Itumeleng Garebatshabe.(PIC.KENNEDY RAMOKONE)
Intellegere Media, a subsidiary of Intellegere Holdings, has developed a collection of apps called the Heritage Series. The content of the apps shares the rich cultural history of Botswana by telling the story of each tribe.
“The idea began in 2012 when we launched the Project 120 which was aimed at creating mobile applications which were fully focused on Botswana. The idea was to preserve our culture through mobile apps, first; for the future generations to know their history and heritage and secondly; to share our Setswana heritage with the world because there isn’t enough digital information about the Batswana tribes readily available,” said Itumeleng Garebatshabe, Intellegere Holdings founder and CEO.
Project 120 is an initiative that aims to develop Botswana apps developers as well as an apps industry. Through Project 120, Intellegere Media was able to partner with historian Dr Jeff Ramsay and collate information about Botswana tribes. The information was then packaged into the Botswana Heritage Series app. The BaNgwaketse, BaKgatla baga Mmanaana, BaKalanga as well as the BaSubia tribes all have free apps available for Android and Windows phones through the Google Play store. An iOS version for Apple is expected shortly.
Garebatshabe commented further on technology’s impact, “Mobile apps are making learning about our own culture much easier, for instance Botswana has mobile penetration of 150% which potentially means more Batswana can read about their own history. We however face the ever looming challenge of financing these initiatives. Intellegere Media has funded all development and publishing this point, however to take the Heritage Series to the next stage we are looking for more support. Future developments of the Heritage app series will include pictorial and video apps of some of the monuments and heritages sites in Botswana. These new apps will add to the existing galaxy of Heritage Series Apps.”
The Heritage Series Apps are helping to close a big information gap about Botswana history as the information published was mainly available in books, many of which are not readily available any longer. These apps are designed to encourage a reading culture as schools across Botswana will now find it easier to access this information, even scholars in other countries can learn about Botswana in one click. The app has been downloaded worldwide, with the most popular downloads coming from Botswana, South Africa, Canada and Zimbabwe.
