27 Jul 2014

Botswana will, for the first time, have traditional song and dance music awards next year, Ngwao Loshalaba acting chairperson, Godfrey Maake has said.

Maake said in an interview that the idea came about after his organisation realised traditional song and dance could not be fully developed by solely relying on the President’s Day competitions.

Not that they were ungrateful, but because there was a need to recognise and appreciate traditional song and dance as well as traditional instruments.

Because this would be their first, they invited the South African Traditional Music Awards (SATMA) officials to the President’s Day competitions and award ceremony to appreciate Botswana talent.

This, Maake said, would be a way to pull them in to helping them as they ventured into the journey of preparing for the long anticipated awards.

Maake explained their journey was only beginning, and that they would be benchmarking with SATMA. Part of the benchmarking exercise would include attending the SATMA event in October this year.

He also said SATMA would conduct a workshop to drill them on the organisation and running of the traditional awards.

The Maake said the awards would also include traditional instruments. To that end they would be working with Botswana Folklore Association in that regard. 

He also said they were working with Botswana Music Union (BOMU) as well as Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture to make the event both a success and sustainable endeavour.

Meanwhile various traditional and culture activists have welcomed the move by Ngwao Loshalaba. Kopano Mantswe of Botswana Folklore Association said they supported the initiative all the way.

He said the awards would complement their association especially with regard to projects that they had in mind. He stated they would be engaging Ngwao Loshalaba to get such projects off the ground.

Kitso Matsake who is former member of Ditholwana and Mogwana traditional group also said they were excited about the initiative. Matsake said the awards would help unleash even more traditional types of dances from various communities in Botswana, such as the Selete and s other Kalanga dances besides the more popular wozana.

He explained that Botswana had many traditional song and dance genres and the awards would help give a distinction of the same dances performed by various ethnic groups in the country. He cited as an example, tsutsube dance as one dance that had been adopted by different groups but had its origins among Basarwa.

Ngwao Loshalaba are therefore encouraging traditional dance and song groups to affiliate it as only those affiliated will be nominated for awards. 

Maake said affiliates enjoyed benefits which included workshops among others. He said they carried workshops most of the time, to develop and enhance traditional song and dance. 

He explained Ngwao Loshalaba existed to sensitize people on the differences in performance of traditional song and dance and commercial traditional music. 

He said people needed to understand that traditional song and dancewas live performance with original letlhoa, drum beats as well as hand claps.

Individual membership with Ngwao Loshalaba is P150 annually with P10 paid every month, while group membership is P350 annually with a P20 monthly contribution.ENDS