Borakanelo General Dealer

Mama le Papa once owned a shop, a General Dealer. They finally opened it in 1994. I remember vividly that historic day it officially opened. A few days before the grand opening there was a nice and well-attended party at home: the shop opening, praying party. The Pastor was invited, Mafhikana church was invited, friends and relatives too. It was a beautiful sunny day; my parents were ecstatic – relieved that their fourth child was born – at long last.

Indeed, the store was dealing with general items: a variety of very nice sweets, for example, disweets tsa mae (egg sweets), a selection of soft drinks, homemade ice pops, loaves of bread, Ultra Mel long life milk, Maggi Minestrone Soup, Royal Baking Powder, Holsum Cooking Fat, OMO Washing Powder, household wall clocks, men’s shirts, ladies dresses, and many more.

Borakanelo did not have a cash register till. Therefore, to store cash, we used a blue denim moneybag, and a no name black calculator to promptly process payment.

My father was the shop’s passionate Chaplain, the Maintenance Manager and a very strict General Manager. On the other hand, my mother was the Buyer, the energetic Promotions Manager, and the CEO.

Generally, our Shopkeeper was off weekends. The shop was always closed on Saturdays, rather Sabbath. Accordingly, my brother and I would unwillingly assist on Sundays at the store: we would open the store at 7am, sweep and mop the floor, dust off the shelves, and happily serve customers for the whole day ­ – until sunset, the time we always closed.

The shop was named Borakanelo General Dealer –  but usually just called Borakanelo – loosely translating to the meeting point.Borakanelo: Mma-Lentle and Nonofo at the General Dealer; the CEO; my recent visit at home, in front of the now closed shop – happily reminiscing.