Horn Vessel; Tumbler; Kopi; Bekere

Item

Title

Horn Vessel; Tumbler; Kopi; Bekere

Creator

Unrecorded

Description

Physical Description: Horn tumbler, brown and cream coloured with a marble-like effect created by the natural colouring of the horn. The exterior is decorated with incised stripes and zigzags around the rim. The base is a disc of dark wood.
Contextual Description: 01:59:15 [discussion in Tswana]SL: We were looking at this beaker, or a drinking vessel, and he says no, they never used to make these. What they used for drinking here was calabashes.
He now went on the explain when there was like a beer party, the woman who brews this traditional beer will reserve a whole pot for members of the family, and this offering was called Letsupe
RHH: For her family?
SL: Yeah, for her family, the uncles and… the offering was called Letsupe. Even though she would have something that she would be selling to other customers, this would be offered free of charge to the uncles and the other relatives. And I just told him that in Serowe where I come from there is a similar practice but the offering is called Leparo and he said it’s the same thing.
Because if you are going to sell or doing something like that you expect blessings from your elders, you know the ones that you need to make them happy and something fine will happen to you. You will sell more and make more money. Transcription by KL of MAC_BB_20190817_RPM3 SL Interview with Tshupo Ntono, Village Elder, Language: Setswana with English translations by SL, 2019
Contextual Description: SL 37:00
I don't know, if the guy is rich he can store gunpowder in there...

GK 37:38
its like beautiful leather.

SL 37:42
So they were making tumblers

WT 37:44
I think we need something like that. It's a new it's um, it's an old innovation that we don't know now.

GK 37:52
Then later,... the calabashes, the calabashes and then the kopi

SL 37:58
the Calabashes...see that period This was copying the bazungu's table one.. Yeah, this was copying the bazungu's table where the calabash was what was used before...

WT 38:15
That I do understand but this is also unique and really know where it came from

SL 38:23
It was something copied from there.

SL 41:51
This side [of the country]...the word kopi which is a cup will be more common. Then as you go south of Botswana, the word bekere would be more common among the Ba-Kgatla and other tribes Those who have had more… what you call with the Afrikaans…

SL 42:59
a tumbler or a beaker or a scooper that we use in our setswana thing was known as sego but that's like a one made out of a ke-eng. Like a gourd (ke leka go tlhalosa tiriso ya teng gone sene se bereka go kgantsa = I am trying to explain the use of it because it works to explain or describe it) cos maybe early on it was used as a cup, scoop water with it, you can drink even when you go to the to the river to get water from the [seeping?] well, like normal [??] you'd be using that sego to get that, scoop water with and collect it into your your water pot up until you fill your water pot and then you take what is known as the di-pugo some branches and you cover your thing, your water pot and then you make another kgare a coil out of cloth which you put on your head so that you can sit your water pot there.

The above notes are from a transcription by Kathleen Lawther of a discussion between Gase Kediseng, JoAnn McGregor, Nicola Stylianou, Scobie Lekhuthile and Winani Thebele which took place at the Khama III Memorial Museum on the 5th of August 2019. To listen to the full recording please follow the link below.

Publisher

Making African Connections

Date

Pre 1899

Type

PhysicalObject

Format

Whole: 113 mm x 66 mm
Horn; Glass

Identifier

R4007/55

Source

Collected by Reverend William Charles Willoughby, a Christian missionary, in what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate (1885-1966). It is now the Republic of Botswana, having gained independence from Britain in 1966.
From 1889-92 Willoughby was pastor at Union Street Church, Brighton (now The Font pub). From 1893 to 1898 he worked for the London Missionary Society in Bechuanaland. He assembled this collection of objects during this period. This was a period of social and technological changes and these objects represent traditional lifestyles and skills, rather than the contemporary lives of the people Willoughby met.

Willoughby's collection was loaned to Brighton Museum in 1899 when he returned to the UK. The loan was converted into a donation in 1936, and accessioned as acquisition R4007.

Some objects were re-numbered with the WA (World Art) numbering system in the 2000s. These numbers have been reverted to the original R4007/... numbers where possible for consistency in 2019.
William Charles Willoughby
Botswana, Southern Africa, Africa
1893-1898

Space/Place

Botswana, Southern Africa, Africa
Cultural Group: Tswana

Rights

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

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