An ode to Tom
I can still hear his sound. The ripples of a carved bow scratched rhythmically with a small wooden stick. The mogwana bow, held together by a palm leaf string that he softly blows onto the melancholic hollow whistle, produces that haunting whirring sound. That was the sound of Thopo ‘Tom’ Retiyo’s music instrument called seworoworo.
Last Friday morning, an angry elephant came trumpeting and trampled on Tom at his fields at Mbiroba, near Seronga and ended his life at 53-years-old.
My path and Tom’s came together about seven years ago. We were brought together by the Okavango Delta. Tom was not just a traditional musical virtuoso who told Okavango stories through songs with seworoworo, he was a legendary mokoro poler. He was one of only four Batswana who have travelled by mekoro the entire length of the Okavango River basin from the source lake of the Cuito River in the highlands of Angola through Namibia and to where the water ends at Lake Xau, in the Makgadikgadi Pans area. The 2015 voyage was part of the highly celebrated National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project (NGOWP) fourmonth research expedition, from the unexplored sources of the Okavango River system to Makgadikgadi, where it all ended.
The expedition revealed several new species to science and many first records for Angolan biodiversity. An award-winning documentary film titled Into The Okavango (currently streaming freely for Botswana audience via YouTube) was made from that Expedition. The other polers who were part of the famed expedition were Tomeletso ‘Water’ Setlabosha from Jao Flats, as well as the Kgetho brothers, Gobonamang ‘GB’ Kgetho and the late Leilamang ‘Snaps’ Kgetho from Seronga. With the passing of Tom, only Water and GB are left from the quartet.
In 2015, when I joined the NGOWP expedition in Maun for the final stretch to Lake Xau, I was accommodated on Tom’s mokoro through the Boteti River. This was after almost four months of poling, pulling, dragging, and navigating mekoro through the river infested with hippos, crocodiles, bridges still laced with landmines, waterfalls, and rapids. They had already seen it all and so, along the way, I naturally felt safe as I had Tom on the ngashi poling.
He was one of those cautious expert polers that put the safety of his passengers first. Even when adventurous young researchers wanted to venture further into hippo territories, Tom was always cautious. He had so much respect for the beasts of the river and wilderness. He was against ‘arrogant bravery’ in the face of beasts of the river. So being poled by Tom was not nerve-racking like other agile and brave polers. Tom used to share with me amazing stories from their epic voyage through Angola and Namibia. Although some of them I found hard to believe until the other polers confirmed them, I enjoyed the stories. However, during our first expedition in 2015, I did not have a chance to see him play his musical instrument.
It was two years later in 2017 when we met during the NGOWP annual Okavango Delta transect from Mopiri to Maun when I finally met ‘Tom – the music man’. That was the year that I observed Tom make the seworoworo.
Sometimes called ‘mouth bow’, seworoworo is one of the oldest musical instruments in the world. It was used by Basarwa, the first people of the Kgalagadi and Tom loved it. During expeditions, in the evenings around the campfire, Tom would pull out his instrument and start the show. The scene of him playing seworoworo, his serious face illuminated by fire, mouth on the palm leaf string, and his right hand holding a stick rubbing onto the bow, will remain with those that had the opportunity to experience his music.
Just like the Basarwa music and chants, Tom’s music had similar minimalism. There was that repetitive yet haunting whirring and the steady drone that characterised his many songs. Tom wished to record some of his songs so that he could augment the income for his family in Seronga. He was a very charming fellow. Always quick to serve with a peal of delightful laughter, typical of most people of Ngamiland who have served in the hospitality industry.
Tom is survived by his wife and six children, four girls and two boys. He will be buried in Seronga on Monday.
Rest in peace Mkando.