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Anti-hunting laws kill Basarwa marriage

Gothataone Moeng
Staff Writer

Basarwa in the Gantsi District have a bone to chew with government because its department of wildlife and national parks' regulations contribute to low rates of marriage within their population.



For the Basarwa, marriage is a no-frills matter that does not necessarily need registration or taking an oath before a District Commissioner (DC). All a Mosarwa man has to do is hunt and bring to his prospective bride's family a steenbok (phuduhudu), eland (phofu) or a tortoise and the couple will be regarded as married.

However, the Basarwa in Gantsi say hunting legislation prevent them from hunting these animals, and therefore from marrying. Findings from a study conducted in 2009 and 2010 by Tsholofelo Lejowa, who was then Gantsi District population officer, show that Basarwa point to this encroachment of government laws onto their traditions as a causal factor of dying rates of marriage.

Other causes mentioned by the different tribes interviewed include cohabitation, high divorce rates and passion killings, which scare marriageable people off the institution.

Lejowa, now principal communal resources coordinator at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), presented findings from the study on Thursday at the national conference on marriage patterns and trends.

The study was undertaken in a bid to understand the causes of low rates of marriages in the Gantsi area, which Lejowa said, were lower (between 2000 and 2008) than those in other districts in Botswana.

The study interviewed people between the ages of 18-24 years, and those 30 and above, and also conducted interviews with "key informants" like dikgosi, church leaders and councillors.

Seven localities, which have different cultural populations, were chosen to represent the district population. These were Charleshill, Makunda, Grootlagte, Chobokwane, D'Kar, Gantsi Township and New Xade.

The study also found that cohabitation is one of the major contributory factors. "Cohabitation is rampant in Gantsi," Lejowa said, adding that people cohabit for convenience, for economical reasons and use cohabitation as a trial marriage.

A significant number of undocumented marriages were also discovered, with few cases of civil marriages among the Basarwa and Baherero in the district, with the majority of registered marriages in the district being among the Bakgalagadi. For their part, the Baherero, who traditionally arranged marriages for their children while they (children) were young, have pointed towards children's rights as a cause of low marriage rates within the tribe.

Because of children's rights, they can no longer arrange marriages for their children, they say.

Giving her remarks after the presentation, Assistant Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Dr Gloria Somolekae, said the results of the study showed that although society is concerned about low rates of marriages, they do not know the extent of the problem.

"Until we embrace multiculturalism in its entirety, we will continue to leave other Batswana behind," she said in relation to the Basarwa dilemma.

"These kinds of needs are either trivialised or hidden from the development agenda." The national conference on marriage trends and patterns was held with the objectives of determining factors contributing to changing marriage levels, as well as to find ways of promoting the institution of marriage in Botswana.