LOUIS HUGHES, a former slave, wrote in his heartbreaking autobiography how slaves were stripped naked before being caned as a form of punishment.
He wrote: “The yard I was in had a regular whipping post to which they tied the slave, and gave him ‘nine-and-thirty’, as it was called, meaning 39 lashes as hard as they could lay it on.
“Men were stripped of their shirts in preparation for the whipping, and women had to take off their dresses from the shoulders to the waist.
“These whippings were not so severe as when the slaves were stripped entirely of their clothes, as was generally the case on the plantations where slaves were owned by the dozen.
“I saw many cases of whipping while I was in the yard.
“Sometimes I was so frightened that I trembled violently, for I had never seen anything like it before.” (Autobiography of Louis Hughes. Thirty Years a Slave: From Bondage to Freedom, published in 1897).
But if I thought that the humiliation of a man by another man, involving undressing them before flogging them on their naked bodies, was a thing of the past, (only experienced during the slavery and colonial days), the article ‘Botswana whips Zim illegal immigrants!’ published by the Daily Star (July 7 2015), shocked me and shows that Botswana is still immersed in slavery practices. The Daily Sun reported: “At least nine Zimbabwean men were severely injured when they were whipped on the bum by a chief’s security forces in Botswana, according to a report.
“The nine were canned for entering the country illegally…one of the victims of the assault, Ezekiel Mukuya, spent three days unable to sit because of the severity of the injuries.
“Mukuyu, who worked in Botswana, said he was loaded into a vehicle together with other illegal immigrants and were taken to the homestead of the chief only identified as Nkgageng…They were (then) taken to a room and ordered to undress and lie down on the floor before they were all whipped on the bum with switches.”
Zimbabweans have been humiliated everywhere; in most African countries where the thin line that separates Africans are the boundaries drawn up during the Berlin Conference of 1898, not how our ancestors lived side by side, bonded by family relations, tribal groups and languages etc.
How did people react on social media?
Some Tswanas think there was nothing wrong with the flogging of the Zimbabwean immigrants.
However, many Zimbabweans and Africans are actually appalled, with some suggesting that the African Union (AU) or Southern African Development Community (SADC) should do something about it.
Commenting on the article published by The Daily Sun, someone commenting as Mbangwa, most probably a Tswana, wrote: “That serves them well.
“It’s these foreigners who enter our borders illegally that brutally kill, rape and rob us.
“They simply do this because they know we do not have any record of them such as fingerprints.
“Well done my chief!”
But someone commenting as Molefe wrote: “Africa my Africa.
“Perhaps governance of a democratic country using a capitalist system is too much for us or perhaps we need a new system of governance altogether.
“Something that reflects the African ideology.
“We killing ourselves and selling ourselves out to the rest of the world.
“Eish!”
Commenting on a different forum, Senwabjala Mosoma asks why Botswana only canes Africans.
He wrote: “Botswana must cane across the colour, race!”
However, Eugene Engelbrecht (most likely a white person) thinks there was nothing wrong with the caning of the Zimbabweans.
He/she wrote: “I had the privilege of living in Botswana for 10 years and next to my motherland it’s the country I really grew to love and respect.
“The laws are clear and consistent.
“Tribal authority exists.
“Everyone is subject to the law, black, white, local or expat.
“The Zimbabwe babies were not picked on, they just discovered what happens in another country when you face the music!”
Keothupile Thupas  wrote: “Not only Zimbabweans are caned in Botswana. Actually the law allows for that.
“Even Batswana are caned daily for minor crimes instead of going to jail for, say a month or two/or if you don’t afford to pay e.g P50.
“In schools it’s also legal to discipline students by caning them.”
However, Zimbabweans all over the world are not amused by the way Botswana is treating Zimbabweans, their neighbours.
Commenting on a facebook forum, Velempini Veap Thuthani Ndlovu wrote: “Can’t imagine the indignity.
“Have said it before that if this practice was being done in Zimbabwe on other nationals they would be an international outcry, but who cares for Zimbos anyway?”
Mhoze Chikowero commented that it does not matter whether one has a visa or not, the Tswana officials are rude to African travellers.
He wrote: “I have had to deal with the same crudeness at the Botswana border offices a couple of times.
“Their guards move around with bull whips intimidating travellers, as if they are cows.”
And Mwalimu Saki Mafundikwa thinks a man who enjoys beating a nude man does so to satisfy a sexual desire:
“A man flogging another man is sadomasochism!
“These so-called ‘chiefs’ are sick!
“They derive sexual pleasure from such floggings.”
It is not about the beating of Zimbabweans, but the idea of making any other human to strip naked before caning him for whatever wrongdoing, should be condemned.
Botswana must change, and respect fellow Africans as human beings.
After all, not so long ago, many Tswana parents used to send their children to schools in Zimbabwe (for better education), and they were never ill-treated.