Sydney Svoboda

Professor Getachew

Paired Essay

January 30, 15

            As I talked with my SUSI partner I learned many things about his culture and himself. Mompati Ditogo, which means “many blessings” is a twenty-four year old pursuing a degree in Accounting. He described himself to me as an introvert, who doesn’t mind being around big groups of people, but prefers to be somewhere reading. He loves to read books about success, and about people who have become successful for example, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. He told me, “When I want to achieve something the word no is not in my vocabulary.” As we continued our conversation I began to realize how intelligent, ambitious, and goal driven he is. He loves to learn and is thankful to be able to go to school, something that most of the U.S. students take for granted.

            Mompati is from Maun, Botswana a southern country in Africa known as the “tourism capital” because besides diamond mining, and farming, that is the third largest source of income. It is made up of both African Americans, and European White people. The official language is called Setswana, and English coming in at second. Maun has a lot of rural areas, but has vastly grown into more of an urban development over the years. Mompati lives on a farm with his parents and younger brother. He said, “Maun is made up of a lot of farm land, and cattle. To put it into perspective Botswana has a population of about two million people, and four million cows.” Because of the rural land and big population of animals there is a local native tribe made up of about sixty-seven members called the “San.” This local tribe travels all over Botswana to hunt game, but mainly reside in the National Park, The Memori Game Reserve. He said, “They don’t believe in modern day technology, or the government, they refuse to be apart of any of it.”

            Along with the San tribe there are many other different ones in Maun that are more modern. Mompati described to me the process of being initiated into man and woman hood. At about the age of sixteen both boys and girls go to what is known as initiation school, or better known as Bogwera for boys and Bojale for girls. The initiation lasts about three months, for both genders. During this period the boys go through boot camp style training, and many leadership activities to be initiated into man-hood. The girls are taught to cook, clean, and everything that will help enter her into woman-hood. When the boys make it through the three months of school they’re circumcised and officially entered into manhood. After boys and girls enter into man and woman hood they’re allowed to officially date. Before if they were to date someone it was supposed to be kept secret from all family members and even friends.

As Mompati and I furthered our conversation about relationships we landed on the topic of marriage. Which, was the thing I thought differed the most from our two cultures. In Mompati's culture if a man decides he wants to marry his girlfriend he must ask his Uncle and Aunt to talk to his soon to be fiancés Uncle and Aunt. Then when they both agree on a time the man and woman’s families’ meet, but the only people allowed to talk are the Uncles and Aunts. They often meet three to four times before anything is considered official. At these meetings they discuss what is known as the “bride price.” Which is basically a gift the man’s family must provide to the woman’s family. Many times this price can include up to eight cattle, fine clothing products, or money. When the bride price is set and paid the couple will then have a wedding ceremony. They have a ceremony, and exchange rings and vows.

Although, we didn’t necessarily talk about a certain subject we did ask each other a lot of questions. One of the many was, “What were some of the biggest cultural difference you have noticed so far?” He said the weather was one of the most shocking because before coming to Nebraska he had never seen snow before. In Botswana they experience the colder weather in the months of May through July. Another culture shock Mompati noticed was that back in Africa many people rely on the government to get what they need and want, where as Americans get jobs and support themselves. He said, "he really liked that because he hopes to graduate soon with a degree, and be able to help his parents out one day." I know with the ambition he has he will be successful in anything he wishes to do. Meeting Mompati was eye opening, and really helped me to better understand Africa. I hope to stay in contact with him, as I consider him a wonderful friend of mine.