ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 pursues the politics of memory from the village customary court to the statutory courts: the High Court and Court of Appeal. The central concern is the change of the nearby village’s name from Matolwane to Lesenepola by a faction originating not from Moremi but from another neighbouring village, Lesenepola. In the first in a series of cases, the High Court recommended the change of name. By documenting how and why, at huge expense, Matolwane villagers appealed that decision and mobilised support across town and country in a series of cases, this chapter clarifies the making of subjectivities and moral claims that are translocal; in particular, the importance and enormous value vested in a home name as a public identity, even for urban villagers settled in the capital of Botswana.
