09 Jan 2015

Kelebogile Chuma of Monametsana Lands, just 30 minutes drive north of the Kgatleng administrative village of Mochudi, strongly concurs that dikhwaere which in their formative days were celebrated as Kgatleng’s definitive genre, now swim knee-deep in the pool of irrelevancy.

To her, the dikhwaere of the past two decades were responsible for uniting a tribe that was still much fractured and through exquisite compositions of musical pieces the dikhwaere finally had a voice and could get their message across through the art of music and dance moves.

To some extent, Chuma could be right as one vividly remembers the once popular Kgatleng outfits such as Rangers, Marena, Sedibelo and Moremogolo amongst others who perfected the art of conveying the message in their song and dance.

Their alertness to prevailing conditions in society was top notch. One remembers the popular Segametsi Mogomotsi song which was an instant hit in the early 90s after the infamous murder of a Radikolo community junior secondary school student for alleged ritual purposes.

Another song which became a household hit was Saddam Hussein, a song composed after the 1998 United States and United Kingdom military attack on Iraq codenamed Operation Desert Fox, whose primary aim was to degrade Saddam Hussein’s ability to make and to use weapons of mass destruction.

Now music commentators generally agree that dikhwaere are totally a pale shadow of what they used to be. They believe they are now a shell of what they were some 10 years ago when they were at their peak.

BOPA travelled to the Kgatleng area on the special joyous occasion of the celebration of Jesus Christ and joined the festivities from as far as Makgatleng where the local choir hosted Mmakgomo in a dull affair that was attended by a few who seemingly had had one too many for the occasion.

In Monametsana the hosts True Fighters welcomed Badiragatsi from Mabolaelong in a tussle that nearly ended in a stalemate but the former retained the title. In Artesia the local powerhouse Rangers played host to Sedibelo from Mochudi in an affair that lasted from dusk till dawn while in the neighbourhood Ditshephe tsa Nkoe from Sikwane entertained LCC of Mochudi.

The content repertoire for the songs was quite varied with themes ranging from community issues such as social ills, the good and the bad or just satire which is a common aspect moobo Kgabo. 

Some of the songs which might enjoy massive affection amongst the dikhwaere enthusiasts are sekwata se ile go thuntsha, e gorogile Boko Haram, E kae chaka and Re phuma lapha ekhaya. ENDS