"Don't take it so personally," said a passerby. "This is the one Sunday a year when the whole congregation visits its fellow congregation in the next village." Okay. So that plan fell through.
"I know Mangope's sister," someone else told me. "Let me see what I can do to hook you up." But then it turns out that this person and Mangope had been arguing over something – I wasn't sure what – for several years and so this plan fell through too.
Then someone else told me that Mangope went for a walk on the road outside his home every morning. "If you get there by 6:30 am, you can usually see him there." Say what? Me get up and be dressed and coherent by the crack of dawn? No interview is that important! But when the next morning actually came, I did make the effort and diligently trudged down to his house really really early. But was the trip worth it? Yeah. I live in the most beautiful village in the world. The sun had just risen, the full moon was still in the sky, the cows and chickens and goats greeted me ecstatically and I made footprints in the red dust as I walked along. Young boys and old women greeted me on their way to help make preparations for the next day's funeral or to get their buckets filled at the standpipes. The air was fresh, the mountains shone in the background and I fell instantly in love with my village all over again. But. Did I get to see Lucas Mangope? No. But I learned a kick-ar*e recipe for making four barrels of beer in three days from one of the older women who was making it for the funeral.
So. Things were still not looking good in terms of my interview. But I did see Mangope's car drive down the street. Does that count? In terms of living legends? What if I had seen JFK's car drive down the street? Or Elvis's car? Would that be enough information to turn into a top story? Sadly, no. And now I'm starting to feel like a paparazzi. Or even a stalker. Forget it. Maybe I'll just take a bus up to nearby Namibia and focus on trying to get an interview with Brad Pitt instead. Hey, he's a living legend too....
PS: Later on I did manage to talk with another villager about Mangope and this guy was actually willing to spill. We were sitting on the front porch of a store down the street from the cemetery after a funeral and he started reminiscing about the old days. And after a while I started to take notes because what he told me was so fascinating. Here's his story:
"First you need to understand," said my hot new source, "that when the Apartheid laws went into effect, 90% of the population in South Africa was Black and they were forced into Bantustans which only occupied 13% of the land." Wow! I had no idea. All I have seen of South Africa so far has been Pretoria and the market towns. I never would have guessed that 90% of the country was Black. But I do know that 100% of my village (except for me and my NGO) is Black, so just multiply that by a ton of other villages and townships and it makes sense. Pretoria then becomes the exception rather than the rule.
"When the Black population was sent off to the new Bantustans, there were nine main tribal groups in South Africa and the National Party – the inventors of Apartheid – gave each tribal group a "homeland" and then looked for a figurehead chief to rule each one." The man sighed, took a sip of his tea and continued. "Before the homeland laws, this village was very sparsely populated. And it is located on soil that is basically rocks. You've seen it here. Most of the valley is rock. It's not exactly prime real estate. But when the homelands came, this area suddenly became highly populated as people were herded into the Bantustans, away from good farmland and away from jobs and industry. This village is the size of about one White person's small farm but suddenly it was supposed to hold thousands of Setswanas." Yikes.
"Mangope was the only tribal chief who used his new wealth to help out the people instead of squandering it on himself. He built a TV station even. And a radio station -- BOP -- that played good music and he built schools and clinics and police stations. There was nothing in this whole Bantustan prior to him. He built universities, gave out scholarships, developed student work-study programs and built stadiums and civic centers. The centers were called 'Mabana' -- mother of the children. People had never had anything like this before. Mangope had cops patrol the beer halls and shabeens. He built teachers colleges in Mankwe and Taletso and vocational training colleges and furthered education all over the Bantustan, which was now called Bophutswana. And he built little industrial areas in the homeland so the fathers wouldn't have to go all the way to Johannesburg to work. For instance, he built a brick-works right here in this village."
This is all well and good, but what about some hot gossip? Let's spice it up a little bit here. So far Mangope's saga has been sorta dry. "On the flip side," my new source obliged me, "Mangope was a tyrant and a bully! He and his wife ruled this village with an iron hand. Your life belonged to him. If his fields needed weeding, he'd pick you up off the street to do it. And it was compulsory to go to hear him speak whenever he held a rally. He ordered people around. He made people who had worked hard all day on their own jobs come to work for him once they got off. And if you had a business, you had to go into partnership with him or with one of his children or else you wouldn't get your license renewed." Oops, too much information! Be careful what you wish for. This guy was on a roll!
"The people of our Bantustan feared Mangope -- but they didn't like him. And he only helped the Setswana, not all Black South Africans. He even had his own border post. You had to have a Bophutswana passport to get in -- not just the dumpass. And you were discriminated against if you weren't a Setswana. You couldn't live here. You couldn't get a job here. My neighbor's grandson was part Setswana only and he wasn't allowed to move here because he was only Setswana on one side of the family." I wonder what he would make of Americans -- who are born and/or raised all over the place. Then we drank another cup of tea.
"Anyway, when Nelson Mandela got out of jail, the Apartheid government told him that he had to return to Transkei where he was born but Mandela replied that they had taken him out of Soweto and now he would bloody well move where he wanted to. So he went around and looked at all the homelands before he moved anywhere. And he said that Bophutswana was the best homeland, in the best shape and he wanted Mangope to come on board with the ANC." Aha! Insider information. My very own Deep Throat!
"Mandela then invited Mangope to the Codesa conference. He said, 'I see what you have done. You've done a good job.' But Mangope and Buthelezi of the Zulus refused to come to Codesa. 'We have our own people now,' they said. 'We own them.' They thought that they had all the power inside their homelands. But Buthelezi was a turncoat but Mangope didn't know this. And that was how Mangope was left out by himself while the other eight homeland chiefs supported Mandela. It was a stupid move that Mangope made. He might have been the President of South Africa after Mandela retired but he was brought down by his own pride." Hubris.
"Before Mandela, Mangope would bully the other eight chiefs. When platinum was discovered in Rustenburg, he had a showdown with another tribe that wanted to have influence at the mine and didn't want Mangope lording it over them. Mangope wanted to take over the mines too but the Bafokeng tribe won the case in court. And there was another chief in a village near here who tried to stand up to Mangope and as a result even now that village has no running water and is one of the poorest villages in the Northwest province. No running water, minimal schools. All because the chief had opposed Mangope and wouldn't listen to him."
"Tell me more about what happened during the 1994 elections," I said.
"Sure. Mangope wanted Bophutswana to be a separate country so he didn't put his name on the ballot for the elections. However, as soon as Mandela got out of jail, no one here listened to Mangope any more. Mandela came here and spoke at one of Mangope's stadium and almost everyone in the whole homeland came. All that were left at home were the dogs. Mangope had NEVER packed a stadium like that! Then Mangope held a rally and almost nobody came." Good grief!
"Mangope resisted when his people became pro-ANC. But it was of no use. When he tried to tell them not to support Mandela, they went crazy and rioted in Mafeking to show him that they were Fed Up. But then Terre'Blanche interfered in the showdown against Mangope even though Mangope hadn't been the one to ask him in. But for whatever reason it happened or whoever was responsible, Mafeking was in flames. Terre'Blanche had appeared to want Mangope to be an ally of his against Mandela but what Terr-Blanche had really wanted was to start a civil war." Not good.
"I know Mangope's sister," someone else told me. "Let me see what I can do to hook you up." But then it turns out that this person and Mangope had been arguing over something – I wasn't sure what – for several years and so this plan fell through too.
Then someone else told me that Mangope went for a walk on the road outside his home every morning. "If you get there by 6:30 am, you can usually see him there." Say what? Me get up and be dressed and coherent by the crack of dawn? No interview is that important! But when the next morning actually came, I did make the effort and diligently trudged down to his house really really early. But was the trip worth it? Yeah. I live in the most beautiful village in the world. The sun had just risen, the full moon was still in the sky, the cows and chickens and goats greeted me ecstatically and I made footprints in the red dust as I walked along. Young boys and old women greeted me on their way to help make preparations for the next day's funeral or to get their buckets filled at the standpipes. The air was fresh, the mountains shone in the background and I fell instantly in love with my village all over again. But. Did I get to see Lucas Mangope? No. But I learned a kick-ar*e recipe for making four barrels of beer in three days from one of the older women who was making it for the funeral.
So. Things were still not looking good in terms of my interview. But I did see Mangope's car drive down the street. Does that count? In terms of living legends? What if I had seen JFK's car drive down the street? Or Elvis's car? Would that be enough information to turn into a top story? Sadly, no. And now I'm starting to feel like a paparazzi. Or even a stalker. Forget it. Maybe I'll just take a bus up to nearby Namibia and focus on trying to get an interview with Brad Pitt instead. Hey, he's a living legend too....
"First you need to understand," said my hot new source, "that when the Apartheid laws went into effect, 90% of the population in South Africa was Black and they were forced into Bantustans which only occupied 13% of the land." Wow! I had no idea. All I have seen of South Africa so far has been Pretoria and the market towns. I never would have guessed that 90% of the country was Black. But I do know that 100% of my village (except for me and my NGO) is Black, so just multiply that by a ton of other villages and townships and it makes sense. Pretoria then becomes the exception rather than the rule.
"When the Black population was sent off to the new Bantustans, there were nine main tribal groups in South Africa and the National Party – the inventors of Apartheid – gave each tribal group a "homeland" and then looked for a figurehead chief to rule each one." The man sighed, took a sip of his tea and continued. "Before the homeland laws, this village was very sparsely populated. And it is located on soil that is basically rocks. You've seen it here. Most of the valley is rock. It's not exactly prime real estate. But when the homelands came, this area suddenly became highly populated as people were herded into the Bantustans, away from good farmland and away from jobs and industry. This village is the size of about one White person's small farm but suddenly it was supposed to hold thousands of Setswanas." Yikes.
"Mangope was the only tribal chief who used his new wealth to help out the people instead of squandering it on himself. He built a TV station even. And a radio station -- BOP -- that played good music and he built schools and clinics and police stations. There was nothing in this whole Bantustan prior to him. He built universities, gave out scholarships, developed student work-study programs and built stadiums and civic centers. The centers were called 'Mabana' -- mother of the children. People had never had anything like this before. Mangope had cops patrol the beer halls and shabeens. He built teachers colleges in Mankwe and Taletso and vocational training colleges and furthered education all over the Bantustan, which was now called Bophutswana. And he built little industrial areas in the homeland so the fathers wouldn't have to go all the way to Johannesburg to work. For instance, he built a brick-works right here in this village."
This is all well and good, but what about some hot gossip? Let's spice it up a little bit here. So far Mangope's saga has been sorta dry. "On the flip side," my new source obliged me, "Mangope was a tyrant and a bully! He and his wife ruled this village with an iron hand. Your life belonged to him. If his fields needed weeding, he'd pick you up off the street to do it. And it was compulsory to go to hear him speak whenever he held a rally. He ordered people around. He made people who had worked hard all day on their own jobs come to work for him once they got off. And if you had a business, you had to go into partnership with him or with one of his children or else you wouldn't get your license renewed." Oops, too much information! Be careful what you wish for. This guy was on a roll!
"The people of our Bantustan feared Mangope -- but they didn't like him. And he only helped the Setswana, not all Black South Africans. He even had his own border post. You had to have a Bophutswana passport to get in -- not just the dumpass. And you were discriminated against if you weren't a Setswana. You couldn't live here. You couldn't get a job here. My neighbor's grandson was part Setswana only and he wasn't allowed to move here because he was only Setswana on one side of the family." I wonder what he would make of Americans -- who are born and/or raised all over the place. Then we drank another cup of tea.
"Anyway, when Nelson Mandela got out of jail, the Apartheid government told him that he had to return to Transkei where he was born but Mandela replied that they had taken him out of Soweto and now he would bloody well move where he wanted to. So he went around and looked at all the homelands before he moved anywhere. And he said that Bophutswana was the best homeland, in the best shape and he wanted Mangope to come on board with the ANC." Aha! Insider information. My very own Deep Throat!
"Mandela then invited Mangope to the Codesa conference. He said, 'I see what you have done. You've done a good job.' But Mangope and Buthelezi of the Zulus refused to come to Codesa. 'We have our own people now,' they said. 'We own them.' They thought that they had all the power inside their homelands. But Buthelezi was a turncoat but Mangope didn't know this. And that was how Mangope was left out by himself while the other eight homeland chiefs supported Mandela. It was a stupid move that Mangope made. He might have been the President of South Africa after Mandela retired but he was brought down by his own pride." Hubris.
"Before Mandela, Mangope would bully the other eight chiefs. When platinum was discovered in Rustenburg, he had a showdown with another tribe that wanted to have influence at the mine and didn't want Mangope lording it over them. Mangope wanted to take over the mines too but the Bafokeng tribe won the case in court. And there was another chief in a village near here who tried to stand up to Mangope and as a result even now that village has no running water and is one of the poorest villages in the Northwest province. No running water, minimal schools. All because the chief had opposed Mangope and wouldn't listen to him."
"Tell me more about what happened during the 1994 elections," I said.
"Sure. Mangope wanted Bophutswana to be a separate country so he didn't put his name on the ballot for the elections. However, as soon as Mandela got out of jail, no one here listened to Mangope any more. Mandela came here and spoke at one of Mangope's stadium and almost everyone in the whole homeland came. All that were left at home were the dogs. Mangope had NEVER packed a stadium like that! Then Mangope held a rally and almost nobody came." Good grief!
"Mangope resisted when his people became pro-ANC. But it was of no use. When he tried to tell them not to support Mandela, they went crazy and rioted in Mafeking to show him that they were Fed Up. But then Terre'Blanche interfered in the showdown against Mangope even though Mangope hadn't been the one to ask him in. But for whatever reason it happened or whoever was responsible, Mafeking was in flames. Terre'Blanche had appeared to want Mangope to be an ally of his against Mandela but what Terr-Blanche had really wanted was to start a civil war." Not good.
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