The work has begun

The Khama Museum

The Khama III Museum used to be the official guest house of Khama III (The Great). He was the chief who was the leader when Cecil Rhodes cast his eye south from Rhodesia and thought it was only right that he should control what was then the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland (present day Botswana). Three of the paramount chiefs went to Britain in 1895 to convince the government that Bechuanaland should remain a British protectorate. The British did indeed resist the tempation to give this land over and soon the other neighbour, South Africa also saw it as a natural extension of its territory. By good luck and good management the country remained a multi-racial protectorate until independence in 1966.

This guest house was made into a museum in 1985. Like all cultural institutions it has had its ups and downs. One of the things I am meant to be doing here is helping Tom redo the Bessie Head Room. She was an important writer from Serowe (I’ll do a blog on her next week), and a festival is being held this July on the 70th anniversary of her birth. Tom, a good friend of hers, is helping to organize the festival. The room is as you see it here, but we have now removed everything from the walls and Tom’s goal is to recreate her writing space in a corner of the room with desk, bed and oil lamp. She never had electricity and wrote her first books by candlelight. I’ll try and show you the result.

One important part of the room is her bookself, and the musem hopes to have on display some of the books that she has said influenced her.

Here is where some of you might be able to help. Her first influence was D H Lawrence. If any of you have editions of his works that predate 1960 and were willinng to donate them for the display, you could mail them to Tom Holzinger P O Box 30178 Serowe Botswana.

She then fell in love with Boris Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago and also Poems by Boris Pasternak.