacity to absorb foreign peoples, to turn strangers into ‘their’ people, and to do so without compromising the integrity of their own institutions. Socioeconomic mechanisms such as mafisa (which provided for the lending of cattle) and the ward system of tribal administration facilitated the integration of foreigners. Not all peoples were welcomed into the Tswana fold; some remained foreigners, and some became subjects. The latter category includes peoples of the desert (Bakgalagadi and Bushmen) who are accorded a servile status termed ‘Batlhanka’ or ‘Boiata’.

Sotho descent rules were important, even though descent groups did not form discrete local groups. Clans were often totemic, or bound to specific natural objects or animal species by mystical relationships, sometimes involving taboos and prohibitions. Major Sotho clans included the Lion (Taung), Fish (Tlhaping), Elephant (Tloung), and Crocodile (Kwean) clans.

Nguni and Sotho people’s marriage rules differed markedly. Sotho patrilineages were usually endogamous - i.e. the preferred marriage partner would be a person related through patrilineal descent ties. Nguni patrilineages, in contrast, were exogamous ‘ i.e. marriage within the descent group was generally forbidden.

Although the Tswana received Christian missionaries in the early nineteenth century and most belong to a church today, pre-colonial beliefs retain strength among many Tswana. Missionaries brought literacy, schools, and Western values, all of which facilitated the transition to migrant wage labor. In pre-colonial times Tswana believed in a Supreme Being, Modimo, a creator and director, but nonetheless distant and remote. More immediate and having a greater influence in daily affairs were the ancestors, Badimo. Most Tswana today belong to African Independent churches that incorporate Christian and non-Christian practices, beliefs, and symbols. The Tswana seek medical help from a number of sources, including clinics and hospitals, traditional practitioners, and Christian healers. For example, they still believe in consulting the traditional healer ngak, who is supposed to have powers to intercede on their behalf with the ancestors.

There are a few specialized Tswana arts; wood carving and basket weaving and beadwork is practiced by some and houses are often beautifully designed and painted. Song (pina) and dance (pino) are highly developed forms of artistic expression. Choirs perform and compete with each other on official and ritual occasions. They compose lyrics that offer narratives and critiques of the past and present.

The Tswana language is closely related to Sotho, and the two are mutually intelligible in most areas. Tswana is sometimes referred to as Beetjuans, Chuana (hence Bechuanaland), Coana, Cuana, or Sechuana. It is spoken across South Africa and is one of the 11 official languages recognized by the South African Constitution, it is also the national and majority language of Botswana. In 2006 it was determined that over 3 million South Africans speak Setswana as a home language.

Tswana was the one of the first written Sotho languages. The earliest example being Heinrich Lictenstein’s 1806 text called Upon the Language of the Beetjuana. Followed by John Cambell’s Bootchuana words (1815) and Burchell’s Botswana in 1824.

Dr Robert Moffat from the London Missionary Society went to Botsawana in 1818 and built the first school in the area. In 1825, he realised that he needed to use and write Setswana in his teachings. He therefore began translating the bible into Tswana; he completed the New Testament in 1840 and the Old Testament in 1857.

The first Motswana (singular) to contribute towards the writing of Setswana was Sol D. T. Plaatje, who assisted Professor Jones with the book on The Tones of Sechuana Nouns in 1929.

Origins:

The first pottery in South Africa associated with the Sotho is called Icon and dates to between 1300 and 1500. As with the Nguni, anthropological and linguistic data suggest an East African origin for Sotho-Tswana speakers, in this case in what is now Tanzania. By 1500 the Sotho groups had expanded to the south and west and separated into the three distinct clusters; the South Sotho (later became the Basuto and Sotho), the West Sotho (later the Tswana), and the North Sotho (later the Pedi). It is important to note however that all three clusters share very similar dialects, beliefs and society structures and the main distinctions between the three groups were only established as a result of the early 19th century difiqane period.

Most Sotho people were herders of cattle, goats, and sheep, and cultivators of grains and tobacco. In addition, the Sotho people were skilled craftsmen, renowned for their metalworking, leatherworking, and wood and ivory carving. In fact, most archaeologists presume the Sotho were the main body of early stone builders in this part of the country, because Iron Age sites studied by them resemble the areas reported by early eyewitnesses very closely.

I have different people in my life but the people who are close to me include my mother and father, best friend and boyfriend who form part of my social capital. My mom always encourages me to do better in life and advices me on how to go about it. When I’m in need of money to buy clothes and just extras that I did budget for my father will most likely to come to my rescue. My best friend Mercia is always by my side, learning skills together like now we are attending swimming lessons together. This other time she asked me to buy her some earrings where I pass every day, and I did. I know next time she will also help me. On the other hand, my boyfriend basically does everything that my parents and friends do and more, I can rely on him to make sure I’m never bored. We go on dates every chance we get.

There is balance reciprocity amongst me and my friend. When I buy her those earrings she will give me money for it. Next time she will return the favor. I can think of a couple of times she helped me such as when I wanted to go to my boyfriend’s place for a sleepover and she told my mom I was at her house. She also accompanies me everytime I ask her and she will also ask me to go with her to run errands. We also do alot of things for fun such as going to watch a movie at the cinema, we both enjoy it. My boyfriend also falls under the balance reciprocity because we are not blood related. We share mutual feelings and support each other; we benefit somethings from each other. However, we don’t always expect for the other party to pay back after helping one another. We do it out of love and genuinely wanting to see our partner prosper and live better with us in the picture. The other one is generalized reciprocity which includes my family. My mom and dad have done so much for me such as making sure I eat; I have a somewhere to call home. I wear clothes which I can say I love, they paid for my school trips and for my school fees. In return I also run errands for them, I would go grocery shopping for them sometimes. I help them use the internet willingly and for free. I clean around the house and cook. I go to the Pakistan’s shops every day because of them.

I have a sense of being and belonging through the people in my circle. Which falls under obligation. According to the time that we take to reciprocate and the relative value shown with the people in my circle I can distinguish that my friend is in the balance reciprocity and my boyfriend is somewhere between the balanced and generalized reciprocity. My mother and father are in the generalized reciprocity.

As soon as I hear that echo sound in my dream I know its time. By the way I believe I have the loudest alarm in the world. First things first I make my bed and make sure it is neat and tidy .Now I head out to the shower and brush my teeth.

The birds are singing outside , I am feeling the fresh breeze of the air as I come back from the shower. What I do after that is lotion my body. My favorite part of getting ready is choosing an outfit however sometimes I end up wearing everything in my closet before I find something right. Most of the times i put together an outfit in my head while in the shower and it comes out just the way I imagined it.

By this time now I will be listening to my stomach making sounds. My favorite cereal is the good old corn flakes. I eat them warm with honey. There are crazy people out there who eat corn flakes with cold milk! Now for the order of the day, I will prepare my notes for class, if I don't I probably did the day before. 

After I make sure i'm ready to leave I go to the bus stop. At this point i'm observing my surroundings, that girl who is always looking pretty, that one guy who is making small talks with everyone and just what everybody else is doing. Finally my friends come by. The bus leaves and I get to a campus that is blazing hot! I see that outspoken security at the gate . i always laugh when he is around. After that I walk to class and attend the lecture.

After 2 classes that are back to back ,I am tired of listening and ready to go back to res. I go straight to the bus and somehow I will end up sleeping on the way. When I get to res I relax a little bit, make food, do my homeworks and possibly take a nap. When i wake up from my nap I study and prepare notes for my classes the following day. After that I go to sleep.

“Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter” (Achebe:1958) First of all I believe that this saying describes the condition of African countries. Secondly, The Europeans has managed to identify us as primitive and themselves as better and civilized. Now even when some kind of civilization has been reached, we still experience some kind of exoticization. When will the perception change?

“Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter” It is always the loudest voices that get trusted for their information source. African countries are represented in one way by Europeans to make them inferior to them. The rest of the world knows Africa according to the Europeans perception.

Europeans have managed to identify us as primitive and themselves as civilized Just because something is foreign to you it does not mean it is not right. Furthermore, there are many ways they could have introduced civilization other than colonization. We are being exorcised because we are different.

Now even when some kind of civilization has been reached there is othering and exoticization from Western countries, according to Ngozi on the TED talk we are represented as one thing over and over again and that is what we become. She continues to call it a single story. No matter how we advance we will always be inferior to them and to them, we can never do anything. Most of the people in the Western counties today can’t even list 3 African countries because to them we are one thing.

I came to the conclusion that it is very important to be open minded about the world around us, we are different and should embrace it to maintain fairness and unity.