KalahariLog

We are back from Germany. While getting lost on the highways of South Africa, I was thinking about the well sign-posted roads and street in Gaborone. There are nice signs, nearly on every intersection of major roads and often on tiny little alleys as well. This is all good, until one finds out that nobody knows any street names. Nobody giving you directions will use the street names. When they tell me "go straight and then make a left at the light and then I ask "which left -- on Independence or on Pula", people don't even seem to know that one of the streets that they are telling me to turn left on is indeed either Independence or Pula. Most instructions include markers: "go past Pick and Pay but turn before Orapa House" or "go straight through the roundabout and then look out for the Cash and Carry ".

I am not sure when the street names came into being but it couldn't have been too long ago (as there were no street names until 1966) or too recently, as they probably wouldn't name one of the main streets Mobuto Drive. Indeed the major streets are named after African statesmen. Hailie Sellasie Rd is named after the Ethiopian emperor, also known as "The Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, King of Kings and Elect of God" who ruled for 44 years and was a very controversial character. Nkrumah Rd is named after Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, overthrown in 1966 in an alleged CIA coup. Near our flat is the intersection of Machel Dr and Kaunda Dr. Machel bears the name of Samora Machel, Mozambique's first president. His presidency also ended abruptly in 1986 in a plane crash in the Lebombo mountains, with suspicions that the South African apartheid regime was somehow involved. After many troubled year, Mozambique is becoming a tourist destination. Kenneth Kaunda was the first president of Zambia, a neighbor of Botswana with the shortest border -- 0 (the two countries meet at a point in the north, together with Namibia and Zimbabwe). He helped a newly independent Botswana and its new president, Seretse Khama, who, of course, has his own street. Of all the African presidents that I know about, Sir Seretse Khama (he was knighted in the 70's) has the most fairy-tale story, including marrying a white woman in the 40's, exile, chieftainship, independence, first presidency, and knighthood.

Nelson Mandela Drive is probably the widest street in town. One of the few Nobel Laureates from Africa (the others I know are all for literature) is still alive in South Africa and the last I heard an NGO raising money had a lottery for contributors, the winner of which would get to have tea with the man himself! A little known bit of trivia is that as a member of Congress, Dick Cheney voted against a congressional resolution calling for Mandela's release from prison. Not far from there is Mobuto road, named after the infamous dictator of Zaire. In 1965 Joseph Mobuto Sese Seko was inflicted on the former Belgian Congo, then The Republic of Congo, then Zaire, and now the Democratic Republic of Congo. As in many African countries, when the democratically elected Patrick Lumumba started social reforms, the west supported the Army chief Mobuto, known for his leopard-skin hat and public hangings . He was forced out in 1997 by another strongman, Kabila. Tanzania's president, Julius Nyerere also has a street in town. He became the first president of the newly formed country, after the Sultan of Zanzibar was overthrown in 1964. He seems to have been better than Mobuto and, in fact, the Catholic church in Tanzania has started applied for beatification (the first step on the way to official sainthood)! Gambia's first president, Sir Dawda Jawara is also honored with a street that borders the University (together with Mobuto). He seems to have been a good guy but he was almost overthrown in a coup while attending Lady Diana's wedding in 1981 and the second time they tried in 1994 they did manage to throw him out.