Africa-Press – Botswana. The P55 million Kweneng regional museum project at Ntsweng Heritage Site will be completed by the end of August.
Updating Bakwena, Thursday during a consultative kgotla meeting, the Director of National Museum and Monuments, Phillip Segadika, said the project included a museum, an amphitheatre, a craft centre, a restaurant, a camping site and the renovation of Mma Kgosi’s house.
Segadika said the project was one of the deliverables under the National Development Plan 11. The Ntsweng Heritage Site has been identified as a tourism attraction site where many could learn about the history of Bakwena led by Kgosi Sechele I.
He said the world-class restaurant, constructed at the site, was intended to boost revenue income and help bring additional developments.
He added that government would partner with Bakwena to form a company that would run the heritage site.
He said the archeological assessment had identified that Ntsweng used to be the capital city of Bakwena back in the olden days as traditional artifacts had been found at the site.
Segadika said already seven human remains have been exhumed during construction and were taken to the national museum for safe keeping until their reburial.
“The burial sites shows the history of Bakwena and how they carried out burial during their time,” he said.
Segadika said necessary steps were taken to make sure they preserved the history of the site so that people could come and learn about the historical life of Bakwena.
He thanked the Kgosi Sechele I Museum Trust for their contribution of P5 million towards the Ntsweng heritage site construction and renovation.
He said they were yet to exhibit artefacts that portrayed the history of Bakwena.
Modirwa Kekwaletswe from Motaki, a company that had been tasked with the exhibition design of the museum asked Bakwena to assist with artefacts in their possession that could be used at the museum.
“Bakwena know their history well, and they have traditional and historical items that they could donate, rent or sell to the museum for the history to be documented forever,” he said.
He said the exhibition items among them photos, traditional items like dinkgwana and old ploughing tools were important as they portrayed the historical life of Bakwena from days of old until the present. The importance of the said artefacts will be of an advantage to the operation of the museum.
Bakwena, who came to the meeting, applauded the Department of National Museums and Monuments for the project which shall depict their historical lives.
One of them, Mpho Laolang, said he had the history of Kobokwe cave and Kgosi Kgari Sechele I’s horns which were used to ask for rain, noting that he could share the history with the museum for documentation.
Mompati Bolotsang said as Bakwena, they had the role to play in assisting the museum to present their history.
Boingotlo Shatera said he was worried that some of the artefacts were very old and would need to be refurbished to revamp their look, citing the old ploughing tools in his possession, which he said he could share with the museum.
Sarah Sechele said the museum should give women the opportunity to showcase the history of Bakwena women through the use of soil decorations to preserve that aspect of culture.
Previously in his welcome remarks, Kgosi Kgari III said the meeting was to update them on the progress of Ntsweng Heritage Site project.
He said one of his desires was to see the canon of Bakwena that sits in Mafikeng to be brought back home or at least borrowed to be used during the official opening of the heritage site.
Kgosi Kgari said the canon remained an important artefact that displayed the history of Bakwena.
The canon belonged to Kgosi Sechele and was used in the Battle of Dimawe.
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