Less than four months until the worldwide debating circuit assembles in Gaborone, Botswana for the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC, a.k.a. Worlds) 2011 from 27 December 2010 until 4 January 2011! But before you open your new textbooks and work on your Setswana, the official language besides English, stop and check the technicalities. You need to make sure you have made your final payments. The conveners point out that banks charge a fee up to 25 US-Dollars for international wire transfer. Those who forgot about that fee may pay cash or with a check during physical check-in in Gaborone in December to avoid further fees. Please contact the registration officers in advance. Those who have not yet processed the full payment of 450 US-Dollars, please do so until 16 September or otherwise you will be dropped from the registration list.

To guarantee a pool of qualified judges, the team around chief adjudicator Logandran Balavijendran announced subsidies for sixty independent judges from Africa and the rest of the world. Among those granted subsidies for travel costs and fees are Isabelle Loewe (Debattierclub Bonn) and Jens Fischer (Berlin Debating Union). Isabelle is already looking for cheap flights into Gaborone and thinks about a few days of holidays after the tournament. Good advice for those who are planning to travel to Botswana via South Africa: Hurry up booking your flights! This is peak season in the Southern parts of Africa since this will be summer time. And don’t forget to pack your sun block. Botswana is a land-locked country, i.e. there is no access to the sea, but that doesn’t prevent the sun from burning down on you. On the contrary, the Kalahari desert covers up to 70 percent of the country.

If you are worried about being in good hands during your stay with the Debate Masters Association of the University of Gaborone, be assured: They know what they do. They hosted the Pan-African Universities Debating Championship (PAUDC) for the past two years where more than ten African nations took part. Both in 2008 and 2009, Justice Motlhabani, convener of this year’s Worlds, was in charge of everything. On top of that, his debating society staged the first ever Setswana debating tournament. The motion of the final was “Go fitlhelelweng Tekatekanyo ya banna le bomme a bomme le bone ba duele Bogadi.“ (To achieve gender equality women should pay bride price.) But not only the promotion of the local language is noteworthy here, also the economy of the country is on the rise: The world bank lauded Botswana to be one of the world’s great development success stories.

You are in now for Botswana? Then check out the menu: For less than five US-Dollars you get a good meal of chotlho, a traditionally by men prepared meat dish of beef. Or serobe, a dish of intestines and the trotters of goat or sheep. The side dish that comes with it is mainly lerotse, porridge from millet or maize seasoned with sour milk and melon. For the more adventurous of you, travel to the remote areas and have a taste of morama, a great tuber, or mophane, a kind of grub similar to a caterpillar which is prepared in hot ashes or deep fried.

From VDCH-associated clubs, lots of jubilation reaches us because they made it to the registration list – in only 94 seconds, 300 teams registered for the Worlds. Thanks to their quick reaction and some patience with the wait list, nine clubs from the German speaking debating circuit will go to Botswana’s capital Gaborone to compete for the world championship: Berlin Debating Union, S.A.E.C.L.O Greifswald (as EUDC semi finalists Sarah Jaglitz and Rafael Heinisch already announced, see official Achte Minute video on EUDC 2010), Tilbury House Köln, Wortgefechte Potsdam, Debattierclub München, Debattierclub Stuttgart, Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz, Jacobs University Bremen and Debattierklub Wien.

Moritz Kirchner from Wortgefechte Potsdam is happy his team finally got a spot at WUDC. He and his team partner Mathias Hamann are looking forward to meet old and new friends. Leonhard Weese cannot await the next four months to travel to Southern Africa and shouts out: “We are going to Botswana Worlds 2011!“

Since 1981, debaters from all over the world have been competing at the World Universities Debating Championships at alternating locations across the planet. It was not before 1996 that the British Parliamentary Style became the mandatory format for this annual tournament. The African continent has been host to previous Worlds and stages the Worlds now for a third time, this year from 27 December 2010 to 4 January 2011 at the University of Botswana, Gaborone. The tournament’s schedule is accessible on the WUDC 2011 homepage. Language of debate is English and there are three categories: “Main” for native speakers, “ESL” (English as a Second Language, for those who prove great proficiency in English) and “EFL” (English as a Foreign Language, for those who studied English as a mere subject).

apf / glx