Fun with Setswana

As part of our PST we have 120 hours of language training. Setswana and English are the national languages of Botswana and life is easier if we know both. Being confident in our English abilities, we get 120 hours of Setswana. I won’t try to go in depth and tell you about the language; I’m still untangling it myself. I will tell you some things I enjoy about Setswana that also help give some perspective on the culture here:

1) Dumela. It would be un-Motswana of me to start with anything but dumela. Dumela is the greeting here: THE greeting. Everyone must be greeted. You are considered very rude if you pass someone (unless maybe in a city or large town) and don’t greet them. If you want to ask someone a question in the supermarket, or an office, it’s important to greet them first. As one Motswana speaker put it in training: “greeting someone is acknowledging that they are not a tree”. This belief is tied in with the word:

2) Batho. Batho literally means: I am because you are. The culture of Botswana is extremely communal.  By greeting someone you’re acknowledging them as being: as existing.

3) Monna and Mosadi. Monna: man/husband. Mosadi: woman/wife. If you say “my man” you’re saying “my husband”, and vice versa. What fascinates me about this is that it speaks to the culture. In Botswana you are considered a “youth” until you’re 35 years old. In the language you cannot be what we would consider an adult (man/women) until you are married. Before then, you’re still considered a child.  This also is interesting to me because if gives insight as to why some young women have struggled to be treated as professionals here: technically, we’re still children.

I’ll try to post more “Fun with Setswana” when I riddle more out. . .