Journal article
Decolonization Deferred: Seretse Khama Ian Khama’s Presidency and the Historical Deradicalization of ‘Culture’ as a Tool for Resistance in Botswana
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Publication Details Author list: Mosime, Sethunya Publication year: 2020 Volume number: 36 Start page: 188 End page: 209 Number of pages: 22 ISSN: 1023-1757 eISSN: 2519-5476 |
This paper takes a historical approach to explore why, since from the first President of Botswana, Sir Seretse Khama in 1965, and especially during the Presidency of his son, Seretse Khama Ian Khama in 2008, the discourse of decolonisation never found strong traction in Botswana. I suggest that the older Khama drew from the notion of culture – to invent a neo-liberalism friendly cultural hegemony that would help maintain British support for the newly independent and economically fragile state. It would also maintain the dominance of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party, and much later lay a fertile ground for the younger Khama to be ‘culturally’ accepted to take up the Presidency. Culture, defined in varying ways by the two Khamas, has been useful for entrenching and normalising inequalities, where Botswana is one of the most unequal societies in the world, with high income inequalities, high levels of gender-based violence and some of the lowest numbers of women in political leadership in Africa. It has also been useful to entrench and normalise low levels of civic participation and resistance without any strong demands for decolonisation, a fertile environment for neo-liberalism and its economic growth without transformation of livelihoods.
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