Bakgatla Earthenware Pottery Making Skills on display
An 8- day selling exhibition of earthenware pottery at Phuthadikobo Museum in Mochudi came to a close yesterday ( July 28th). The pots that were exhibited were made by locals from three categories – students from Modipane Primary School; Out- Of- School Youths; Form 5 Molefi Secondary School students and Senior Citizens ( Master Potters). During the official opening of the exhibition on July 21st, all these groups were displayed and accordingly presented with their prize monies for their efforts. The whole purpose of the project is to safeguard the earthenware pottery making skill of the Bakgatla- Ba- Kgafela community in the Kgatleng District. This skill has been identified as one of the critical intangible cultural heritage of the Bakgatla Ba Kgafela with research tracing its wide use to the great migration of this community from Saulspoort ( Moruleng) in South Africa in the 1870’ s to Mochudi, Botswana. At that time until the late 1980’ s earthenware pots adorned almost every household in Mochudi and were used for storing water, cooking as well as for brewing Bojalwa jwa Setswana. With the advent of modernity and Mochudi with its proximity to the cosmopolitan capital city, Gaborone, this rare skill of making earthenware pots began to gradually disappear. According to research conducted by the Kgatleng District Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee on this element in 2010, only four master potters were discovered in the district whilst many others had abandoned the skill. It was further found that the element was no longer accorded the respect and regard it used to command and worst of all, it was on the brink of extinction with households encroaching on the sources of the soil resources ( letsopa) required for making the pots. According to Lesego Pearl Maano the Secretary of the Kgatkeng District ICH Committee, that’s when it was decided that this element should be protected under the 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage through UNESCO’s List of ICH in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. She said that the nomination was then accepted by the State Parties to the 2003 Convention in 2010, hence in 2917 Phutadikobo Museum applied for funding from UNESCO to implement he Safeguarding Plan of the element and was successful. That is when some 17 out- of- school youth that exhibited a readiness to practice the skill were trained. The current project entailed rigorous training with participants taken through a