21 Nov 2014

Gaborone Bus Rank is a beehive of activities from vendors selling their products all over the place, to taxi drivers shouting at the top of their voices to attract customers, and people from all walks of live criss-crossing the area on their daily chores.

For Anafiki Ditau, singer and pianist, the bus rank is a theatre where she performs her music and conducts business. 

It is where she makes her living or her bread basket. She travels over 100 kilometres every other day from Pitsane with her husband, Jimmy Ditau to perform for bus rank regulars, travellers and fans.

For some, she provides a free dose of music as they walk away after enjoying her music, while others drop a coin or occasional note in her piggy bank.  A good business day for Anafiki means a few notes which can amount to P100 or P200.

The money helps the visually impaired musician to buy groceries for her family for a few days. However, making money or nothing has never discouraged her from coming back to the bus rank. Her undying passion for music and incessant love for people has always brought her back. Moreover, the bus rank theatre is not exclusive to Anafiki. 

There are many other musicians who also have  their spots where they perform their acts. However, they face the challenge of law enforcement officials who prohibit them from playing at the bus rank as it is deemed a public space. Anafiki’s long-time friend, the late Johnny Kobedi also played at the bus rank until his last days. 

The two had always played at the bus rank without fail despite the fact that they had always been told that it is ungazetted for music business. Kobedi died five years ago leaving Anafiki to battle with council authorities alone. From time to time they kick her out.

Anafiki’s music career has never been easy.  Born in Mabule in the Southern District in 1969, she was raised by her grandmother until she left home for school at the age of six.  She was never told that the old woman who raised her was not her mother. 

She would never have known that it was the same old woman who saved her from being eaten by pigs.  She heard it through the grapevine. After a long a period of hesitation, Anafiki asked her grandmother what she heard on the streets. 

The grandmother reluctantly narrated a sad story of a young woman who pierced her two-months old daughter’s eyes and dumped her in a pig house.  Anafiki’s grandmother shared how she found Anafiki crying and lying in pig dung with pigs leaking blood dripping down from her eyes.

She took her and raised her as her daughter until she died. Anafiki endured a bitter-sweet relationship with her biological mother throughout the years after she met her at a family occasion.

The lack of sight birthed melodies which she hummed during quiet and lonely times as her grandmother laboured through the field to bring out food for them.  Her music career kick started in her early twenties when solo karaokes echoed through the streets in her home village and later on, Lobatse in the late 80’s.

The songstress rose from a life of sorrow and pain and sailed her way into  radio airwaves and television. She released a CD Mpolelela re babedi in memory of her late husband.  She has not been spared the harshness of the entertainment industry dealings. She has endured wars with musicians, promoters and record labels. 

To date, she goes without either a promoter or a record label. She hustles in a small market where competition is fierce . However Mpolelela re babedi has recently been remixed in a collaborative effort with Kast. 

It is currently doing well in music charts. While the need to play at the bus station persists, she occasionally performs at high profile events for better pay cheques. ENDS