Realising your Potential’ marked BOT50 Celebrations

The National Human Resource Development Strategy’s (NHRDS) mantra – ‘Realising your Potential’ came alive at the just-ended independence celebrations held at the National Stadium on the 29 and 30 September.

Citizens – the elderly and young alike came together in a jubilant mood to witness the colourful displays that provided entertainment for the spectators, all thanks to the talents lying in our very own children, truly the future of Botswana. The shows hogged adjectives such as ‘Brilliant’, ‘Awesome’, ‘Spectacular’ in the headlines of major newspapers, mainly because Botswana has underestimated her own talents to put up impressive displays, always relying on entertainers from outside on major events.

The HRDC is the driver of the NHRDS – to ensure that each citizen exploits gifts that lie within and to unleash such talents in discovering potential needed to progress the nation. In ‘Realising your Potential’, what is necessary for every citizen is to embrace personal responsibility – an equivalent of ‘Mokodua-go-tsoswa-o-itekang’ to lessen overdependence on government to earn a living.

It was clear from the displays that our local boys and girls drawn from the local schools had invested enough hours into their rehearsals. While the disciplined forces are used to impressing large audiences every year during their institutions’ commemoration events – the breath-taking shows were made up of  the school children, who came in assortment of colours, patterns, shapes and forms that communicated in a crisp manner the theme of the golden jubilee celebrations as a ‘United and Proud Nation’.

The well-choreographed show of calisthenics dismantled the barriers between children attending elite and public schools and broke down the walls between the poor and wealthy neighbourhoods. Under the same instructions, the participants lived out the theme to its fullness. They performed ‘Tsutsube’ from the San hunting expedition, ‘Hosanna’ from the Kalanga rainmaking ritual and ‘Phathisi’ representing the song-dance of the Tswana-speaking tribes – an expression of a ‘united-in-diversity’ that the nation Botswana truly is. The performers made sure to include the contemporary youth vibes in all formats from ‘Hip-hop’, ‘House’ to ‘Kwaito’. As some danced the celebrations away, others packed the ‘Panda’ stand, each hoisting a piece to open one page at a time – according to the instructions, chronicling the humble beginnings of Botswana in pictorials all the way to the present.

From the onlookers’ vantage point, the diversity and unity of Botswana was cast out, quite inclusive of political persuasions present in this country through the depiction of luminaries that contributed to the making of a nation. But it was the precision with which the beats, the moves and the pages were done that truly unleashed the potential of every Motswana who was involved in the artistic display to keep revellers entertained on their toes.

News Date: 
Friday, September 30, 2016