In fact, Zhang Nan will still have a piece of clothing that can only be worn as a chieftain, but the king told him that because Chief Allen will not stay in Botswana for too long, and this coronation is a bit hasty, the leopard shawl representing the authority of the new chief has just been pulled off the leopard shackle. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

It is also because of the haste that there are still a few fewer guests who come to watch the ceremony, otherwise the Botswana government needs to send at least one minister to watch the ceremony for such a major event as the new chief of the Tswa people - Mothari and the other chiefs are anxious, afraid that Zhang Nan will leave in the next two days, and will be crowned directly according to the most traditional customs of the tribe.

The chieftain needed a leopard skin, and the tribal warriors used a traditional bow and spear to hunt an adult African leopard: this leopard skin could not have been hunted with a firearm, tradition was important.

It takes time to make fur into clothing with modern techniques, and it takes time to process it in the traditional way of southern Africa, so wait until you come back next time.

After eating the complete cattle feast, Zhang Nan and a group of Tuwang also inspected the school: just opposite the "coronation square", Tuwang built the school near his "palace".

Children are the future of the tribe.

The leaders of the Tswa people knew the importance of education, and the country had a population of 300,000 when it was independent, and now it is 1.34 million, less than 23 years later.

There are many children in the tribe, and education should be prioritized, because the king said that at the beginning of Botswana, there were only 4 college students in the country, and there was a shortage of talents at that time, as long as you have a high school education, you are eligible to run for a ministerial position!

And now if you want to enter the government, even ordinary civil servants must have a high degree of Chinese: the southern tribes and some places close to the big cities have good education development, but the traditional areas of the Tswa tribe are a little backward in educational development due to geographical reasons.

Fortunately, education in Botswana is free, even for graduate and doctoral studies, and the government also provides the necessary living expenses.

But Mr. Tuwang is also worried that the children will lose their tribal traditions, because in Mothari's view, it is easy to "lose yourself" when they go to the big city after seven or eight years of elementary and junior high school courses. ”

A group of people walked a few steps to the school, which consisted of 10 round buildings made of wood and mud that looked like yurts, with three low walls and one door.

With low doors and windows, Zhang Nan had to hunch his waist to get in.

The walls were clad in bricks and tin sheets, there were no tables, no chairs, no lights, and the ground was full of potholes and dirt.

The temperature will be 32 degrees, the classroom is very hot, and Zhang Nan, who is wearing a white shirt, will soon be sweating.

You can imagine how uncomfortable it is to take classes here.

Today's tribal celebration, the school is on vacation, and there are no children in the school building, but there is a group of children outside who are holding their buttocks with a piece of cloth and watching the excitement.

The children heard that the new chief would build new schools for all the children, just like the one in the big cities.

Today is not the most uncomfortable, although the altitude here is about 1,000 meters, but when the heat is hot, the cold can reach 40 degrees for a few days!

Such teaching conditions reminded Zhang Nan of the schools and children in the poorest areas of western China.

The town is actually electrified, but it's about the same as none, because power outages are commonplace, definitely more than when there is electricity!

"King Moshari, can our teacher problem be solved?"

Hearing this, the king of the earth smiled proudly and said: "The tribe is very united, and some good children study in big cities just to come back to be teachers, and teachers are not a problem." ”

"Then build schools as soon as possible, and I will have people build small photovoltaic power plants in various settlements, at least to meet the lighting problems of schools and chiefs. ”

There are cultural people, and there is no shortage of sunshine in Botswana, so it is enough to build a photovoltaic power station, and a small one is enough.

The crowd was happy, and it was nice for the children to be outside and cheering after hearing the adults' words!

When they returned to the place of celebration, several tribal warriors stood carrying two huge tusks.

"Dear Chief Allen, every Twa chief will have a pair of tusks worthy of his status, you are an American, but also a Chinese, our brothers, a family.

It was a tusk from a tribesman when my father was alive, not a hunted elephant, a big thing taken from an elephant that had died of natural causes.

It's been twenty years, and it's a lot lighter, but it's still very worthy of your identity. ”

What is the chief's ivory used for?

Of course, it was not used as a handicraft, but it was erected like a gate in the chief's drawing-room, and it was also moved out on important occasions, when the chief took a stool and sat in front of the "tooth gate" when meeting guests or subjects.

It's a look.

King Moshari had a pair of huge tusks, and Zhang Nan estimated that they were three meters long, which was not much smaller than the pair of tusks in the world that is now in the Natural History Museum of the British Museum.

And this pair is about the same, even if the length is not three meters, two meters eight is estimated to be indispensable, and it can be regarded as a super huge type!

The other 11 chiefs are supposed to have such large tusks, but the Botswana people have little love for ivory, except for a pair of super tusks that represent authority in their homes.

Elephant tusk, not everyone is qualified to have.

According to Moshari, his tusks are hundreds of years old and have been handed down from his ancestors. On the way here, Zhang Nandu saw the skeleton of a dead elephant not far from the roadside, and two tusks that should be more than a meter long were poked there—no one took them at all.

In some parts of Africa, ivory poaching is rampant, but no one wants ordinary ivory here, which is considered a kind of harmony.

And here the king of Moshari is still introducing, "... Originally, the ivory of the chieftain had to be obtained by himself or offered by the people, but in the past few decades, for unknown reasons, the tusks of elephants on the grassland have become smaller and smaller, and some of the old bull elephants in their fifties and sixties have tusks that are only more than one meter long.

It's getting harder and harder to get a pair of tusks over two and a half meters, so I'm sending you a pair on behalf of the clan in the hope that Chief Alan will like it. ”

Of course Zhang Nan likes it, can you like such a pair of ivory?

By the way, I told the Tuwang that the reason why the tusks of elephants on the grassland are slowly getting smaller and smaller is actually very simple: first, because of poaching, elephants with large tusks will become the primary target of poachers.

The second is that elephants seem to have skills that humans do not have - they seem to know that the tusks of the qualifications grow too long to be targeted for poaching, and as a result, they deliberately do not grow large tusks, which have become smaller and smaller over the decades.

It's a miraculous skill, or a phenomenon of population degradation, that even science can't fully explain.