-4381502762250666756572255676900NAME; THEODORE MORUPISIID NO; 201100394DOMBOSHABA is a cultural and heritage site in Botswana located between Vukwi and Kalakamati Villages.
This site is approximately ten (10) kilometers from Masunga village. The Domboshaba site mainly consists of dry stonewalls and is basically an Iron Age site which was occupied towards the end of Great Zimbabwe period (1250-1450). It was a regional centre in the Khami phase (1450-1690AD), (Sipambe, 2006).The name Domboshaba means ‘The hill of trade’. It is in Shona, made up of names Dombo and Shaba with ‘Dombo’ meaning hill and ‘shaba’ meaning trade. However some sources believe Domboshaba refers to ‘The red hill’.
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During excavations at the site, Chinese celadon porcelain were recovered showing that Domboshaba was involved in East African trading. The early Bakalaka people at Domboshaba monopolised trade until around AD 1220 when a new and more powerful kingdom developed around Mapungubwe Hill to the east. There is general consensus that some of the early Bakalaka ethnic group living in the lower Shashe Limpopo valley moved towards or became part of this newly formed kingdom. The Domboshaba site is an open site with more than 8 hectares.
At the site, we find remains of several dakha house floors made up of mixture of soil and cow dang spread across the site. These floors were made with soils that had a high ratio of clay to gravel. It is believed that the house floors were fired to strengthen them so they may last for a longer period.It is also believed that the Domboshaba chief lived stayed at the top of the hill alongside his religious advisors and his helpers or assistances.
His wives, children and family stayed below the hill. Since the ruins are outdoors, many of the delicate artifacts that were found there were taken to the National Museum in Gaborone for preservation. Most of what you will see are the remains of the floors, Milling stones, the Dakar enclosures used as rooms, the dried stone walls.3143256905625Fig 1, showing the Milling stone which was used to grind tobacco and sorghum.3086100193357500-66675026606500Figure 2a: showing stone walls at the Domboshaba site . .
Figure 2.b; showing the dry stones at the site bonded together without . MortarFigure 3. Showing remains of dakhar floor, made from mixture of soil and cow dung.
Although the site is under the threat of deterioration, the stone walls and the site still hold an aesthetic value. The Domboshaba site shows great beauty which makes it aesthetic to its owners and other people due to its landscape also the fact that the site is surrounded by hills which were used as a form of security during the reigns of Domboshaba. (Daily news 2018) The dakha floors also makes the site exquisite. Domboshaba ruins carries sacred and spiritual values to the Bakalanga people. They believe the site is a place where they can reconnect with their ancestors and their god. Groups of people like the Wosana group, visit the site to pray for rain to the Supreme Being.
They would dance, sing, give praise and worship to the gods, asking for rain so they can plough. The Bakalanga ethnic group together with their families normally visit the site for spiritual advices, healing and cleansing. They would travel to the site around December or towards the end of the year to give thanks to their supreme being ‘Mwali’ for taking care of them, looking after them as well as providing for them that year and would also ask for more blessings the following year.According to Tlatlane, the Domboshaba site is a national heritage monuments which has medicinal plants, spiritual importance and are sites where rainmaking ceremonies are performed. People entering these places are adviced to show respect to the site and that failure to do so may attract bad luck and will receive punishment from the ancestors. Victoria Falls 2011 website writes that Domboshaba is used as a sacred site for local communities. There are annual ceremonies conducted at the site.
Victoria Falls websites suggests that the Domboshaba also served as a Njelele (a shrine) at which the great creator, fearful and only God Mwali was worshipped. As a Njelele, Batumwa ba Mwali that is to say Mwali’sThis magnificent site is also a tourism attraction destination. People move from their respective homes to see the amazing stone walls, tombs, as well as the well that never dries up which the Domboshaba chiefdom used as a source of water.
They used the water from the well for domestic usage-drinking and washing and for irrigation. Tourists and other locals including people all over Botswana also visit Domboshaba, for the cultural event/festival that takes place annually to learn and equip themselves with the history of the Bakalanga ethnic group. The site or the festival is also a source of foreign exchange. When tourists come all the way from their countries to Domboshaba out of curiosity of the site and history of its people, they bring along with them their money or currency, ideas and also arts, or artifacts.The site also possess educational values as the site has been researched on a lot. People who are curious about the Bakalanga history may go to the site and also attend the Domboshaba Cultural Festival.
There is a tour guide at the Domboshaba site who guides and inform people about the site, there are also Museum boards at the site clearly explaining the tangible aspects of the site eg Milling stone, which was used to grind tobacco and maize, and also the remains of the dakha floors which are made of mixture of soil and cow dung. At the festival one may learn the intangible cultural heritage of the site which are basically the practices, representation, expressions as objects and artifacts of the early Bakalang group during the reign of Domboshaba. (UNESCO 2003)Domboshaba Cultural Trust hosts the Domboshaba Cultural Festival every year celebrating promoting and showing preservation of the heritage of the Bakalanga people, through culture, food and language. According to the spokesman of the Trust, the trust was formed mainly to preserve and promote the Ikalanga heritage as well as to educate mainly the youth to take part and take pride in their language and culture, as gives an individual a sense of belonging.
He further went on to say that culture should be preserved so that the future generation may also find it and also have a sense of belonging and be able to place themselves in the world. This year 2018, the theme was Linguistic diversity and multilingualism: keystones of sustainable development sustainable development, in Ikalanga Shingisa ye ndimi dzakathubukana, tshinde le dwililo mbeli. Basically culture is dynamic so the theme for this year encourages individuals, especially the youth to familiarize themselves with different kinds of languages and practices of different societies and culture to preserve and conduct natural resources without depletion leaving them for the future generation. Although at the festival Ikalanga was the primary language used, with a bit of translations in Setswana, it is fair to say the Domboshaba Cultural Festival is not only restricted to the Bakalaka rather to everybody interested in learning or equipping themselves with the Kalanga practices, customs, history and culture. The use of Ikalanga was to encourage the Kalanga youth who do not know the language to learn it as it is their culture, and heritage.UNESCO recognizes the need to raise awareness and as well as educate people about cultural manifestations and expressions about Intangible Cultural Heritage therefore UNESCO passed a Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage Dances in 2003 during their conference and music are amongst the intangible aspects of the cultural heritage of the Bakalanga ethnic group. The main aim of this Convention is to safeguard and protect the uses, expressions, knowledge and techniques communities recognize as an integral part of their cultural heritage.
Intangible heritage is found in forms of Oral traditions, performing arts, festival events as well as traditional craftsmanship.At the festival the aspects of Intangible Cultural Heritage were displayed through performances. The Ndazula musical aspect is normally performed after a very good harvest as a way of thanking the gods for the food and for a good harvest.
The Ndazula is normally performed whenever there is something to celebrate for, it symbolizes happiness, joy. It is also performed at wedding ceremonies for the Bakalanga ethnic group, drinking sessions (traditional beer) and other ceremonies were the ethnic group praises themselves amongst themselves. There was also dance performance of the diwosana. Diwosana is basically a traditional dance performed by the Bakalanga people.
The traditional performers, invite their ancestors through dance and praise to ask and pray to Mwali, for rain. It is a rain making dance. The word wosana, is a Kalanga term used to describe an old and wise person, therefore the traditional dance was adopted or inherited from the fore Bakalanga forefathers. It was passed from generation to generation. The dancers of diwosana traditional dance usually dance in groups and they would were black skirts and white tops with long strings of beads with different colours as necklaces.There were also musical and lyrical performances respectable members of the Kalanga community singing, dancing and praising the Domboshaba site. I personally enjoyed Ndingo Johwa’s song about Domboshaba, were he was singing -in Kalanga that he is at Domboshaba crashing tobacco for the chief using the milling stone.
There was also performances from Dwililombeli Choral Group, Nlapkhwani Cultural Group, Barolo Cultural Group. There were also Poetry praising Domboshaba site, their ancestors and also the Bakalanga culture. Among the poets was Unopa Khole whose masterpiece was extraordinary and had the crowd applauding loudly with anticipation for more.433387546863000-6667537592000 Figure 4.1.
Diwosana traditional group performing at the Domboshaba Cultural Festival 2018. Figure 4.2. Ndingo Johwa and I shaking hands after his performance ‘sunset . at Dombodhaba’ What intrigued me the most was that all the performances were performed in Kalanga language, which reflected the theme of 2018 ‘Linguistic diversity and multilingualism: keystones of sustainable development sustainable development’.
The UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Section’s Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages states that language diversity is essential to the human heritage, which means that every language has unique cultural wisdom of people. Loss of any language, is loss of the humanity, UNESCO document 2003). Through the consistence use of their language one can conclude that the Bakalang ethnic group are proud of their culture.
The Bakalaka also sang the Botswana National Anthem in Kalanga.Food at the festival was exquisite. They prepared their staple food. They prepared delele, zengwe, phaleche, mogodu, seswaa, etc. The food prepared at the festival are not every day meal that a home stead eats on a daily basis. They are normally prepared during special occasions such as festivals, family gatherings, weddings. I was disappointed because I expected they would prepare phane in bulk as it is believed to be one of their main stable food, but I understand though because it would have required a large amount of phane.
There was a gallery displaying craftsmanship. I noticed airplanes, choppers made out of out of wood and sculptures of people and animals, mainly wild animals. The sculptures of people is believed to resemble their ancestors and their chiefs. The skill used is unique, mostly probably because special and unique tools were used to make the artifacts, instead of using more complex machinery such as, eg wood turning lathe to mike their kika le motshe they used their every own manufactured tools to produce the prototypes.2971800144780000-209550409575 Picture showing display of craftsmanship of the Bakalanga tribe, showing airplanes and kika le motshe-morta and .
pistil Fig 5. Showing Bantolo performing Mokomoto at the Domboshaba site. Fig 5.1 Clothing and attire are one of the Intangible Cultural Heritage aspects.
Figure 5.1 shows the University of Botswana students, Heritage Management in their African attire. REFERENCESBarrio, Maria Jose del, Devesa, Maria and Herrero, Luis Cesar, 2012. ‘Evaluating intangible cultural heritage; the case of cultural festivals’, City, Culture and Society (3): 235-244.UNESCO, 2003. Convention for safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), Paris: UNESCO.
Republic of Botswana, 2018. Domboshaba. Refer to http://www.gov.
bw/en/Visitors/Topics/Monuments/DomboshabaChef Gustos, Domboshaba lodge, Personal communication 29, September 2018https://www.facebook.com/domboshabafestivalhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DomboshabaTlatlane, T.
R. (2017). Creating a better tourist experience through the presentation and interpretation of World Heritage Values in Botswana, issue 6, pp.1-5.
Victoia Falls.com, 2011. Domboshaba Celebration Set to Reach New Heights
