DISILLUSIONED- THE ECONOMIC/ ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE OF BOTSWANA

As a nation we have managed to isolate our interpretation of culture as only relating to the social set up and to the political set up in so far as traditional leadership is concerned. And as a result have been blind to the harmful effect of the culture we have adopted to our business/ entrepreneurial thinking and therefore our economic and political systems.

We acknowledge that our economic system as is has not been working for us. Year in and year out we complain that we are not growing and advancing- well as far as the last 10 or so years are concerned. Which leads me to believe we are great practitioners of insanity because so far we have changed very little in the MO of the role of government in the economy and the empowerment of individuals to be enterprising. Government is still heavily involved in the funding and development of local businesses and is still coming up with economy stimulating initiatives that are advanced versions (not by way of differentiation but by better sounding names and targeted audience) of previously failed ones.

Our culture is not an enterprising one nor that of self determination and we don’t seem to be directing our efforts and collective thinking that way. Since independence the culture has always been that the government of the day has got our backs and will take care of us and our children by giving us jobs and schooling our children. Back then with a population of less than a 700K that may have seemed sustainable, however as the population grows and the cash cow that is our diamonds ages and withers away, the model has proved to be unsustainable. Young people now who are supposedly enterprising are still very reliant on government grants and support for their businesses to get off the ground. 

Our government is an example of a parent who has bought their child a bicycle to learn how to ride but wont stop holding the bike at the back and let them learn how to pedal on their own.

The system and culture will not change because the government of the day benefits from such dependency policies. They “take care” of the citizenry and therefore ensure their stay in power as people reward them with votes. And so even as the economy dictates that the system can no longer operate in the same way, there is sabotage (conscious or not) to real progress in favour of giving a simulation that the government is taking care of the people and therefore deserving of their votes to govern.

Most progressive economic/ business books have been writing about how the role of the government is not to run business or to invest in business but to put in place policy that is enabling for business to thrive. However this involves the people having an understanding of this role and being socialised to be industrial, innovative and experimental as opposed to being dependent on government to provide solutions.

What we are refusing or ignorant to see and learn from is how our counterparts, locally who are of different nationalities have managed to build thriving businesses despite not having government funding. And it is because they believe in each other and support each others businesses and ventures. What they require from government are the rules of engagement and they engage within their communities to find ways to fund their ventures and then buy from each other so that their economies can grow. This concept is explained very well by Chika Onyeani in Capitalist Nigger.

In the book “Is your thinking keeping you poor” Douglas Kruger highlights how when you approach an issue with a mindset of entitlement, the inspiration to work hard and prove the viability of what you are proposing is lost. You come with the sense of being owed and in turn you get what you never deserved nor respect nor have any knowledge of managing and that is how we end up with businesses that never grow beyond initial funding.