Take Out Hunger by S. Wallman

Author:S. Wallman [Wallman, S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367716615
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2021-03-31T00:00:00+00:00

(iii) Communication

'These proposals are above the mind of the ordinary Mosuto' (MoTaung).

(a) Pitsos

The traditional and the only direct means of relaying information from Chiefs or Government at the top to the people at the bottom is the pitso. It was assumed that the Government's plans and actions in Taung would be explained to the BaTaung in this way. Since the Scheme was said to have been initiated by and had certainly been given the blessing of the Paramount Chief, there was no evident reason why the Ward Chief and the sub-Chiefs should not provide a channel of communication between the Government and the BaTaung that would ensure cooperation, understanding and (so) the success of the scheme. Except for the salvage efforts at Public Relations and Extension described in the following section, the Scheme was to stand or fall by pitsos.

For the first year, monthly pitsos were held in the ward Chief's village in Taung. Government Officers and Chiefs would 'together' explain filings to the people attending, and it was left to the sub-Chiefs and Headmen to see that plans and instructions were carried out. At the early meetings, attendance was sometimes as high as two hundred BaTaung, but within five months it was reported that 'most of the sub-Chiefs were absent from the pitso and the people unruly' (D.A.T. November 1957). Shortly after that, the monthly 'government pitso' was abandoned in favour of meetings of Chiefs and Government Officers convened in the District Commissioner's office in Mohale's Hoek. These appear to have taken the form of small pitsos held in camera and should have been followed by 'traditional pitsos' called by the Chiefs on their return to Taung: 'When decisions are reached, orders will come from the Ward Chief in the form of a circular which will be read by sub-Chiefs at pitsos in their areas for the information of the people' (D.A.T. April 1958).

The inability of this system to meet the demands made on it can be considered in terms of the three component parts of a pitso: the Chiefs, the people, and the procedure itself.

The Chiefs: 'We told the Headmen and the Chiefs and assumed that they told the people as they are meant to do. But they didn't.' (Soil Conservation Officer)

If the Chiefs were to explain the Scheme to the people, it was essential that they themselves understood it. In early 1957, the Director of Agriculture, explaining why the timing of the Scheme could not be precisely planned in advance, wrote: '... Full implications, while understood by the Ward Chief and subChiefs, are not fully understood by the people ...' (D.A.T. April 1957). The inference is that the Chiefs were then considered able to get the technicalities of reclamation across and may account for the fact that some people in Government regard their lack of success as evidence only of their unwillingness to cooperate with the Government. Certainly many of them were unwilling – for political and other reasons discussed below – but there is no evidence that they were better informed than the people they were supposed to teach.

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