MMEGI/THE REPORTER (Gaborones, Botswana) 12 December 06 Botswana: Batswana And the Serpent Mythology (Monkagedi Gaotlhobogwe)
The recent archaeological findings in Tsodilo indicate that the earliest man worshipped a snake-like thing as god as far back as 70 000 years ago.
The findings, by Prof. Sheila Coulson, from the University of Oslo, have put Botswana on the map as the most probable place where humankind first started religion. Interestingly, to most Tswana culture today, the serpent still remains one of the most feared gods.
Modipe Hill, just a stone's throw from Gaborone, is one mystic hill believed to be inhabited by a snake god. The hill is revered so much that people never climb it. It is believed that only powerful traditional doctors would dare go up there. In Maunatlala, in Tswapong North, Kgosupo, a gorge on the hill, is known to be inhabited by a mystic serpent called Kgwanyape. Maunatlala people believe that Kgwanyape usually shows its anger by causing violent winds that can go on roaring for days destroying buildings and trees. In 1987, for instance, when the village, along with its neighbouring environs, experienced violent winds that went on for more than a week, a secondary school teacher, who happened to be from the US was blamed for the disaster.
The teacher, who was known in the village only as Thotha, was said to have gone up to Kgosupo, found Kgwanyape's babies, and took them away. Laughable as the allegations seemed, there seemed to be a general consensus amongst the residents of the village, and the surrounding areas that the snake gods had been angered.
The Kgosupo area is perceived by traditional doctors as the source of their spiritual powers. In Moremi village, still in Tswapong, mystic snakes are often considered as incarnations of the gods of the land.
The village is awash with stories of mystic snakes that gave of government and private company workers a hard time when they first tried to construct roads, as well as a borehole, in the village.
It is believed that it was not until the village elders intervened and appeased the gods that the first borehole was completed. In Matolwane, not far way from Moremi and Maunatlala, elders say that the local hill used to be inhabited by the snake gods who moved about in the shape of a reed. However, anyone can still go up and down the hill.
Motloutse Hill, one of the highest hills in the region, is situated near Mogapi, but its car-like shape can still be seen from Matolwane, more than 60 km away. Growing up in Matolwane village, as young boys, we were fascinated by the car-shaped hill and used to talk about it. But the elders would warn us against pointing at the hill, Reason? They said it had magical powers because of the snake god who resided there.
In Kanye, some 60 km south west of Gaborone, residents believe that in the Mmakgodumo Dam inhabits a mystic creature that looks like a woman on the upper body and a snake in the lower body. The creature is feared, as people believe it possesses the power of death.
According to scientists, this obsession with the snake god has been there for some 70 000 years and it is perhaps the oldest known religion. Before the archaeological findings at the Rhino Cave in Tsodilo, the oldest religion was known to be just 40 000 years old.
At the Tsodilo Hill, scientists discovered a chamber believed to have been used by a priest, who could have spoken without being seen, giving the impression that it was the snake speaking. She said the findings meant that humans were more organised and had the capacity for abstract thinking at a much earlier point in history than previously assumed. Interestingly, some Batswana, who worked as miners in South Africa, had their own interpretations of the mining disasters that took place there. It was common to hear the former miners claiming that the disasters were bound to happen because the Boers paid the snake god late.
Batswana And the Serpent Mythology