A millennial change
A Tribe in Botswana Follows a Leader Called Woman
By SHARON LaFRANIERE
AMOTSWA, Botswana - Mosadi Seboko's first name is not really a name. Rather, it is a reflection of her father's shock when he first saw her. Translated from Setswana, the local language here, it means simply "woman."
Her father was chief of the Baletes, one of the eight major tribes of Botswana, who settled in this region just south of the nation's capital, Gaborone, more than a century ago. In the Balete royal family, it is a given that the chief's firstborn child will be a boy so that he can inherit the throne.
"My dad said: 'Well, it's a woman. What can I do? It's my child,' " Ms. Seboko said.
Woman Seboko is now 54, and lo and behold, she is the leader of the Baletes herself, the first female paramount chief ever in Botswana. She was enthroned 15 months ago after challenging and overcoming her own family's efforts to keep the chiefdom a patriarchy.
"She had uncles who could definitely ascend to the throne," said Loabile Mokosi, a cousin on her late father's side. "But the question became: What stops her?"
Very little, it seems. In a society where women are expected to bow without question to their husbands' sexual demands, even if their spouses are unfaithful, where wife beating is all too common and where women who marry under customary law are still considered minors, her victory does not just stand out. It proclaims that centuries-old Botswana tradition is doing the bowing now, to irresistible change.
