P6m cultural centre for Xere
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Sunday September 24, 2023 06:00
This was jointly revealed by both Vice President Slumber Tsogwane and the Acting Minister of Environment and Tourism, Mabuse Pule during the Xere Cultural Festival held over the weekend.
Officiating during the festival, Tsogwane said the cultural centre will have well-defined access roads to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) and Makgadikgadi and Nxai.
He said they were switching from wildlife-based tourism the country is accustomed to, to one that showcases their culture. “Considering the location of Xere, we as the government intend to engage our partners to position Xere and its resources to be the gateway to the CKGR and to the neighbouring Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans National Park (MNPNP) as well as to the pristine Okavango Delta and the Chobe area.
The intention is to integrate and mainstream cultural tourism thus making Botswana a destination of choice by 2030 and beyond as espoused in the Revised Tourism Policy of 2021,” Tsogwane said.
Furthermore, Tsogwane said the Xere Cultural Festival was aimed at promoting the culture and the heritage of the Basarwa people. He also said he perceived it would go a long way to ensure socio-economic development in Xere and Boteti at large. Tsogwane added that culture was an intrinsic component to the life of every Motswana, saying it goes without saying that Sesarwa culture was one of the richest cultures not only in Botswana but also in Southern Africa as a whole. “Not only do we want to celebrate this rich culture, but we want to turn it into a resource that the people of the Sesarwa origin can exploit and derive economic benefits from.
As we embrace technological growth and development into the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), we would not want to lose our very beautiful and diverse cultures as a nation. We live to realize the aspirations of our forefathers; just like our First President of the Republic of Botswana once said, “Tshaba e senang ngwao ke tshaba e latlhegileng,” he said.
For his part, Pule said the construction of the centre is envisaged to start in a few months. Pule said the Xere Cultural Festival was intended to be an annual event that would be a component of a proposed Xere Cultural Centre. He added that the centre would be a state-of-the-art cultural centre that would be the first one of its kind in Botswana adding that it would be run and managed by the people of Xere through the Xere Community Trust.
“Some members of the Xere community have been sent on an internship programme at !Khwa-Ttu; a cultural centre in Cape Town, South Africa to ensure that the residents of Xere are fully prepared to manage their own centre as soon as it becomes operational.
All this was with the support and partnership between the government and the United Nations Development Programme through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme which provided funding of about P500,000 for phase one of the project,” he said.