| Summary: | A thesis submitted to the faculty of Arts
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,
in fulfilment of the requirements for the
Decree of Waster of Arts.
Johannesburg 1981 === This dissertation is a descriptive study of ideology and
the different cultural appropriations of the past or of
traditional values in Yochudi village, Botswana. The
status and meaning of traditional values in relation to
the emerging class structures in third world countries
and in relation to social change in general has long heen
neclected or one-sidedly interpreted. Yochudi, the large
capital village of the Rakoatla people with a population
of approximately 20 000, was chosen for an area of study
in this field because it constituted a community
characterised on the one hand by the ossification of
traditional modes of production, and on the other by an
entrenched migrant labour situation. It was particularly
within this socio-economic context that traditional
values were to he assessed.
The methods employed in the assessment of these values
included participant observation, interviews, collection
of case histories, collection of songs and poetry, a
questionnaire and the consultation of relevant literature.
Major conclusions which were reached in the dissertation
were firstly, the fact that traditional values continue
to be of importance to most sectors of the population.
These values, however, cannot be rigidly associated with
any particular emerging class or class fraction. Rather
traditional values are appropriated differently by all
groups. For example the Government utilizes traditional
conceptions to legitimize its position. Other villagers
on the other hand, use these ideas to criticize Government
policy. The appropriation of traditional ideas is
further complicated by the internalization of a colonial
negative self-concept on the part of other villagers.
In this instance tradition and the mast are negated and
the ways of Sekgoa* or the typifications of the ways of
the white man are emulated and exalted.
Apart from these conflicts which cut right across the
society there also exists an inter-generational conflict
which manifests itself in ideological discourse in the
following way. Young people are at pains to negate the
past in the hope of entering a modernized way of life.
Older people on the other hand, having fully experienced
the limitations involved in the migrant labour situation,
insist that the village provides ultimate security and
they therefore uphold traditional values. This negation
of the past on the part of the young is accompanied by
their exodus to the cities in Botswana and South Africa.
Given the fact that this study is confined to one
particular village in Botswana, it is not possible to
generalize its findings on a larger scale to Botswana as
a whole. However it has attempted to isolate specific
problems and areas for study. Also insofar as the
village is situated within a general social context and
is subject to general social and economic forces, the
study is not without relevance to Botswana as a whole.
*Sekoga literally means "the ways of the English". The
term implies the so-called "way of life" and cultural horizon of the "white man".
|
|---|
