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BOTSWELELO HANDICRAFT CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY, THAMAGA

One of the meanings of the phrase 'culture of poverty' coined by Professor Oscar Lewis, is that material deprivation imposes much more on a person and on a society than physical hardship alone, severe as this in itself may be. It leads to a mental state of acceptance or resignation, which makes the poor into accessories to their own impoverishment. The lack of material resources whittles away potential energy and hope. The prospect of change if it appears at all is judged to be a mirage. A 'development' project, then, should aim above all at reversing this profound belief that fate cannot be challenged; possibly, participatory development cannot take place in a community until this has been done - until what the Botswana Co- operative Development Centre calls the 'will to win' has been aroused. It is a chicken-and-egg question: the launching of a practical project may be the best way of arguing the point - but who is to do the launching? Assuming the absence of home-bred, skilled initiative, it has to be an agent from outside who must then avoid becoming the object of a new dependence - for the state of dependence is not changed if people merely pass from a harsh destiny to a benign one. The aim is for them to have faith in their own abilities.

Thamaga Village is 35 miles west of Gaborone. A permanent Catholic mission was opened there in 1970 by Fr Julian Black of the Passionist Order. He identified as the main problem -

a) Lack of employment - 40 were employed in a community of 3,700; b) School leavers as the group most affected - 63 of the 74 Standard VII completers in 1970 failed to get into secondary school; c) Girls as being even worse off than boys for job opportunities.

In October 1971 he proposed to a kgotla meeting that the village should set up its own handicraft industry. He describes the reaction as follows:

"There was no doubt that the people felt the need for some sort of employment strongly. But they were reluctant to believe that the problem could be tackled and solved by themselves. It is understandable that this should be so. The people present were poor, without security and lacking in education. They were fearful of participating in something which seemed so far beyond their meagre resources. They were suspicious that there might be some future hidden financial involvement which they could not afford".

Nonetheless the idea, so far as it was understood, was approved in principle. The young people themselves also responded; by the end of the month thirty of them, mostly girls, were building the walls of their own 960 sq. ft. workshop with mud bricks. The building was finished in April, dressmaking instruction and production began and in August 1972 the group was registered as a co-operative, the first of its kind in the country. The name means 'progress'.

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Assistance came from several quarters. Individuals and groups in the village contributed services and materials; the BCC gave R360 in November 1971 for a potter's kick-wheel and five sewing-machines, and another three Church World Service sewing-machines which arrived in May 1972; and the Co-operative Development Centre (CODEC) Education Branch made regular visits to instruct the group in co-operative theory and practice and to draw up the bye-laws. CODEC had been impressed by the group's self-help effort but had also decided to support them as a means of gaining experience in the field of producer cooperatives, for which the brigades were already turning out other possible candidates. It was CODEC through the Registrar who applied to the BCC at the time of registration for a loan of R3, 000 for Botswelelo, as part of the package to be administered by the Co- operative Development Trust (CDT). The loan, from Christian Aid funds, was approved.

Fr Julian envisaged Botswelelo originally as rather broader based than the exclusively sewing group it has become. It was to include pottery, leatherwork, gardening and traditional handicrafts.

a) Pottery: he had intended to train this branch of the group himself - hence the kick-wheel - but found too much of his time taken up with general education and guidance of the group for him to specialise;

b) Leatherwork: a start was made on sandal-making when the workshop opened but the boys doing it left during the second half of 1972. As with the pottery, there were difficulties in trying to start a number of activities at the same time. The leather operation in addition was hit by the steep rise in the price of imported leather which, combined with the spoilage rate of trainee labour, priced their produce out of the local market;

c) Gardening: a small garden was laid out, using water from an ingenious catchment system on the nearby rocks. This too will be further developed when time and other resources allow;

d) Traditional handicrafts: South African buyers have purchased kgotla stools, carved spoons, pots, and mortars and pestles collected in the village. A high mark-up is possible and apart from cattle it represents the only kind of export industry in a village like this. But managed parttime it has made for an unreliable market. Ideally Botswelelo could become a buying centre for Botswana Craft: the village as a whole would benefit, the Society would acquire status and the members would learn much from managing the trade themselves. Up to now Fr. Julian has been obliged to handle most of it, using it however as a source of educational material - elementary economics and quality control. The latter can be something of an obstacle to the spread of the marketing idea among village producers, who do not always understand the difference between quality and quantity.

'The girls of Botswelelo', as they are known in the village, are aged between 18 and 25 and have an elected committee of five. They have concentrated on dressmaking since they completed their workshop building in April 1972. The building is valued at R648 which gives a cost per sq. ft. of R1.49, very cheap by commercial standards.

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Except for the thatching, the most expensive item, it was built entirely by the members and represents their share investment in the Society, valued at R6 per head. Perhaps because it was a finite and somewhat prestigious project, which for a Botswana woman was also a familiar activity, building the workshop went ahead rapidly and with enthusiasm. For the first six months of productive work a graduate of Mochudi Homecraft Centre (see Report No 2) was employed as instructresses. She taught the group what she knew but she was not their manager, a gap made the more evident during Fr. Julian's own absence on leave from September to December 1972. She left in February 1973. At the end of May, the group was coached intensively for about ten days by Mrs Nancy Moatlhodi, the founder of a women's self-help group in Serowe (see Serowe East report - No 34). She is a dressmaker with industrial experience in South Africa and her effect on Botswelelo was immediate. Output and quality rose, only to fall again a short while after her departure. The Society's chairman, Miss Gloria Dibothelo, is aware of the need for a "qualified teacher for dressmaking", and is despondent about production levels and the shrinking membership. Recently the 14 or so members shared out 'for food' cash they had raised early on for investment by staging concerts. It would seem that the initial impetus has been lost.

There are some factors evidently connected with the Society's low turnover:-

i) Half or more of the sewing-machines are usually out of action at one time. The fault is often a minor one but the girls are perhaps over-conscious of their lack of mechanical knowledge. One machine has never worked. The nearest known mechanic is the Peace Corps water engineer at Molepolole, who has helped both as repairer and 'instructor' at the Boitshoko (KRDA) textile workshop. ii) The drought summer of 1972-73 meant even less cash for non-essentials in local circulation than normal. iii) Despite kgotla appeals to support the girls by buying from them, patronage has remained disappointingly low. Suggested reasons for this are that:-

(a) The workshop is thought of as essentially a school; (b) Prices are 'suspiciously' low - Mrs Moatlhodi recommended raising them so as to boost the impression of quality; (c) People are basically conservative and, in line with (b), prefer to buy things like clothes at 'proper' stores. iv) Around 25% of members may be on maternity leave at any one time. v) There being no selection test and no probation period, the Society includes members who are relatively untalented in sewing and therefore unproductive.

In Fr. Julian's opinion the root causes of the Society's failure so far to 'take off' go rather deeper. These are young women whose social circumstances, education and upbringing are not conducive to the kind of venture they are now involved in. One view holds that their basic needs are met in the subsistence economy, that they regard their earnings as no more than pocket money and that therefore they are not sufficiently motivated. While it is true that their livelihood does not depend on their income as producers in the same way as that of an urban dweller might do, it

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cannot be assumed that a girl is therefore content with the subsistence state. It would be safer to assume that she wants a better life but is unconvinced that by her own efforts and those of her equals it can be reached. Without the leadership of an older, skilled person to give them confidence, the girls as a group are liable to demoralise one another. What keeps them together day after day is the opportunity to meet in a convivial atmosphere with something to do.

It is also questionable whether outside aid beyond a certain volume is wholly helpful to the task of re-education, there being that much less inclination to save when grant finance is known to be secured. The donations made by the village towards the building - window-frames, thatching grass, etc. - and those of the BCC towards the building and equipment were matching grants: they were made in direct response to the efforts of the Society to help itself, a fact that in turn encouraged the members. Similarly at the beginning members were 'paid' only on the sale of their produce, and although this practice was too cumbersome and sometimes inequitable to continue for long, it did help to establish the connection between production and earnings. The arrangement, on the other hand, whereby the Society received World Food Programme rations through its membership of the National Brigade Co-ordinating Committee may not have been an unmixed blessing, precisely because as a co-operative it was trying to do more, psychologically, than a brigade. As training institutions the brigades can make a case for subsidies, though as is well known there have been dangers in becoming over-dependent. For the young members of Botswelelo a guaranteed daily lunch was the first practical divorce of earnings from production. In the same way the BCC loan of R3, 000 may have been too large. The girls, at present, draw R3 per month, and this figure is much greater than they would have ever imagined as such the difference between a loan and a grant can have little meaning for them when it involved such a figure.

The CDT, which will decide if and when the Society will in fact be liable for repayment, has so far on-loaned R2, 000 (of the £3,000). R1, 600 went into the building, fittings, stocks of materials and the instructress's salary, leaving R400 in the current account. The remaining R1,000 has been placed with other Trust funds on deposit with the United Building Society, where it is available should Botswelelo apply for it. Whether or not this is desirable, following the argument above, it seems a little outside the understanding on which the grant was made, that the amount in total was needed by the Society. Like the loan made to Francistown Consumers Society (see Report No 68) at the same time, the total sum is in theory repayable to the Trust to become part of its rolling development fund.

The experience of the last two years has led Fr. Julian to modify his strategy. On the arrival of a Canadian Universities Service Overseas (CUSO) volunteer potter in August, the pottery branch will be established with the following features -

(a) It will be aimed at older women who are already producing pots in the traditional way and who, with households of their own, may be expected to have a more mature outlook; (b) It will most likely use locally obtained raw materials (clay, felspar, glazes);

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(c) By adding strength and colour to the already developed designs, both shape and pattern, it promises to explore the potential of an indigenous art; (d) It will commence with a probation period after which only the best will be kept on. After a further period as 'apprentices' they will be able to purchase shares in the Society, whose principal value to them thereafter will be as a marketing agency.

The last point involved a difficult decision. Fr. Julian set out with the intention of providing a development vehicle for the community as a whole, accessible to all who were interested. He now feels, and experience at brigade centres elsewhere would tend to bear him out, that some degree of selection is unavoidable if those with ability are to have any real chance. Eight local women potters are ready to enrol in this 'upgrading course' and four young men will also be trained on kickwheels. Funding will be by Miserior, who have committed nearly DM20, 000, CUSO and probably the BCC with the remaining R1, 000.

On the sewing side a new instructor is available, again an older women. School uniform orders will be sought and one or two members will go on a sewingmachine maintenance course. But the best long term prospect is offered by the cutting agency to be set up by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Handicrafts Advisor, involving Botswana craft, KRDA at Molepolole (see Report No 16), and Tswelelopele Centre at Ramotswa (see Report No 27). It is hoped that a centralised design and material supply system will streamline the centres' production, cut costs and make for better training in the specialised activity of pattern cutting.

The co-operative structure will be retained and complete self-management remains the objective. The fact that the members are employing their own instructor/ manager at this stage might cause problems but it is hard to see an alternative. She is the most important of the inputs that are now required if the experiment is to be sustained. That the experiment should be continued if with modification is clear. New ground was broken with the building of the workshop and in opting for the co- operative approach, and will again with the pottery and cutting projects. If the members were given what now looks like rather too much responsibility prematurely, this experience is the basis for the next step and could have been obtained no other way. The girls themselves have learnt much and their progress is watched with interest by the village in which they still today constitute the only manufacturing enterprise. Their example as a group of young people who decided, and were helped, to take a hand in their own future will hardly be negligible; or to look at it another way, the social price of collapse is too high to risk. Fr Julian himself cannot yet withdraw; he is needed both as organiser and as monitor of the project. He is important too in demonstrating the concern of the Church for those with least opportunity.

August, 1973

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