Home Entertainment The Magic of Perseverance: Memoirs of a retired Botswana politician

The Magic of Perseverance: Memoirs of a retired Botswana politician

By Monkagedi Gaotlhobogwe The Magic of Perseverance, a memoir by one of Botswana's distinguished politicians David Magang was launched to a crowd that included Gaborone's  ‘who is who’, at the retired politician's exclusive resort of Phakalane Estate last Tuesday night (July 8, 2008). The crowd included cabinet ministers, dikgosi, MPs, academics, retired civil service officials, SADC officials including his Excellency Thomas Salomao, University of Botswana vice chancellor Prof Bojosi Otlhogile, representatives of the various missions in Gaborone, and  leading CEOs of various companies. Mr. Magang is a former MP and a cabinet Minister. He is also developer of Phakalane Estates, Botswana's largest and most prestigious private-driven residential, commercial and industrial development. Mr. Magang also has the distinction of being the first citizen lawyer to go into private practice. The over 700 pages autobiography was published in Cape Town by the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS), a Pan-African centre for creating research networks in Africa and its Diaspora. Noteworthy is the fact that this is only the second memoir by a retired Botswana politician after the former President Ketumile Masire wrote his two years ago. The publisher, CASAS has an interest in promoting the production of African biographical books for cultural, historical and social reasons. "Indeed, this volume is the first in a series to be called the African Biographical Library of CASAS. It is a rattling good yarn", commented a Gaborone based official of CASAS Dr Joseph Tsonope, who works for the University of Botswana. Dr Tsonope told the audience that the memoir by Magang, " is a lesson on resolve, fortitude and indeed a study on resoluteness. It is an odyssey that chronicles trial and tribulations of Bakwena from the great Sechele I to what I call Magang the great," Dr Tsonope said. Dr Tsonope felt of the book, "….The various gyrations, movements and conflicts, the clash between western religious culture through a close encounter with death, a politician who is not complacent about Botswana's gains and instead laments how short-changed we are with our mineral wealth. This story characterises a very emotional and riveting enigma on the trials and tribulations of Mr. Magang". Speaking at the launch the author said he decided that his story was going to be told whilst he was alive, and that it is going to be told not by a historian or any other chronicler but by his own self. "A story told by third parties is just short of being fictitious. I believe a story told by the subject himself is the most truthful and therefore the most reliable. To me life is a long journey which may or may not be exciting to the traveler". "For that reason I wanted to tell the full truth regarding myself during my journey, about my experiences, my miseries and disillusionments, and my thrills and joys. In other words, I wanted my audience to get these from the horse's mouth, my mouth", Magang said. Magang's book also has some significant historical components as he pays tribute to the late Bakwena tribe leader, Sechele I.  In the book Magang opines that without Sechele I who fought and repelled the Boers out of the then Bechuanaland in the famous Boer war of 1852-53, there would have been no Botswana. The book also carries a lot of controversies too as the former politician looks back at some political decisions of the government of his time.

 

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