Last week Friday evening, beneath the towering figures of the Three Dikgosi Monument in Gaborone CBD, a different kind of Botswana story began to take shape. A map of the country slowly filled with names as guests arriving at the St. Louis Lager Re Gopotse Gae launch were invited to find their place on it and leave their mark. Some pointed immediately, others searched. Some found the village they grew up in; others found the place their parents came from. Different answers, different journeys, but the same question: *O tswa kae ko gae?*
It was perhaps the simplest expression of what St. Louis Lager’s newest campaign is about.
On 11 September, the proudly Botswana beer brand officially unveiled Re Gopotse Gae, a campaign inspired by Batswana’s relationship with home, not simply as a physical place, but as the people, memories, culture and experiences we carry with us wherever life takes us.
The Three Dikgosi Monument provided a distinctly Botswana setting for an evening of storytelling, music, culture and interactive experiences, with Khama III, Sebele I and Bathoen I bearing witness as stories of home, identity and belonging took centre stage. Han-C, Charma Gal, Maxy Khoisan and Chokoma took to the stage, local DJs carried the celebration through the evening, while influencers, creatives and invited guests became some of the first to experience the world of Re Gopotse Gae.
According to KBL Country Head of Marketing Tjendzimu Maswibilili, the campaign is rooted in an experience familiar to many Batswana. Maswibilili spoke of growing up in Phikwe, coming from Sefhophe and now living in Gaborone because of work, a journey mirrored by many whose lives have taken them away from the places they originally call home.
“Home is more than a place. It is our family, our culture, our memories and our identity,” Maswibilili shared, reflecting on how Batswana move for work, school, opportunity and family, yet continue to carry a part of home with them.
Every festive season, roads across Botswana tell that story in reverse. People leave the cities and return to villages and hometowns. Families reconnect, meals are shared and traditions come to the foreground. As Botswana celebrates 60 years of Independence, St. Louis Lager is turning that familiar homecoming into a nationwide celebration.
Perhaps the most visible expression of Re Gopotse Gae is one customers can hold in their hands. St. Louis Lager introduced its Re Gopotse Gae Limited Edition Pack Series, with four regional can designs representing **Bokone, Botlhaba, Bophirima and Borwa* (North, East, West and South), each celebrating the diversity, heritage and pride found across Botswana.
The cans tap into something unmistakably Botswana: our attachment to magae a rona. You may live in Gaborone today, but gae could be Nkange, Serowe, Kanye, Gumare, Tsabong, Mochudi, Letlhakane or one of the many communities in between, and the campaign gives Batswana a reason to champion their gae.
From 7 September to 16 November, customers can scan the QR code on promotional St. Louis Lager cans and vote for their hometown. Every vote moves a community closer to something Batswana have been asking St. Louis Lager about for more than a decade: The St. Louis Fest.
The iconic festival is making its return this December, but this time, customers decide where it goes. *The hometown receiving the most votes will earn the right to host the ultimate St. Louis Homecoming Festival, bringing music, food, culture, storytelling and community celebration.
St. Louis Lager is also putting Botswana personalities *at the centre of the storytelling. **Han-C, Charma Gal, Costa FX, Chokoma and Maxy Khoisan* form part of the Re Gopotse Gae ambassador line-up, representing different parts of Botswana and helping tell stories of home, identity and belonging.
Their involvement forms part of a wider influencer and creator-led approach, using familiar Botswana voices and personalities to spark conversations around where people come from, what they remember about home and what gae means to them. The local-first approach extends to Botswana creatives, entrepreneurs and businesses. St. Louis Lager has partnered with local fashion brand *The Denim Loft* to create an exclusive *Homecoming Collection* inspired by Botswana culture, heritage and identity, with customers standing a chance to win pieces from the collection alongside other limited-edition merchandise.
And there is even more to win. In celebration of Botswana’s Diamond Jubilee, *60 lucky customers will each win a year’s supply of St. Louis Lager*, bringing the country’s 60-year milestone directly into the customer experience.
By the end of the Friday evening, the map that had started almost empty had become a collection of signatures and places, a small but powerful reminder that Botswana is made up of countless individual stories of gae.
Now, St. Louis Lager is taking that same question beyond the Three Dikgosi Monument and across the country.
