Thursday, December 16, 2004

Good News from Botswana



Mosadi Seboko has been appointed chief of the Baletes tribe in Botswana. Overcoming the centuries' old tradition only allowing men to become tribal leaders, Seboko leads one of the eight largest tribes in her county. Seboko, whose first name means "woman" in the local language, was opposed by members of her late father's family who promoted her male cousin for the position. In response, Seboko, backed by her mother, seven sisters, and women's rights leaders, maintained to the tribal leaders that Botswana's 38-year-old constitution guaranteeing freedom from discrimination, and not custom, should prevail according to the New York Times.


Very nice. Too bad that we here in the U.S. appear to be sliding in the other direction: into more and more traditions and ole time ways of doing things. And yes, if you didn't get the secret message of this post, I'm fighting to try to get Christmas totally debunked. Or that's how a wingnut would read this post.

I'm not against traditions, actually. Many traditions are wonderful, such as worshipping snake goddesses. But unexamined copying of old mistakes is not, and here the Botswanans are showing us a better way of doing traditions.