Volume 51 Issue 5 - May 2013 : Heritage

Heritage and Clay

The urban young today are likely to be astonished were they to be told that people, not so very long ago, were so extraordinarily self sufficient that they had only a small need for costly imported materials. Their houses could be built virtually cost free with the walls constructed with worked clays, the roofing timbers made from locally growing trees and the roof itself from suitable grasses.  The container vessels that were used for keeping water cold and for holding bojalwa were also made from clays, plates (megopo) were made from wood, harvested cereals were stored in granaries made variously of clay or woven reeds and grasses, and were sifted using baskets also made from the same materials. A number of commonly used tools (such as tekespan) were made of wood or were long sticks which could be used to pull dead branches down from trees or to push back thorny growth during de-bushing so that an axe could chop the stem. Animal horns and bones were used asquasi-musical instruments and both clay and wood were utilized to make a variety of playthings by and for children, such as their ubiquitous figurines of cattle made from clay, the traditional mantadile made from wood, and more recently clay as used for modern craft purposes.

The point of course is that all the materials then used to sustain life were freely derived from the local environment. Of those materials, the appropriate grasses today are still more or less available and used, although much is now imported from South Africa, imported wood is almost certainly more used than the raw, untreated woods that are locally available and clays have almost everywhere been replaced by cement. This means that preference for clays as a building material has been dramatically reduced in the last thirty or forty years. The inevitable result has been that in many communities, understanding about this material and the ways that it can and cannot be used which was formerly so widespread, is fast being lost. Unfortunately little information has been made available about the joint government and University of Botswana`s programme to record cultural knowledge throughout the country. It can probably be assumed that this very ambitious programme will include each community`s knowledge of the natural resources that are available to it for a variety of its needs and the uses, not least medicinal, that can be made of them.  It seems unlikely, however, that this survey will go further to record from older ladies the techniques that were involved in constructing an earth wall, the materials that were needed, the required mix of materials, the preparation involved and most importantly, the sources from which people obtained their required materials. Were, one day, an attempt be made to record this information, it would also be sensible to describe the way that recognized problems were avoided – in other words, record the sort of mishaps that were likely to occur were short cuts to be taken. Unfortunately these are almost bound to happen today when younger women attempt to make a traditional wall. Two small examples will help to make this point clear. The first and most likely outcome will be that the wall will simply collapse. A second problem, if it remains standing, is that the first rain will encourage the seeds embedded in it to germinate and their roots will quickly displace great chunks of the wall. .

It can always be argued that today`s cement brick or block is an infinitely more durable product than the sun baked brick – but I have had the job of demolishing a traditionally made wall which was probably erected around a hundred years ago – and it was frustratingly indifferent to the blows of a 12lb hammer. It can also be argued that the oldies were able to provide only the one standardized building product which clearly met everyone`s needs – but you have only to look around to see that although people today have so many options available to them, they end up with buildings of similar design simply because they wish to imitate what others have done. Curiously the imitation factor today is evident both in traditional towns and villages but also in a place such as Phakalane.

But if anyone is still in doubt about the value of clay as a building material, take a quick look at the many remarkable, and historically notable, buildings in many parts of Africa and note the thousands of homes that are still being built of clay soils. Here, the clays, as building materials, are now one major element of the country`s unregretted past and no longer feature in any of its supposedly comprehensive housing programmes. It does not feature in any government or commercial builders or architects programme. Rejected today, it also has no understood role in the past with no lobby group arguing its cause. It falls within no currently acceptable grouping. It is not routinely regarded as being part of any culture, it isn`t understood as being a part of any traditional belief, it is only awkwardly seen as falling within the embrace of heritage and it sits uncomfortably with historical sites and monuments.  Inevitably, therefore, it must be understood that those who today wish to learn how this country used or even today still uses its clays will be driven back for information on its archival sources. But a few windows still exist for those for those who understand the extraordinary riches that this country has derived from its past.  In Tsetsebjewe there are still beautifully decorated, earth walled, patterned, malwapa. In Mochudi, there are still a few surviving magnificent traditional granaries (difala), here and there can still be found the humble but magnificent seboa (threshing area), and beautiful traditionally made pottery. And in Kanye, beautiful, lovely Kanye, there is still at least one magnificent surviving example of the way that clay has been used to make a lelapa wall of extraordinary dimensions. But drawing attention to places of special interest can so often result in eventually destroying what had made them so special because all the varied structures made of clay, the rondavels, granaries, malwapa walls and so on will be privately owned and therefore not routinely open to visitors.  And, as far as I know, the only publicly owned clay structures that can be inspected by visitors are the rondavel at the National Museum which, curiously, was built by the Chinese, and the more convincing and genuine models at the Kgari Sechele Museum in Molepolole.ENDS

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